One of the greatest ever. It was the Lakers, led by Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and the newly acquired Wilt Chamberlain. The old Boston Celtics, champs 10 times in the previous 12 years, were extremely old and barely made the playoffs. They were led by player-coach Bill Russell, John Havlicek, and Sam Jones. Wilt and the Lakers were supposed to walk over the Celtics in the Finals, but the Series eventually went seven games. The Lakers' owner at the start of Game 7 said that when the Lakers win the title, the Southern Cal Marching Band would play "Happy Days Are Here Again," Chick Hearn would interview Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt Chamberlain, and balloons would fall from the rafters to celebrate the victory. Bill Russell found out about this and said, "They're going to have a whole lot of trouble unloading all of those balloons." He also told his team that they couldn't lose to the Lakers. Russell and the Celtics jumped out to a seventeen point lead, but the Lakers staged a furious comeback. They got extremely close, but Don Nelson's shot that bounced up about ten feet in the air and then in, just about sealed the deal. Russell, playing in his final game, and the Celtics held on to a 108-106 victory over their rivals the Los Angeles Lakers. It was their eleventh title in thirteen years.

This was supposed to be the Lakers year. They held a 2-0 and 3-2 series lead. Boston only won 48 games that season and had the worst playoff record in the conference. ... If Chamberlain didn't ask out early in Game 7, they might've won that particular game. But no! It had to go to the Celtics again!