The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are making history, meeting each other in the NBA Finals for the third year in a row. I was somewhat surprised to learn that had never happened before. By definition, it means these two star-studded powerhouses have a chance to eventually become one of the greatest sports rivalries of all time.
But they’ve got a long way to go. Real rivalries stand the test of time … and even distance.
Some will say it’s Red Sox-Yankees or Cubs-Cardinals in baseball. But it’s hard to argue with Giants-Dodgers when we’re talking baseball over the course of history.
“The Boys of Summer” captures the golden era of New York baseball perfectly (even though there’s not a whole lot in it about the Yankees), and should be required reading for all sports fans.
Roger Kahn’s love affair with the Dodgers hits home even if your allegiance is elsewhere. Plus there’s the Jackie Robinson part of the story that makes the book much more than just a sports story.
That Giants vs. Dodgers remains huge 60 years after the franchises moved west puts this one over the top. That’s why it gets my vote for biggest team sports rivalry of all time, even though other franchises have won more than the eight World Series for the Giants and six for the Dodgers.
Can anyone put up an individual rivalry that comes close to Ali-Frazier? Maybe Nicklaus-Palmer.
Football? Forget about Cowboys-Giants, Bears-Packers, Raiders-Broncos (or Chiefs). And forget about Auburn-Alabama, Ohio State-Michigan, Notre Dame-USC, Florida-Florida State, Harvard-Yale and the dozens of other end-of-the-regular-season college games.
The greatest, most meaningful rivalry at any level of of America’s popular sport is easy: Army-Navy.
It doesn’t matter that almost none of the players are going to go on to play pro. (Although I disagree with the recent rule change that doesn’t let academy athletes postpone their military commitment in order to compete as pros if they’re good enough. Is there a better recruiting tool than a David Robinson or Alejandro Villanueva?)
One of the reasons I think Aloha Stadium’s replacement should not be knocked down to 30,000 capacity is so someday Hawaii can host the Army-Navy game.
It would be cool if this could be done while the coaches of both teams are still former University of Hawaii assistants — Jeff Monken at Army and Ken Niumatalolo at Navy. And it would’ve been a natural last December for the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Maybe 2041 and the 100th anniversary? We can only hope that the new stadium will be built by then.
Of course we can’t write a column about rivalries in this paper without mentioning Hawaii and BYU. It’s lost some of its fire over the years, and it’s debatable how much the Cougars have ever really cared about it (especially since their real rival has always been Utah). But every now and then the Rainbows caught their attention, like those back-to-back blowouts in 1989 and 1990, and the rout at the end of the 2001 season when Nick Rolovich threw eight touchdown passes to knock BYU out of the unbeaten ranks and a BCS game.
Back to basketball. When it comes to college many agree North Carolina and Duke is a cut above all other rivalries. But former Chaminade great Richard Haenisch is right when he points out that the electricity was palpable whenever the Silverswords played Brigham Young-Hawaii in the early 1980s. Actually, that was the case for almost every NAIA hoops game in Hawaii in those days.
Because of our involvement as fans, or even participants, rivalries are pretty subjective, and there are hundreds of them not mentioned here. The best things about a true rivalry are how personal it is and how immune to normal measures of time and distance.
Ignacio Antonio Lobos, our former Star-Bulletin colleague who now lives near Seattle, said his favorite rivalry will always be Universidad de Chile vs. Colo-Colo.
“I know that won’t mean anything to anyone unless you were raised in Chile,” he said. “People may leave their countries of origin. But they never leave their teams!”
Back to the matter at hand: The Boston Celtics have played the Minneapolis or Los Angeles Lakers in 12 NBA Finals, from 1959 to 2010, winning nine. Warriors-Cavs is the flavor of the month compared to that in the grand scheme of things.
As Vic Williams, a writer from Reno, Nev., succinctly puts it, “Lakers-Celtics until further notice.”
