Not even Celtics-Lakers can trump LeBron James these days.
The NBA’s two marquee teams started the Finals last night, but former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said he believes the fans wanted to see the game’s marquee players starring in the NBA championship.
“This year everyone wanted to see LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in the Finals,” said Van Gundy, who is calling the finals for ABC.
“Boston, through an incredible six-week run, has positioned themselves to turn a pretty good regular season into an incredible year.”
The Celtics knocked off James and the Cavaliers in six games before burying the Magic in the Eastern Conference finals. That set up a rematch of the 2008 championship series, which Boston won over Bryant’s Lakers in six games. It will be the 12th time these two longtime rivals have met to decide an NBA title, with the Celtics going 9-2.
Kevin McHale played in three of those series and may be a little biased when it comes to discussing the popularity of a Celtics-Lakers Finals, but the former Boston big man said he was not the only one looking forward to it.
“As far as I can tell, everyone is excited,” said McHale, now an analyst for NBA TV. “Everybody wanted the series — the Celtics, the Lakers, the fans. Everyone I’ve run into have said it’s the series that everyone wanted no matter where I am.”
McHale exemplified the physical nature of the rivalry with his takedown of Kurt Rambis in
Game 4 of the 1984 NBA Finals. But McHale said that beyond the hatred, there was respect between the two teams.
“You were hoping you got a chance to play the Lakers,” said McHale, whose Celtics teams went 1-2 against the Lakers during their three Finals meetings in the ’80s.
“The thing about playing them was that I knew we could play really well and lose, which was very unusual for our team. There was that added dimension where we were going to really have to be on top of our game and it would always come down to a shot here or a shot there. As this series will likely, too.”
For the first time in two postseasons, both teams will have their starting lineups healthy. When the Lakers lost to the Celtics in 2008, they were without center Andrew Bynum. They rebounded with a championship last season taking out the Magic, who had
eliminated the Kevin Garnett-less Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Something has to give this year.
“The Celtics have never lost a series with this starting lineup,” Van Gundy said. “And the Lakers are the same way since Pau Gasol came. . . . So I find it very intriguing that you have two teams that never lost with the starting lineups they are going to put on the floor.”
justin.terranova@nypost.com
