“The Most Odious Sentence”
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The 1984 finals ended a 15-year hiatus on championship meetings between the two clubs. After the Celtics lost to the Lakers by 32 points in Game 3 at the Forum, Bird told his team they had played like ‘sissies.’ The declaration sparked a more masculine effort by Boston in Game 4 and featured the most noteworthy takedown foul in NBA history when Boston’s Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis on a breakaway layup. The Lakers proceeded to blow their five-point lead and lose in overtime after Bird fired a game-clinching shot over Johnson. When the Celtics won the championship in seven games, Bird, the finals MVP, observed: “We decided to play tough, aggressive basketball. We found out they didn’t like to be hit. Every time you touched them, you could see a grimace on their faces like, ‘Don’t do that.’”
In the 1985 finals, Game 4 at the Garden was a must-win for the Celtics. Dennis Johnson sank a 20-foot jumper to give the Celtics a 107-105 victory and tie the series 2-2. Having borne most of the blame for the Lakers’ lopsided loss in Game 1, however, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar carried the Lakers to victory with a 29-point performance in Game 6 that clinched the championship and made him the oldest Finals MVP in history at thirty-eight. After eight failed attempts by his franchise, LA owner Jerry Buss could finally say on June 9, 1985: “This trophy removes the most odious sentence in the English language. It can never be said again that ‘the Lakers have never beaten the Celtics.’”
In 1987, Magic Johnson provided what may have been the single most memorable moment in the history of the rivalry. With his team trailing by one point in Game 4 of the finals, he scored on a running hook shot in the lane to give LA a 107-106 victory and 3-1 series edge. Boston did not surrender easily, though. With Lakers staff chilling the champagne during Game 5 at the Garden, Bird told his team: “If they’re going to celebrate, let’s not let them do it on the parquet.” The Celtics won Game 5 by a score of 123-108, but it proved to be their last victory in a championship series until 2008. The Lakers took the title in six games and Magic won his 3rd Finals MVP.
Reflecting on the Celtics-Lakers rivalry of the 1980s, Celtic Cedric Maxwell said the teams had duked it out like two heavyweight champions, Ali and Frazier. Abdul-Jabbar and Celtic Bill Walton, the former UCLA centers, went years without talking to each other, even in retirement. Magic Johnson summed it up: “It was incredible, man.”
