1) Los Angeles Lakers vs San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers

Of all the impetuses of a classic sports rivalry over the years, proximity has remained the main driver. Bonus points when the rivals in question share not only a city but an arena, as is the case with the Clippers and Lakers and the (heavy sigh) Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Originally founded as the Buffalo Braves in the ’70-’71 season, the Clippers moved to Southern California in 1978, first settling in San Diego. The first match-up between the newly minted rivals was a 124-113 Clippers victory but that wasn’t exactly a harbinger of things to come. Of note: in their first decade as intra-state rivals, the Lakers won 45 of their first 58 games; once the Clippers moved to Los Angeles, they lost their first nine games against the Lakers, with the first victory finally coming after Magic Johnson retired; and in the first 35 years they shared an home in L.A., the Lakers had 26 playoff appearances, nine NBA Finals, and seven titles, compared to just 12 playoff appearances for the Clippers, with no NBA Finals trips, let alone titles. When Donald Sterling first moved the Clippers 120 miles up north on the I-5 to Los Angeles, they played home games at the Memorial Sports Arena, then the home site of USC. As Sterling threatened to relocate again to Anaheim in the mid ’90s, the city of Los Angles brokered an agreement for the Clippers and Lakers to both utilize the newly built Staples Center. Though the arena was ostensibly designed to be equally shared, there’s no doubt the Lakers are the true home team, with the bigger locker room, the majority of the banners in the rafters, and the purple seating color scheme. Things finally turned in the rivalry starting in the early ’10s, when the Clippers built title contenders first around Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and later around Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, while the Lakers struggled with an aging core and then a youthful rebuild. But those Clippers teams have thus far still peaked at only one Conference Finals appearance while the Lakers added a 12th title in L.A. in 2020.

2) New York Knicks vs New York/New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets

Similar to Lakers-Clippers, the Knicks and Nets have maintained a symbiotic, big brother-little brother relationship throughout their shared history. It started in 1967, when the Nets were founded as an ABA franchise based in Teaneck, New Jersey, located just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan. One year later, they relocated to New York proper in Long Island, and in 1976, the rivalry truly began when the Nets were part of the NBA-ABA merger. The Knicks struck the first blow off the court, levying an NBA sanctioned “invasion” fee on the Nets, forcing the already cash-strapped franchise to sell off its best player, Julius Erving, to the 76ers (in one of the all-time great what ifs, the Nets initially offered Erving to the Knicks as payment of the fee, but they declined). The Nets won just 22 games in their inaugural NBA season but did earn a moral victory by splitting their four games with the Knicks. Owner Roy Boe then moved the financially strapped team back to New Jersey, settling this time in Newark, and to add insult to injury, was forced to pay the Knicks another fee to move. The Nets eventually returned to the Big Apple in 2012, this time in Brooklyn in the swanky new Barclays Center, with no fees due to the Knicks. Though the Knicks have almost exclusively been the big brother in the relationship throughout the years, the tides have turned recently. Despite the reputation, this rivalry has been evenly matched in terms of head-to-head results. In fact, heading into the ’20-’21 season, the teams have both won 101 times in their 202 match-ups.

3) Rochester Royals vs Syracuse Nationals

They’ve since become one of the league’s premier franchises over seven decades and counting but the Philadelphia 76ers may be the only NBA team chartered out of spite. Their original owner, bowling alley magnate Danny Biasone, attempted to schedule a Rochester Royals exhibition game in his hometown of Syracuse but was snubbed. Thus, he sent a $5,000 check to the National Basketball League (NBL) office and one of the biggest early pro basketball rivalries was born. Separated by only about 90 miles, the Royals and the Syracuse Nationals had their first big showdown in the 1947 NBL playoffs. Two years later, their rivalry spilled over into the NBA post-merger though it was somewhat tempered by the franchises being placed in opposite conferences (Nationals in the East and Royals in the West). They fell just short of facing off in the 1951 and 1954 NBA Finals but fans of both teams kept the rivalry heated despite the lack of marquee match-ups. In their eight seasons based in Rochester and Syracuse respectively, the teams met 55 times with the Nationals winning 30 of them. As the NBA operating costs and revenue opportunities rose sharply in the late ’50s, both franchises were forced to re-locate to larger markets, with the Royals moving to Cincinnati in 1957 and the Nats to Philadelphia in 1963 (after Biasone sold the team to a group of Philly investors). With their NBA teams long gone, the cities have kept up their sports rivalry largely in minor league baseball, where the Rochester Red Wings and Syracuse Mets of AAA play in a heated yearly competition called the Thruway Cup, a reference to the colloquial name of the I-90 highway connecting the cities. 

