LA Lakers and Boston Celtics in NBA Finals
The most prosperous franchises in the National Basketball Association history are the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. They have won 63 NBA titles amongst each other which is why these two teams are the favourites. This season’s NBA finals will start after two days with full passion and spirit. The Lakers and Celtics will face each other in the championship match where any team can come out as the winners. However, Walt Disney’s ABC Television Network may turn out as the winner.
ABC just cannot dream of anything more than this dream matchup. It is going to be a traditional rivalry between the cross country teams sharing a long history. Research Director Brad Adgate who works in a New York- based advertising company named Horizon Media claimed that this event will atract a huge amount of televison advertisements.
The last season championship was won by the LA Lakers which was actually their 15th NBA title. On the other hand, Celtics have won only 17 NBA championships. It’s been more than two years when they lastl won a title. During the past five years, the heaviest television ratings for an NBA match was received for Boston’s six-game win over the Lakers. It was one of the latest championships- circular meetings of the sports’ most renowned rivalries, which included Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s.
The 1987 championship series was seen in 16.7 percent of U.S. homes according to the stats of Nielsen Media. It was the third showdown between Bird’s Celtics and Johnson’s Lakers in last four years. The match is still ranked as one of the highest rated NBA finals in history.
Both the teams have national as well as league wide fan followings due to their popularity. Basketball fans from all around the world admire both the Lakers as well as the Celtics. Neal Pilson, who is the former CBS Sports president, commented that the match between the Lakers and Celtics lead to the channel ‘making a living for themselves throught the advertisements’. He along with Red Auerbach who is the president of Boston used to sit together during the final matches of NBA to witness the rivalry and its intensity. Much higher television ratings are predicted for this year.
This surely is a great matchup for both the NBA as well as the networks keeping in mind the market’s size, the match quality, the athletes themselves along with the loaded traditional history as commented by the president of Pilson Communications, Inc., in New York.
In the 1960s, the teams met on six different occasions in the NBA finals which included big names such as Bob Cousy and Bill Russell from the Boston side while Elgin Baylor and Jerry West from the Los Angeles Lakers. In the finals of the 1969 match, the man who played for the Lakers was Wilt Chamberlain.
During 1985 and 1987, the Lakers lead to a number of victories in the NBA finals against the Celtics. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387 points helped the Lakers to a great deal.
After New York, Los Angeles is undoubtedly the second-biggest media market in the United States of America with Boston being the seventh one.
With an average of 29.4 points in his 16 games of the season, Kobe Bryant is one of the most valuable players in the Laker’s side. Celtics on the other hand, have stars like Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett. ‘Wakeup the echoes’ was said by Pilson in his telephonic interview while referring to the match between Boston and the Los Angeles team. This is truly traditional.
A four- game sweep or a blow out game are the only few things that can ruin this matchup at the moment. However, things do not seem to go that way in the present scenario at all.
Lakers and Bryant in their four season clashes against the Celtics have successfully won three of them.
On June 3, Los Angeles will host the first game of the best-of-seven championship tournament at the Staples Center. The second game of the series will be played on the 6th June once again in Loss Angeles. Afterwards, the next three games of the series will be played in Boston.
About two years ago, Lakers lost to the Celtics which according to their coach Phil Jackson still hurts. Irrespective of the results, what the ABC Network expects at the moment is that the seven match series will go on smoothly with loads and loads of revenue earning opportunities.
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