Sports Illustrated posted a great photo on Tumblr as a “Throwback Thursday” gimmick that I found fascinating. It was a photo of legendary Boston Celtics head coach Red Auerbach posing with the main Batman villains (The Riddler, Catwoman, The Penguin and The Joker) before Game 6 of the 1966 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics.
As a 37 year old man that is not a big fan of the NBA or basketball in general, it is easy to think that the Celtics vs. Lakers rivalry was fueled by Bird vs. Magic in the 1980s. Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish led the Boston Celtics to three NBA Finals showdowns with Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1980s with Magic & LA winning two of them. That was the rivalry that really put the NBA on the map thanks to the exciting play and heated rivalry between the two and the advent of cable television.
However, as this photo from SI shows, the rivalry goes back to the 1960s. Bill Russell and Red Auerbach’s Celtics teams squared off against Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and the Lakers SIX times in the 1960s for the NBA title. 1962. 1963. 1965. 1966. 1968. 1969. The Celtics won all 6 (also won against Minneapolis Lakers in 1959 right before the Lakers moved to LA). So by the end of the 1966 NBA Finals when this picture was taken, Batman was a hit television filmed in Los Angeles and Red Auerbach was the biggest villain in the entire city even bigger than the Batman villains as he was leading the Celtics to their 4th win in 5 seasons over the Lakers in the Finals. Hard to imagine that there was still two more victories to go (technically 3 since they hadn’t finished the victory in 1966) after this photo was taken.
The rivalry found itself in the NBA Finals again in 2008 and 2010 where the teams split. Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum vs. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. This rivalry keeps heating up about every 20 years it seems (1960s, 1980s, 2000s) so look out in the 2020s for at least a couple of showdowns between the two franchises in the NBA Finals. In the mean time, just marvel at the wonders of that picture.
Leave a Reply