Lakers-Celtics remains something bigger

"And we're 8-2!"

This is now known as the Shot Fired 'Round Lakerdom.

"I saw the owner of the Celtics say we're 8-2," said West, once almost as much an icon in Boston as here.

"He was also the same owner who saw his franchise not make the playoffs."

It's true, the Celtics didn't make the playoffs in nine of the last 14 seasons, but they've missed only twice since Grousbeck's group bought the team in 2002.

Welcome to the rivalry, Wyc.

Losing means grief like that of Johnson after the Lakers' nightmare in 1984 when they had leads in the last minute of Games 1-4 before Kevin McHale clotheslined Kurt Rambis, etc., and the Celtics won in seven games.

Johnson went home, shut himself in for days and wouldn't even talk to his mother on the telephone.

Forget mere joy and sorrow. Where the Lakers and Celtics are concerned, it's ecstasy or shame.

As in everything, the Lakers' role model was West, whose suffering after losing to the Celtics in the Finals -- six times -- was operatic.

"A lot of people play sports for a lot of different reasons," West says. "Some of them get joy out of it, OK?

"To me, there was no joy. This was like a life's work, to try to find a way to win a championship. . . .

"When we lost to the Celtics here [Game 7 of the 1969 Finals at the Forum] and the balloons were in the rafters, I didn't want to play basketball again. I really didn't. I don't know if I ever got over that."

There was no one like West or Russell who got physically ill before every game . . . except when the Celtics played the Lakers and everyone became like them.

Best of all, the rivalry recalls a time when there were no cheesy conference championship ceremonies, nor any perceived need to stage such things.

When the Celtics played the Lakers, the game was enough. Actually, the game was everything or it seemed like it.

It would be nice if they could go back to meeting every two or three years, but that remains to be seen.

The Celtics aren't deep and if they aren't ancient, their big three, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, are 32, 31 and 30, respectively.

This could be the biggest Golden Oldie of all time, so don't take a moment of it for granted.

Whatever happens, from a classic to a sweep, it will be momentous, as it always was.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com