Opposing sides: LeBron James-Kyrie Irving has look of a rivalry.
LeBron James loves rivalries: Ohio State-Michigan. North Carolina-Duke. DallasWashington in the NFL. Those are some of the favorite matchups he has cited over the years, ones that have been honed by the flowing of bad blood over generations.
Kyrie Irving left Cleveland only two months ago.
By James’ definition, he and Irving wouldn’t be rivals yet. The rest of the NBA might argue otherwise, and when Boston and Cleveland meet in the season’s opening game Tuesday night, many might call it a rivalry game — not because the teams played in the Eastern Conference finals last spring but because James is still with the Cavaliers and Irving is now leading the Celtics.
Gone are the days of venomous team rivalries: CelticsLakers, Bulls-Pistons or HeatKnicks. Sure, there is Warriors-Cavaliers, maybe even Thunder-Warriors. Sort of. In this NBA, the animus is almost always about individuals.
“I don’t know if ‘rival’ is the right word,” Cleveland forward Kevin Love said when asked if Celtics-Cavaliers is a rivalry. “But they’re right up there, if not the main competitor, with ... us in the East.”
Ask around the NBA, and it seems as if everyone defines rivalry differently. Miami center Hassan Whiteside thinks they’re fueled by Twitter — a point he proved when he and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid started a big-man beef on social media over the weekend. Cleveland guard Dwyane Wade has said teams need playoff histories before becoming rivals. The Warriors’ Stephen Curry says seeing old rivalries on television actually inspires him.
The two matchups that seem to most move the needle in NBA rivalry talk now are breakups of superstar duos. Not long ago, it was Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Last season, it was the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook and the Warriors’ Kevin Durant.
This season, Irving and James join that club.
And as luck would have it, the NBA schedule — which was arranged before Irving got traded to Boston — has them paired in Game 1 of the season, though James is nursing a sprained ankle and his status for the opener remains unclear.
“I’m just happy to just start NBA basketball back again,” said Irving, who tried last week to downplay rivalry talk by suggesting that Tuesday’s matchup is going to be just another game. “It was a long summer, understanding that coming off the Finals loss and what we went through. And, of course, the trade happening. But now, it’s just time to move on to some more NBA basketball, and a new uniform, and just be excited about that.”
Cleveland guard J.R. Smith might have added fuel to the rivalry — by suggesting there isn’t a rivalry.
“There are different people in different jerseys, but I mean, I don’t really pose them as a big threat to us,” Smith said.
Let the entertaining begin.
Charlotte head coach Steve Clifford said rivalries have long appealed to him. The Hornets don’t play Tuesday — it’s only Celtics-Cavaliers and Rockets-Warriors on the schedule — so odds are he’ll be watching some of the drama in Cleveland.
“My first year in the NBA, I was an advance scout for the Knicks. That was Pat Riley’s Heat and Jeff Van Gundy’s Knicks, and I think that all four of those regular-season games were on either ABC or TNT,” Clifford said. “I remember being a college coach and if you saw they were going to play, you watched. That can’t be anything but good for the league.”
Those Heat-Knicks matchups were settled on the floor.
Often now, the toughest actions can be found on Twitter.
Former player Kenyon Martin took an electronic swing at Jeremy Lin this month about the Nets’ guard sporting braids; Lin went back at Martin about his use of Chinese tattoos. Whiteside and Embiid typed back and forth over the weekend after their preseason matchup, and Embiid even got in a veiled jab at Durant’s use of a secret Twitter account. CJ McCollum and Chandler Parsons went at it in January in a brief, hilarious exchange.
“Twitter can make things bigger than what they are,” Whiteside said. “A lot of things get blown out of proportion. I try to compete every night, the same way, do what’s best for my team. And every night, guys come out to win. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s really about.”
Irving would agree. He thinks Tuesday should be about the game more than any rivalry, real or imagined.
“It’s just basketball, man,” Irving said.