The 30 greatest NBA team rivalries in league history
11. Best NBA rivalries of all-time: Atlanta Hawks vs. Boston Celtics
Bob Pettit is a name not commonly recognized by the casual NBA fan, but he’s an 11-time NBA All-Star big man who averaged 26.4 points and 16.2 rebounds a game throughout his Hall-of-Fame career. The reason he flies over a lot of people’s heads is due to his career overlap with the great Bill Russell, a player widely regarded as one of the all-time best.
Everyone knows about the great battles between Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, but rarely do people bring up the history of Russell vs. Pettit and the then-St. Louis Hawks. It’s a rivalry that goes way back but doesn’t lack in theatrics.
The Hawks and the Boston Celtics faced off in four NBA Finals in five seasons. Like most teams of the era, St. Louis suffered mightily at the hands of the Celtics, losing four out of five. It didn’t stop Pettit and company from coming right back each season in trying to dethrone the ultimate dynasty of the NBA.
The Hawks would eventually leave for Atlanta, but that didn’t help their chances against Boston. By then, new forces had come to the surface for each’s respective team in the form of Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkins.
It was a battle of contrasting styles, “Larry Legend” an athletically limited sharp-shooter shot creator and “The Human Highlight Film” a powerful leaper and showstopper.
Bird would be the death of Atlanta on three separate occasions, including a legendary Game 7 in the 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals where his 34 — 20 in the fourth — was enough to offset Wilkins’ 47 on 19-of-23 shooting.
Revenge was nearly had in 2008 when the No. 8-seeded Hawks took the super-team Celtics to seven games, but it was ultimately for nothing, as the Celtics would go on to claim the title that same season.
These two teams were rivals not because of their equal stature. After all, Atlanta is still searching for its first title since the move. But the Hawks never backed down and brought the house along with them, fighting tooth and nail to make the Celtics earn whatever they may have wound up taking.