For the third time in the last four years, the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat will meet in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Historically, that’s the kind of thing that produces a great rivalry. Think about the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers meeting in the conference finals four times in six years from 1980-85, or the Celtics and Detroit Pistons in back-to-back years in 1987 and 1988, or the Pistons and Chicago Bulls in three straight years from 1989-91.
Does Celtics-Heat feel like that, though? Forget a great, all-time rivalry. Is it even a rivalry at all?
Adam Jones posed that question during Monday’s Jones & Mego show, and there were some differing perspectives. (Listen to the full segment below.)
Jones: It doesn’t really feel like a rivalry, right? But should it? Maybe it does. Does it feel like more of a rivalry than I’m giving it credit for?
Christian Arcand: I think it does.
Meghan Ottolini: Yeah, I think it does. I think you are wrong.
Jones: I felt like Garnett and Pierce and Ray Allen and Rondo with those Miami teams, that felt more like a rivalry to me.
Mego: Well, because LeBron was down there.
Jones: Right.
Arcand: They played like three years in a row.
Jones: They played each other a lot. That one felt like a rivalry. This one, it’s like, oh yeah, they’re playing them again.
Mego went on to suggest that perhaps it’s a rivalry that means more for Miami fans, who might not really have another natural rival right now, comparing it to the Boston College-Notre Dame rivalry, which generally means more to BC fans than Notre Dame fans.
In Boston, meanwhile, you might find some fans that would name the 76ers or Milwaukee Bucks as bigger rivals right now. The Celtics have faced both of those teams three times in the last six postseasons, but none of those meetings have come in the conference finals.
Mego: I imagine that the Miami Heat fans who do exist without LeBron there feel like this is a rivalry with Jimmy Butler and the Celtics. But I don’t think the Celtics necessarily see it that way.
Jones: That’s it. Here in Boston, I don’t think we view this incarnation of the Heat – and I respect this Heat team. I’m not dumping on Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra and what they’re doing down there. I’m not. … I respect Miami. I don’t view them as a rival present day. I did when they had LeBron and Bosh and Wade. Not now. In Miami, they may look at it that way, though.
Of course, we might all feel differently depending on how this series goes. If the Celtics play up to their potential more consistently, this could be a quick series that won’t feel like much a rivalry. But if the Celtics leave the door open, like they have against the Hawks and Sixers in the first two rounds, and this turns into a long, heated (no pun intended) series, perhaps it will feel like a great rivalry when it's all said and done.
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