The 30 greatest NBA team rivalries in league history

18. Best NBA rivalries of all-time: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Phoenix Suns

The tension between the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers originally began to form during the 1980s. Back then, the NBA belonged to the “Showtime Lakers” headlined by the dynamic duo of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Phoenix was a long-suffering victim to the dynasty, bounced from the playoffs on four separate occasions.

In the following decade, the Suns would bounce back some against a Los Angeles team without much of a direction in the fading and ultimately post days of a dynasty. It wasn’t until the mid-to-late-2000s where both sides would rise to prominence once again, the perfect stage for Phoenix to enact some revenge.

By that time, Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant were at the peak of their basketball powers. Nash would go on to claim back-to-back NBA MVP awards, while the “Black Mamba” would average a career-high 35.4 points per game in the 2005-06 campaign.

Nash and Bryant wouldn’t necessarily guard each other, but that didn’t take away from the individual offensive showcase each would put on in an attempt to lead their team to victory.

Unfortunately for Los Angeles, Bryant was just about all they had then. The two teams would meet up in consecutive first-round matchup in 2006 and 2007. The Lakers wound up blowing a 3-1 series lead the first time and succumbing to a dominant 61-win Phoenix squad in five games the following year.

The Lakers would bounce-back in 2010 with a tough six-game victory, advancing to their third straight NBA Finals, while putting an end to a run for a Suns organization that hasn’t been back to the playoffs since.

Both sides hold vastly different spots in NBA history with Los Angeles holding more than enough championships and Phoenix still looking for its first. The Suns having their moment of dominance against the more glamorous franchise was a slight consolation prize that was fun while it lasted.