Tym Glaser

MORE THAN superstars, more than records and more than personalities, sport thrives on rivalries.

In the games we play, you are often more defined not by what you do, but who you do it against - or who does it to you.

Growing up a couple, okay, okay, a few decades ago in Adelaide it was Port Adelaide against the rest of the South Australian Aussie Rules world. Port was a north-western suburban team and I lived in the south, but I wore my black-and-white scarf to school each chilly Monday morning, not to brace against the cold but to rub in another Port victory over the majority Glenelg and Sturt fans.

Basic line

The basic line from non-Magpie fans was, 'I support two teams, mine and whoever is playing Port'.

That kind of rivalry became almost pathological when I crossed the border into Victoria and barracked for another team in black and white, Collingwood. There's no grey area with the 'Pies in Victoria. Their fans love them like first-born and all others, particularly arch-rivals Carlton, hate 'em - and their fans. Fanship of Collingwood puts you in a special class or niche not just in that state but all over the island continent.

Of course, every country has sporting rivalries that nourish its citizens and England pretty much seems to have invented them. Take Manchester United and Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham, Yorkshire and Lancashire, Oxford and Cambridge.

Cross the channel now and you get Barcelona versus Madrid, AC Milan and Juventus and Germany against everyone.

Individual sports thrive on rivalries just as much, if not even more.

'The Greatest'

Would Muhammad Ali have been 'The Greatest' if there was no trilogy of fights with Joe Frazier? Arnie Palmer and Jack Nicklaus pushed professional golf into the main stream with their classic battles of the '60s.

John McEnroe was the wild-haired spark in a golden age of tennis with his battles with Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and, most importantly, the umpires.

They key to a rivalry is that the teams or players must be, or have been, successful and must meet (or have met) in defining games or finals through their histories. Regional issues don't hurt either - take Boston versus New York in baseball or Green Bay and Chicago in the NFL.

Now, of course, we have the daddy of all basketball rivalries right before our eyes as my Celtics battle the LA Lakers for the NBA Championship.

Of the 61 championships won, 30 have been shared by these two sides and this is the 11th finals meeting between the Best of the West and the Beasts of the East.

All week long, leading up to Thursday night's opener, the ghosts of Lakers/Celtics clashes past were resurrected. You couldn't 'quint without seeing one of those classic finals of the '80s between Magic Johnson's Lakers and Larry Bird's Celts pop up on the living room box with little people inside. Commentators and pundits raved about how great it was to have these sides battling it out for all the marbles after a 21-year hiatus.

They regaled all and sundry with tales about George Mikan, Bob Cousy, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Jerry West, John Havlicek and, of course, Larry and Magic.

What a legacy

These latter-day men in green and purple and yellow sure have a helluva lot to live up to; what a legacy for Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to inherit.

The fact is that this rivalry has outstripped the games and the participants are merely acting out their roles in the ongoing passion play.

Still, that's kind of cool, isn't it?

Look at track and field. It is crying out for a rivalry now to boost its stocks amid so many drug scandals but, with the rare exception of Saturday night in New York when our Usain Bolt beat Tyson Gay and the world record, the best of the best avoid each other like they have rabies.

We only get to see 'em in the blue moon moments of Olympic and World championships. That can't stir up much passion, just patriotism.

My Big Bald Friend, a huge track and field fan, agrees. He's also a Lakers fan and we have placed restraining orders on each other for the duration of the finals.

That's what rivalries are all about.

BEAT LA, BEAT LA, BEAT LA.

Later ...

Feedback: tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com