Where's the Beef? I'm hungry.

Thursday marks the eleventh time the Celtics and Lakers will engage in an NBA Finals battle. This got me thinking, where have the great rivalries gone? When I was growing up, the NBA was filled with so many rivalries, both personal and team rivals. Sure the nature of the league has become less physical due to whatever reason, but the lack of healthy trash talk and competitiveness has been absent for the most part for years.

When I think about my childhood, sports definitely played a huge part, and the NBA Playoffs were always a highlight. Whether it was the Rockets and Spurs, the Pacers and Knicks, the Bulls and Knicks, Bulls and Pacers, or Bulls and Jazz, there always seemed to be some animosity with the teams that played each other. These days it seems as if everyone is so disenchanted with the team pride aspect of the sport, and are all friends with each other. So many players used to hate each other, and it would feed the hype train in the series.

Back then, a hard foul would give your team momentum just as much as a big three or dunk. The physical nature has just been depleted, and a lot of it probably has to do with the Malice in the Palace. A hard foul now will get you ejected, fined and suspended. I understand it's for the safety of the athlete, but at the same time it takes away from very marketable rivalries. Bird and Magic hated each other on the court, well Bird more so than Magic, but they helped save the NBA with bad blood.

This finals match-up is one of the few rivalries really left in the NBA. A lot of it stems from the history, but they also have some bad blood. In games this year there was a lot of hard fouls, players bowing up at one another, and technicals. I'm normally disenchanted with overplayed match-ups in big games like seeing the Patriots or Steelers in almost every Super Bowl, or the Yankees and Red Sox always representing the American League. I can make an exception for this though, just because I'm not sure any other match up would produce such an old school, physical result. Hopefully the rest of the league can take a note from this rivalry and start playing more physical and stop loving every player on every team. Put friendships aside and go out there to win at any cost.