Poll Results

Poll results are officially in and the readers have spoken! Well, sort of anyways. We have a TIE for the greatest sports rivalry of all-time between UCLA vs. USC and Lakers vs. Celtics. West Siiiide! Both of these epic showdowns received 7 votes, or 29% each of the total 24 votes tallied. These storied matchups are rich with history and legendary performances. But let us look forward at some of the upcoming games and see, as Bon Jovi says, if we can make a memory.

The Stats:
The Bruins (121 total team national championships of which 100 are NCAA Titles)
The Trojans (106 total team national championships of which 86 are NCAA Titles)
They meet this year on the football field at the Coliseum on Saturday Dec. 1st. Should be a good one, especially after UCLA upset SC last year on the last game of the regular season knocking them out of the championship bowl game (Ouchie). This rivalry continues to thrive and I expect some highly-competitive Pac-10 BBall games between these cross-town rivals this season as well. Pre-season college basketball rankings have UCLA #2 and USC #18 in the country. Both teams add extremely strong recruiting to their already powerful lineups going into this year (read OJ Mayo and Kevin Love). Get those tivos set to record!

The Stats
Los Angeles Lakers (most NBA Finals appearances (28) and the second most championships (14). The Franchise has only missed the NBA Playoffs 5 times in their 60 year history.)
Boston Celtics (Most NBA Championships (16). Most consecutive NBA Championships (8). The Celtics have faced the Lakers a total of 10 times in the NBA Finals, winning 7 times).
As for the NBA schedule, the Lakers play the Celtics first on Friday Nov 23rd in Boston and then the second time on Sunday Dec 30th in LA. The Lakers have had the advantage over the Celts in the past few years (although neither are near the levels when the rivalry was at it's peak in the 80s) but could there be a shift in dominance this year? I can think of three big reasons why that could be true.
Thanks for voting and remember we at For Love Of The Game always value your opinion... as long as it supports our own.