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During his illustrious NBA career, Hall of Famer Magic Johnson was the center of the Los Angeles Lakers–Boston Celtics rivalry.
Since then, the two historic franchises have met just twice in the NBA Finals, both occurring nearly a decade ago.
However, this is something that Johnson believes will happen again sometime in the near future. From Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
“(The Celtics are), of course, a little ahead of us,” he said. “Danny (Ainge)’s done a great job, when you think about drafting and (Gordon) Hayward, who is . . . the guy just knows how to play, you know? And you put him in with (Isaiah) Thomas. You put him in with all the rest of the great players that they have. And then I think you’ve got one of the best young coaches in all of basketball in Brad (Stevens), and we feel like we have a great young coach (Luke Walton).
“So we got young talent; they have young talent. They’ve got a little bit more with (Al) Horford and Hayward, the veterans who are stars, especially Hayward. And then hopefully next summer we can add something to our roster. So I think it’s going to come together.
“We could see them in The Finals sometime,” Johnson said with his patented smile.
The Celtics are currently head and shoulders ahead of the Lakers in that regard after earning the top record in the Eastern Conference, riding that momentum to their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in five years.
On top of that, they have added All-Star forward Gordon Hayward to the mix, which gives them more firepower to compete with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the top spot in the East next season. They also have a promising rookie in forward Jayson Tatum, who has had a strong showing through the first couple games in Summer League.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are still a rebuilding project, but it could take a huge step forward this upcoming year with the addition of rookie point guard Lonzo Ball. They also have a potential rising star in forward Brandon Ingram that could help form a dynamic 1-2 punch for the franchise.
If Los Angeles is able to also add a superstar like Paul George or LeBron James next summer in free agency, it would certainly put them in the conversation to compete with the Golden State Warriors.
Ultimately, there is still a lot of shifting for both franchises to do, but the possibility could be there down the road.
