Back in the day, professional sports thrived due to intense rivalries between the best teams. When you think about rivalries, certain teams always come to mind. It’s strange that most of the great rivalries in sports revolve around Boston sports teams. The Yankees and Red Sox are one of the most famous rivalries of all time, and the Lakers and Celtics rivalry ruled the 80’s. It seems now that professional teams get along with each other more often than not. That’s something that has to change.
Looking across the different professional sports leagues, it’s hard to pinpoint rivalries. The Cavs and Warriors are two teams that jump to the forefront, but it can be frustrating to actually hear what the players think. Both camps offer differing opinions, with Lebron saying, “I don’t think we have a rival in our game today”, before their Jan. 16th match up. On the other side, Draymond Green disagrees, saying “Yeah, I think this is a rivalry”. So which one is it?
A true rivalry requires a few different things. In the Cavs-Warriors case, frequency is one of the biggest issues. They only play each other a few times during the season, excluding the playoffs. The reason the Celtics and Lakers was a rivalry was because of how dominant they were throughout the years. They have played in the finals against each other a record 12 times. Not to mention the league was completely different then. Play was more physical, fouls were called less, and these players are not as familiar with each other as they are now. That is another reason rivalries are that much harder to come by.
With the advent of the AAU basketball system, many of the players in the NBA today grow up playing together. Everyone has heard the stories about the NBA stars that played together in their younger days. For example there existed a team where Kobe, Vince Carter, and Rip Hamilton all played together. How did they ever lose a game? Pre-AAU, there was no giant league that featured the best young players. Most of these players came straight from high school and college where they weren’t familiar with their opponents at all.
The league would be far more entertaining if teams actually disliked each other. Players and organizations are far too scared to start anything for fear of the league cracking down with discipline. If the NBA learned to take it down a notch when it comes to these punishments, it could make for a more exciting product.
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