The Lakers-Celtics competition or Celtics-Lakers Rivalry is a challenge between the two best and most storied professional basketball franchises in NBA history, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. The rivalry has been less powerful since the retirement of Larry Bird in the early 1990s. As it stands, the Boston Celtics lead in total championships with 16 to the Lakers' 14.

The rivalry began in the 1960s, when the Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers six times in eight years to claim the championship, and featured great battles between Bill Russell ( Boston ) and Wilt Chamberlain ( Los Angeles ), but that relationship was rather one-sided.

It continued with renewed fervor in the 1980s when both NBA teams were strong, and was personified as Larry Bird ( Boston ) vs. Magic Johnson ( Los Angeles ). During this period, this challenge took on several different dimensions, such as East Coast vs. West Coast and white vs. black (the Celtics teams of the 1980s were predominantly composed of Caucasian players, while those of Los Angeles were mostly African-American). Additionally, prior to the 1980s, the NBA had been under attack financially, with low audience and low television ratings. The epic battles between these two teams contributed mightily to the success of the league. Coupled with the emergence of the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan in the following years, the NBA turned out to be a media juggernaut and one of the dominant sports leagues of the US as well as the rest of the world. The effect the competition had on the league is remarkable, considering that the two NBA Basketball teams only met in the finals three times (1984, 1985, and 1987) and only played each other twice each season.

The contention has died down since Bird's retirement and the rise of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty in the 1990s. Both NBA teams suffered setbacks in the subsequent fifteen years, with the Los Angeles Lakers lastly returning to prominence with three championships in the 2000s but then failing to make the NBA playoffs after trading Shaquille O'Neal. The Boston Celtics have only advanced past the conference semifinals once since 1990. Since then, the Sacramento Kings replaced Boston has the team Lakers fans love to hate