PrintJune 5, 2008
The Lakers and Celtics meet again
Tonight begins Round 11 of the Celtics-Lakers championship series. The Celtics lead the series 8 to 2, but lost the last two to the Lakers in 1985 and 1987.
When I was growing up, the teams I rooted for, but rarely made it to the championship round (rarely is close to never in reality). One of the questions related to my teams' early exits each year was whether I should root for the team from my league or conference that made it to finals, or to root for the team from the other league or conference if they were playing the arch-rival from my team's league or conference.
Examples: I was a New York Giants baseball fan. Yet I rooted for the Dodgers against the Yankees (league loyalty), even though I grew up but blocks from Yankee Stadium. However, I always rooted for whichever team (regardless of league or conference)played the Boston Celtics or the Montreal Canadians -- as with the Yankees, I never liked that these teams won all the time, often in arrogant fashion.
But tonight I will be with the Green, as I have been in their series against the Lakers since the 1980s. I admired the Celtics grind-it-out-work ethic in the Larry Bird era, more than the Lakers show-time running game with Magic Johnson. Last week, at the TD Bank North Garden (what a horrible arena name), there was the old familiar chant: "Beat LA, Beat LA!" I remember hearing this chant from the 13,909 packed into the old Boston Garden decades back. For an interesting history of when this chant originated, see this.
The big question on league loyalty is this: If you went to Duke, North Carolina, Michigan or Ohio State, can you root for your arch-rival if they are playing for the NCAA championship?
