NBA just embarrassed itself with latest Celtics decision

Last week, the NBA released the full slate for the 2025-26 season. As mundane as that may sound, in mid-August, there just isn’t all that much to be excited about in the world of hoops. Finding out which 82 dates the Boston Celtics will be playing games on gives some of us our fix -- it’s that simple.

Of course, some dates are bigger than others: Opening Night, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day are all premier slates made up of some of the NBA’s top teams. For the first time in a while, the Celtics aren’t amongst them. Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury, paired with the team’s summer firesale, has left the roster looking awfully “mid,” as the kids say.

So, it’s not all that surprising that Boston will play on just one of those days.

What IS surprising, however, is the fact that the Celtics are not featured ONCE during the NBA’s “Rivals Week” in January of 2026. Say what you want about the current state of the roster and their standing amongst the league’s elite this season, but there is NO reason why they shouldn’t be a part of this fabricated event.

Rivalries are awesome. They’re oftentimes what makes sports feel special. Two franchises that simply do not care for each other, squaring off just adds more stakes to your average January game. The idea of Rivals Week itself is fine. The league has done it for the past few seasons, and typically, the slate is hit or miss. The NBA does this weird thing where they try and give individual rivalries a spot on the slate. It makes sense in theory, but considering how tight-knit most NBA stars are, it doesn’t really play at the same degree as franchise-to-franchise rivalries.

The NBA missed a layup by not including the Celtics in 'Rivalry Week'

There’s just something special about two fanbases that hate each other. When it comes to the Celtics, there are plenty of cities with a distaste for the green and white.

Boston has more championships than any other NBA franchise. When you win that much, you’re going to make some enemies along the way. Even if they didn’t have a long history of winning, the amount of success they’ve had in the past decade is enough to earn them plenty of haters.

The Lakers, Knicks, 76ers, and Heat can all lick the bottoms of Lucky’s shoes, as far as many Cs fans are concerned.

Don’t just take my word for it. A few years back, NBA fans on Reddit were asked which teams they considered to be their primary and secondary rivals. Wouldn’t you know, an awful lot of arrows were pointed at the Cs.

Don’t get it twisted. Not every game on this season’s slate is a miss. Pacers vs. Thunder (NBA Finals rematch), Knicks vs. 76ers, Rockets vs. Spurs, Lakers vs. Warriors, and Lakers vs. Clippers are all cool matchups with some juice behind them.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that no Charlotte Hornets fan has ever gone to bed thinking about how much they despise the Cleveland Cavaliers, or vice versa. The same can be said about the Thunder and Bucks, who are matched up because they met in the Emirates NBA Cup Final last December. Did you make that connection? Because I sure didn’t.

If two teams have a rivalry, then it shouldn’t feel like a math equation trying to figure out why they’re matched up during Rivals Week.

Rivals Week is a cool idea that could work well if the NBA executed it properly. Instead, it seems to get mocked every year because Adam Silver and his buddies insist on trying to fit square pegs in round holes.

Maybe the equation would get too murky if they did it this way, but saving the first meeting between two rivals UNTIL Rivals Week would be awesome. Imagine last season, when the Celtics and Knicks were painted by many as the two favorites in the Eastern Conference, if fans had to wait until this event to actually see them play one another.

The March 8 Celtics vs. Lakers game was the most-juiced regular-season matchup I’ve seen in years. The building was full early, the crowd was loud, and it was clear that players on both sides desperately wanted to win. THAT is what the league should strive for in Rivals Week instead of giving fans a Rockets vs. Pistons (who set the groundwork for a rivalry with the Knicks last playoffs, by the way) matchup because each team has a Thompson twin.

Oh, by the way, if you haven’t figured out how the Cavs and Hornets ended up here, it’s because they’ve got a Ball brother on the roster.

History is what makes a great rivalry, not fabrication. That's why college football, European soccer, and baseball all have such a wide-ranging slate of rivalries. Teams have been developing a disdain for one another for over a century in some cases. You can't just match two sides up and call it a rivalry, Adam. You just can't.