The Boston Celtics blew out the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, winning the franchise's record-breaking 18th championship. Who did they pass in the league's all-time hierarchy of banners? The rival Los Angeles Lakers, of course, a reality hardly lost on purple-and-gold legend Magic Johnson.
As Boston began celebrating its coronation in the waning moments of Monday's game, Johnson took to Twitter to express what he “hates” about the Celtics reaching the basketball mountain top yet again.
“I hate that the Celtics officially have more championships than us now 🙄,” he wrote.
To be fair, Johnson eventually shared more thoughts on the Finals than his disdain for Boston's success, praising sophomore coach Joe Mazzulla and stressing significance of the Celtics' enviable depth.
“Joe Mazzulla really improved as a coach this season and had the Celtics prepared for every round of the playoffs, making all the proper adjustments on offense and defense,” he wrote. “The Playoffs are a game of matchups, and the Celtics were too much of a challenge for the Mavs with all their depth. Their strengths outweighed the Mavs strengths and its the reason why they are Champions!”
Johnson led the “Showtime” Lakers to five championships in the 1980s alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and other franchise luminaries. They beat Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and the Celtics for two of those titles, but also fell to Boston in the 1984 NBA Finals, a seven-game classic in the teams' first meeting with the Larry O'Brien Trophy on the line.
The Celtics won their last championship in 2008, beating the Lakers behind Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen during the trio's first season as teammates. They advanced to the Finals again two years later in a highly anticipated rematch, falling to Kobe Bryant, Paul Gasol and company in Game 7. Boston was finally back in the championship series in 2022, but lost a 2-1 lead to first-time Finals MVP Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
Jaylen Brown won this year's Bill Russell Trophy as Finals MVP, averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and five assists per game while scoring timely buckets throughout the series and playing suffocating defense at the point of attack on Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Longtime co-star Jayson Tatum was the best player on the floor as their team clinched the title, though, shaking off recent shooting struggles to drop 31 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Lakers legends agree with Magic
Johnson definitely isn't the only Lakers alumnus dismayed by Boston's crowning. As the Celtics took a 3-0 lead over Dallas, his “Showtime” teammate Mychal Thompson told ESPN it would be “insufferable” to be around 1980s Celtics counterpart Cedric Maxwell if the green team won another championship.
“I don't want to have to face Cedric Maxwell if Boston gets to 18 before us,” he said, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin. “It will be insufferable for me to sit through that for three hours dealing with his ‘I told you so's.' I'm going to have to call in sick for the two Boston games next year if they hold on and win this series.
“Those conversations always come back around, whenever we Lakers get together, about those battles and how historic they were, how much they meant to us to, to beat them, and how much it hurt to lose to the Celtics,” Thompson continued. “More than losing to any other team, for sure.”
Lamar Odom, Los Angeles' third star behind Bryant and Pau Gasol when the Lakers and Celtics squared off for the title in the late 2000s, shared a similar sentiment.
“I know Paul Pierce is happy and it kind of makes me sick to see him gloat and be that happy because that team is about to win,” he said. “They were the best team that year [in 2008]. I tip my hat to 'em, even this year, but it kind of makes me sick.”
Don't expect it to get much easier for Lakers nation from here. The Celtics aren't going anywhere, poised to emerge as the league's next dynasty after finally getting over the hump.
It's safe to say everywhere team and fanbase in the league outside Boston is rooting against that possibility. No NBA legion, though, would hate it more than Los Angeles.
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