The showdown channels centuries of Spanish tension and pride – and may soon collide with the NBA’s ambitions to expand into Europe
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cores of fans filed past the silhouettes of cranes and construction work surrounding Barcelona’s Camp Nou last Friday night. But they weren’t there for the world famous soccer stadium. Instead, the sea of Barça jerseys was heading for the club’s basketball arena, the Palau Blaugrana. There was an expectant but apprehensive buzz in the air – the night marked a big occasion: Real Madrid were in town.
It’s widely accepted that the biggest rivalry in basketball is between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics; between them they have won almost half of all championships in NBA history. The Lakers-Celtics showdowns of the 1980s went beyond basketball and embodied different Americas: West Coast glitz versus East Coast grit; flashy fastbreak basketball versus fundamentals; and, frankly, though perhaps sometimes oversimplistically, Black versus white.
In world basketball, however, there are a few rivalries that could contend with Lakers v Celtics in terms of cultural significance, even if the standard of play does not quite match up. Panathinaikos-Olympiakos in Greece comes to mind. So too does Belgrade’s raucous Red Star-Partizan fixtures and the fierce Intercontinental Derbies between Istanbul’s Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. Another that could compete and, in the coming years, even collide with Lakers-Celtics? Last Friday’s game: Barcelona v Real Madrid – basketball’s clásico.
