Lakers: Franchise’s 5 Best Moments in Celtics Rivalry

Past and future collide in Lakers’ 112-104 victory over Celtic: Bryant’s latest stop on his retirement tour took him to Boston, site of many Lakers-Celtics battles, including two NBA Finals for the Lakers star. Although the Lakers were favored at the beginning of the series and found a way to win two games, the Celtics proved to be too much for Kobe and his teammates who were missing center Andrew Bynum after a leg injury earlier in the season. He is one of the greatest players to ever play the game and he embodies a hardworking attitude that is fading from the National Basketball Association.

– San Antonio Spurs 112, Phoenix Suns 79: LaMarcus Aldridge had 21 points with 12 rebounds, and the Spurs (28-6) ran their franchise-home record streak to 28, including 19-0 to start the season after sending the Suns (12-21) to their sixth straight loss. He thought back to his “most beautiful” Boston moment, the locker room scene after a defeat put the Lakers down 3-2 in the aforementioned 2010 Finals.

“The loss led to the win”, Bryant said.

“He was everything we expected”, Crowder said.

The image of Kobe Bryant leaping onto the stage and hoisting his Finals MVP trophy is one that I still keep in mind to this day and one I likely won’t forget. The C’s needed to win just one of two games to clinch their 18th championship, but game six took every bit of wind out of Boston’s sails.

With that in mind, the Lakers are hopefully trying to give Bryant a proper sendoff against his homegrown team with a win at Staples to give them their seventh victory of the season. From a competitive standpoint, I’m pretty sure you’re just like me. That’s the really fun part about going to the game because you get swept up in the emotions of the crowd and you feel that camaraderie with thousands of other like-minded fans. Michael Jordan also retired three times, in the last instance joylessly playing out a string of games for the hapless Washington Wizards.

Bryant said he still gets cold sweats when he hears songs such as “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, which became a signature pregame song during the Celtics’ recent Big Three era. “Even though I don’t root for Kobe and I’m not a fan of his, I can see how good of a player he is”.

“Honestly, if I could cheer for (the Boston fans) I would”, he said.

“For the second half of my career, it’s been the most important piece”. Once the game ended, Bryant stood on the court to bask in the moment some more.

After almost 20 years, Bryant played his last road game against the team that drafted him, the Hornets, last Monday and after the contest shared how the team did not really want him back then.

Me: “See, Isaiah Thomas is shooting a free throw, we want him to make this basket”.