The Greatest Rivalries in Sports

Last week, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics to win the NBA championship. The two teams have combined to win each of the last three titles, twice against each other. Altogether, the Celtics and Lakers have won a combined 33 NBA championships, compared to 31 for every other team in the league combined. They've faced each other in the Finals 12 times, about one out of every five. No other team has even been to the NBA Finals 12 times.

Celtics/Lakers is a legendary rivalry. It captures the interest of fans regardless of where they live or who their favorite team is. Which are the other great rivalries in major North American sports?

Major League Baseball

Yankees vs. Red Sox

This is also the most overblown rivalry in the sports, the one ESPN repeatedly tells you how much you care about, to the point that you kind of don't any more. That said, this really is a classic rivalry, from the Curse of the Bambino on through a decade of American League dominance and free agency competition. These are both easy teams to hate, but everyone who follows baseball even a little has a preference when these two meet.

Giants vs. Dodgers

A rivalry with tradition, it survived moves from New York to California. Also, Bobby Thomson. Come on.

Honorable Mention

Cardinals/Cubs: two storied franchises that have been around forever, they're close geographically and share a general classiness. My favorite aspect of this rivalry is the strong mutual respect that accompanies the necessary hatred of a rival.

National Basketball Association

Celtics vs. Lakers

These two are so good that no other team is good enough to merit a serious rivalry. The other great NBA rivalries are individual: Magic vs. Bird and Russell vs. Chamberlain.

Honorable Mentions

I already told you, Magic vs. Bird and Russell vs. Chamberlain. If you don't love those, you either aren't a basketball fan, or you're 12.

National Football League

Bears vs. Packers

The league's oldest rivalry also features two of its most historically successful franchises. The Bears and Packers combined to win 17 NFL titles before the Super Bowl even existed. The Packers have won more NFL titles (12) than any other team in the league; the Bears are second (9).

Washington vs. Dallas

Maybe an even better-known rivalry than Green Bay/Chicago, this one has lost a little of its luster during the past decade, with Dallas enduring a championship drought and Washington seldom even competitive during the Daniel Snyder era. That said, this rivalry's legacy is safe, with enough memorable games and historical animosity to carry it through another decade of Jerry Jones and Snyder.

The glory days for Dallas/Washington were the '70s and '80s, when both teams were good, but the roots of this rivalry go back to before the Cowboys were even an official team, and their eventual owner, Clint Murchison Jr., acquired the rights to "Hail to the Redskins." Washington got the name back, and owner George Preston Marshall unexpectedly reversed his opposition to the expansion franchise in Dallas.

Honorable Mentions

Steelers/Browns doesn't carry much weight right now, but it will if the Browns ever get good again. Lest I be accused of East Coast bias, Chiefs/Raiders is a pretty big deal. Really, any AFC West team vs. the Raiders. Patriots/Colts is the most relevant and intriguing rivalry in the league today.

National Hockey League

Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs

Not only is it the oldest rivalry in league history, it's got a ton of history, some of which even goes beyond the rink, including the tension between English-speaking Toronto and French-speaking Montreal.

Honorable Mentions

From a purely historical standpoint, Oilers/Stars might be second on the list, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, no rivalry was bigger than Red Wings/Avalanche. On an individual level, Wayne Gretzky/Mario Lemieux is fascinating less because of their head-to-head matchups than their dominance in general, and Sidney Crosby/Alex Ovechkin is quickly becoming a compelling league-wide attraction.

Boxing

Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier

For modern fans, it can be difficult to comprehend how significant boxing used to be on the sporting landscape, and this is its greatest rivalry. Ali and Frazier were very different men — Ali opinionated and boisterous, Frazier reserved and conservative. Together, they staged three classic fights, including two of the most famous contests of all-time, the Fight of the Century (Ali-Frazier I) and the Thrilla in Manila (Ali-Frazier III).

Golf

I'm told that Jack Nicklaus vs. Arnold Palmer was a huge rivalry, but I don't follow golf closely enough to write on the matter with any authority, and I'm not entirely convinced that golf is a sport in the first place, so let's just acknowledge that I've mentioned it, and move on.

Tennis

Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova

With all due respect to the men's game, this is easily the most storied rivalry in tennis. Borg and McEnroe met 14 times. McEnroe and Connors, 34. Federer and Nadal stand at 21. Martina and Chrissy played each other in singles 80 times, more than the other three rivalries combined. Navratilova led the series by a narrow margin of 43 matches to 37, including 14 Grand Slam Finals as singles players. They met in the final of the French Open for the first time in 1975 and the last time in 1986, with a competitive rivalry spanning over a decade.

Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal

Nadal holds a substantial head-to-head advantage (14-7 as of this writing) because so many of their matches have been played on clay, but their legendary contests with one another are only half the story here. Other than a brief period following Nadal's injury last year, these players have held the top two ATP rankings for nearly five years in a row.

Honorable Mentions

John McEnroe vs. Björn Borg and McEnroe vs. Jimmy Connors. Classic matches in both rivalries, plus a clear contrast in personalities. Johnny Mac was colorful and obnoxious, Borg calm and reserved. Connors was ornery, but in a different way than Johnny Mac. I'd argue for Steffi Graf and Monica Seles here, as well. From 1991-93, Seles won seven slams, Graf five, and everyone else a combined total of zero. They were not just each other's greatest rival; they were effectively each other's only rival. Both Graf and Seles are perceived as kind, classy competitors, but this rivalry was not without its share of heat, highlighted by Seles' 1992 declaration that "Steffi will never be No. 1 again."

College Football

Army vs. Navy

I know there are about a thousand compelling CFB rivalries, and most of them are more significant in today's game than Army/Navy. Call me old-fashioned.

Michigan vs. Ohio State

Fine, Michigan is going through a down period right now. This is a legendary rivalry that is consistently competitive.

Alabama vs. Auburn

The SEC is so competitive these days that there are lots of choices in that conference, but nothing else with the historical animosity of the Iron Bowl.

Notre Dame vs. USC

Notre Dame leads the series, with a 42-34-5 record, but both teams have produced 11 national champions — to the extent those really exist in college football — and seven Heisman Trophy winners. They're storied programs with a long and competitive rivalry stretching back to the 1920s.

Honorable Mentions

Among many worthy choices, I'd single out Oklahoma/Nebraska and Oklahoma/Texas. The Red River Rivalry is probably the biggest in college football today.

Men's College Basketball

Duke vs. North Carolina

This is a no-brainer, right?

Women's College Basketball

Connecticut vs. Tennessee

By far the two most successful programs in the history of the women's game, they have combined for 15 NCAA tournament wins in the 29 years it has been held. UConn is 4-0 against Tennessee in the finals of the tournament.