The NBA turned the league's marquee rivalry, and perhaps, the most iconic one in sports, into a shell of itself. The Boston Celtics welcomed the Los Angeles Lakers for a Friday night rivalry clash at TD Garden. It's a matchup that is supposed to celebrate the Association's history. It's typically an electric evening. This time, it flatlined.
Both teams arrived playing in the second half of a back-to-back. The scheduling effect of the NBA Cup is to blame. Still, it didn't need to be this way. It's baffling that the league would greenlight a decision that undercuts such a valuable promotion on its regular-season calendar.
LeBron James logged 36 minutes in the purple and gold's buzzer-beating win over the Toronto Raptors the night before. He turns 41 later this month. His workload was a signal that he likely would not suit up against the Celtics.
Sure enough, a day after dishing out the game-winning feed to Rui Hachimura for a corner three as the final seconds ticked off the clock in Toronto, James got ruled out. He is dealing with right sciatica and left foot joint arthritis.
Now in his 23rd NBA season, time is running out. It likely wasn't his last trip to Boston, but there's also no guarantee he's healthy when his team visits next year. Maybe the league will fumble that too, and schedule it for the second half of a back-to-back again.
Celtics fans robbed of LeBron James rivalry by the NBA's blunder
LeBron James is a pantheon player; arguably the greatest in the Association's history. He certainly belongs on their Mount Rushmore. Along the way to achieving that status, few arenas have meant more to his career than TD Garden.
The four-time MVP is an all-time villain in the eyes of Celtics fans. He ripped their hearts out numerous times. Most notably, in Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals. In a jaw-dropping performance, he eviscerated the last genuine crack at a second championship for the modern Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen.
James erupted for 45 points on a scorching 73.1 percent shooting. It came with his back against the wall a year after choking in the 2011 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. That night on the parquet, he elevated his legacy. It remains perhaps the best game of his career; a needed performance in his quest to become basketball's greatest player of all-time.
There was also the night he vanquished the upstart Celtics in 2018. Led by Al Horford, Marcus Smart, second-year wing Jaylen Brown, and a rookie named Jayson Tatum, Boston overcame injuries to Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. They were on the verge of an improbable trip to the NBA Finals. Until James, ever the villain in these parts, brought an abrupt end to a magical run.
There were also pivotal moments in his career that swung the other way. His 49-point performance wasn't enough to prevent Paul Pierce, who scored 41 in that Game 7 clash in 2008, from persevering en route to lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Two years later, he infamously let his Cleveland Cavaliers jersey fall to the TD Garden floor, an early signal that he was about to shake up the league that summer.
James hasn't shied from sharing that having to go through Boston's Big 3 compelled him to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and take his talents to South Beach. There, he broke through to his first two championships.
So, to undermine a Celtics-Lakers rivalry clash and position it on the schedule in a manner that leads to James sitting on the bench in one of his final trips to Boston is a sports travesty. Just hope he hasn't already graced the TD Garden parquet for the final time.