Then why are they arguing telling me that they are not the biggest rivalry in baseball.



I talked to my dad about lakers/celtics because TBH i didn't know much about it. I'm not saying it's not a rivalry, but I still don't believe it's as big as sox/yanks

"The rivalry had been less intense since the retirements of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the early 1990s, but in 2008 it was renewed as the Celtics and Lakers met in the Finals for the first time since 1987, with the Celtics winning the series 4-2. The two teams faced off once again in the 2010 NBA Finals which the Lakers won in 7 games"


The rivalry is fresh in everyone's mind because it was rebirthed recently.

biggest rivalry in any sport is red sox yankees , 2nd is celtics lakers, 3rd is bruins habs...

why is boston so damn good?

LMFAO
Giants - Dodgers is a bigger rivalry than Lakers-Celtics.
Nobody even talked about Laker-Celtics in the early 2000's when the Lakers were winning. It didn't come up every time the lakers played the celtics. Hell, the Lakers-Heat and Celtics-Heat matchups this year got a much bigger billing than the Lakers-Celtics. And you're telling me this is the biggest rivalry in pro-sports. A rivalry is not defined by the competitiveness when both teams are good, but the intensity in the games where it doesn't even matter.

college football seminoles vs gaytors

because the celtics were garbage for over a decade after mchale/bird retired from the early 90's til KG/RAY showed up.
it was funny, the season b4 the big3 formed in boston and pau got to LA, boston fans cheered MVP for Kobe in the garden lol

you make a solid point, but nothing compares to the championship caliber rivalry the lakers/celtics have

And I will repeat. A rivalry is defined by how the fans feel about the other teams even when it doesn't matter. Its easy to manufacture hype around a championship. But that hype fades. The hype from a real rivalry will never fade.

dont speak

Celtics vs. Lakers all the way

Rivalry is defined both by fans and the team.


It's not fair to use championship games as the leading example when for example----the sox can never play the yankees in the world series.


I took 5 mins to pull some highlights....most are NOT specific games...


Number of meetings 2,076

-The Yankees – Red Sox rivalry is one of the oldest, most famous and fiercest rivalries in North American professional sports.
-Babe Ruth sold to Yankees
-Curse of the Bambino
-the rivalry intensified in 1941 when Ted Williams of the Red Sox bats .406, becoming the last player to bat over .400 in a season. Despite his historic accomplishment, Williams loses the AL MVP race to the Yankees' Joe DiMaggio, who has a record 56-game hitting streak.
-The tone for 2004 was set early when new Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who confounded the Yankees in the 2001 World Series as an Arizona Diamondback, appeared at an ice hockey game in Boston wearing a "Yankee hater" hat.
-Roger Clemens
-Jonny Damon
-2004 ALCS: The curse is broken sox down 3 games to yanks....sox pull ahead and win 4 straight....
pril 3, 2005, was the date the Yankees and Red Sox faced each other for the first time since the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS and won the World Series.[89] The game took place at Yankee Stadium and the Yankees beat the Red Sox 9–2. However, Yankee fans started new taunts, saying "The Curse of 1918 is finally over (86 years). Let the new curse 2090 begin."[89][90] Just a week later, the Red Sox received their World Series rings at Fenway Park before they played the Yankees.[83][91] In a showing of class, respect, and good sportsmanship, all of the Yankees went to the top step of the dugout to applaud the Red Sox accomplishment.[92] During the announcement of the lineups, Red Sox fans reciprocated by giving Yankee closer Mariano Rivera (who had struggled against the Red Sox) a loud, standing ovation.[93] Despite their booing of Alex Rodriguez.[92] Rivera laughed and tipped his cap.[93] H
-fucking billy buckner
On April 13, 2008, rumors of a construction worker burying a Red Sox jersey in the concrete of the New Yankee Stadium were verified after anonymous tips led to the location of the jersey. The worker, identified as Gino Castignoli, had buried a David Ortiz jersey in what would become a service corridor in the hopes of cursing the new stadium. After extracting the jersey from underneath two feet of concrete, Yankees' President Randy Levine indicated that the shirt would be donated to the Jimmy Fund to be auctioned for the charity long associated with the Red Sox.[139]

i dont disagree with that, but thats a purely personal take on the perception of rivalries

if you want the real no bias definition;

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rival

edit// also worth noting, regardless of how the fans feel, im positive kobe still wanted to shine a bit more than usual vs the C's regardless of regular season games prior to 07-08 vs the celtics ( likewise with pierce, particularly being an LA native )

your point holds very strong magnitude in college and euro soccer/rugby leagues

as its no secret a lot of american pro sports fans are fair weathered

This post was edited by macfinn on Feb 17 2011 11:31pm