Forming the DNA
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Following the Lakers’ defeat, owner Bob Short moved the team to Los Angeles. The franchise did not receive the enthusiastic welcome the Dodgers had enjoyed two years earlier, though. Team members were required to travel through city neighborhoods on sound trucks, imploring local residents to come to the Sports Arena to watch them play. The decision to retain the team’s moniker after it had decamped to drier territory from the state of Ten Thousand Lakes established an amusing precedent that would be repeated when the Jazz deserted New Orleans for Utah.
As Howard Beck notes, the DNA for what is now the most storied rivalry in NBA history was formed during the 1962 championship series. Doris Day and Pat Boone were in the LA crowd and Jerry West joined Elgin Baylor to give the Lakers the greatest 1-2 scoring punch in history. They faced basketball’s premier defensive power in a Celtics squad that featured six future Hall of Fame members including Cousy, Russell, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Ramsey, and Heinsohn.
The teams split the first four contests before Baylor scored 61 points in Game 5 to give LA the series lead. Boston won the next battle handily to set the stage for a dramatic Game 7 on April 18 that presaged future Celtics-Lakers heart-stoppers. Boston was leading for much of the fourth quarter before LA journeyman Frank Selvey, who had scored 100 points in a game for Furman, drove the length of the floor two times to tie the score at 100. With two seconds remaining in regulation, Selvey had the ball again and a chance to join Baylor and West in Lakers folklore. He bricked the easy baseline jumper, however, and the Celtics won in overtime, 110-107. Cousy was late getting to Selvey and acknowledged later he had narrowly avoided a “Bill Buckner moment” that would have haunted him for the rest of his life.
Bill Russell turned in one of the most remarkable performances of the era, grabbing 40 rebounds and scoring 30 points, including five of the Celtics’ ten points in overtime. Boston would go on to beat LA in the championship series of 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1969 but the titles would not come easily. Two of the series would go to seven games and two others would go to six.
