Lakers-Celtics: Christmas Comes Wrapped in Gold and Green

In the EA franchise NBA 20-whatever, you can trade for any number of players and they mesh instantly, dishing the ball and alley-ooping as if they had played together for 10 years. This past season featured two blockbuster trades, when the Minnesota Timberwolves and the team formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics dealt Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to the Boston Celtics for peanuts on the dollar. It amounted to forming an All-Star team in real life—the kind 12 year old kids dream up while playing the PS3. But the Lakers were not to be outdone. They followed by stealing (and yes, that read stealing ) Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies for a rookie and the rights to Kwame Brown’s still warm body. Kobe Bryant had just been paired with Andrew Bynum (aka Baby Shaq) and now the formidable Pau Gasol. Could the rivalry get any better? Just in case you were living in a cave the last few decades, Celtics-Lakers rivalries go back to 1958-59. Nine times before last year, these teams met ... (link)