4) Washington Capitols vs Baltimore Bullets

The D.C.-Baltimore rivalry has been revived in the 21st century, with the Ravens taking on the Commanders in the NFL and the Nationals and Orioles battling in the MLB. Long before any of that, we had the Baltimore Bullets and the Washington Capitols in the early days of the NBA. With Red Auerbach as coach and Bob Feerick starring on the court, the Capitols were one of the league’s charter franchise and premier teams in its first three seasons, finishing with the East’s best record twice, and reaching the NBA Finals in 1949. But they were upstaged by the Bullets, who began play 40 miles north in 1944, as part of the American Basketball League (ABL), before joining the NBA in 1947. In their first season together, the Capitols won six out of eight regular season match-ups but come playoffs time, the Bullets made a shocking run to the NBA title, while the Capitols were eliminated in a play-in game. Neither franchise lasted long after that, with the Capitols folding in 1951 and the Bullets following suit in 1954. Their rivalry ultimately lasted just 23 games, with the Capitols winning 15 of them, most notably in December of 1948, when they defeated Baltimore for their 15th consecutive win to open the season, a record that would stand for 67 years. The Wizards franchise that has resided in Washington since 1973 and was previously the Baltimore Bullets from 1963 to 1973 technically has no connection to either the Capitols or the original Bullets.

5) Vancouver Grizzlies vs Seattle SuperSonics

A sports rivalry between these two cities, which are separated by the U.S.-Canada border but only by about 150 miles, dates back at least a century, when the Seattle Metropolitans and Vancouver Millionaires faced off regularly in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. That hockey rivalry was dormant for almost 100 years until the Seattle Kraken joined the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL as an expansion franchise. In the meantime, Vancouver and Seattle had a six-year stretch of NBA animosity, lasting from 1995 to 2001. Granted, it’s a little specious to call Vancouver Grizzlies vs. Seattle SuperSonics a rivalry, as that implies some parity in their match-ups. In fact, the Sonics held a 20-3 advantage head-to-head in those six seasons, and won all 11 games they played in Seattle, by an average margin of 16.6 points. The Grizzlies failed to finish above .300 in any of their six seasons in Vancouver, let alone finish above .500 or reach the postseason. The Sonics in that era won 60+ games in ’95-’96 and ’97-’98, reaching the NBA Finals in the former, but by ’00-’01 were starting to fall apart, with Gary Payton aging and Shawn Kemp long gone. In the ’00s, both teams relocated due southeast, with the Grizzlies moving to Memphis in 2001 and the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008.

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By the numbers: 10 closest current NBA rivalries, as measured by driving distance

Rivalry	Driving distance (in miles)
Los Angeles Clippers v Los Angeles Lakers	0
Brooklyn Nets v New York Knicks	5
Golden State Warriors v Sacramento Kings	88
Chicago Bulls v Milwaukee Bucks	93
New York Knicks v Philadelphia 76ers	95
Brooklyn Nets v Philadelphia 76ers	98
Philadelphia 76ers v Washington Wizards	140
Cleveland Cavaliers v Detroit Pistons	168
Chicago Bulls v Indiana Pacers	183
Houston Rockets v San Antonio Spurs	197
Dallas Mavericks v Oklahoma City Thunder	206
Detroit Pistons v Toronto Raptors	231
Miami Heat v Orlando Magic	235

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6) Boston Celtics vs Providence Steam Rollers

The Celtics have collected quite a few heated rivalries over the years with teams all across the country, from the Northeast (76ers and Knicks) to the South (Hawks and Heat) to the Midwest (Pistons) all the way to the West Coast (Lakers). But their most adjacent rivalry ended over 70 years ago, when the Providence Steam Rollers shut down operations. Located in the capital of Rhode Island, which sits about 50 miles south of downtown Boston, the Steam Rollers were a charter member of the BAA in 1946, alongside the Celtics. In the ’46-’47 season, the Steam Rollers actually took five out of six games from the Celtics and finished ahead of them in the standings, with a 28-32 record. But things fell apart swiftly in ’47-’48, when the Steam Rollers had one of the worst seasons in NBA history, finishing with a 6-42 record, good for a .125 winning percentage. They could at least take solace that two of those six wins came against Boston. The Steam Rollers lasted just one more atrocious season before folding in 1949. They’re regarded as arguably the most unsuccessful franchise in NBA history but say this for Providence: in their three seasons of existence, they split their head-to-head series with the Celtics 10-10, and won just as many playoff series as their Boston rivals (zero). Celtics fans can also thank Steam Rollers owner Louis Pieri for much of their history of success. When Pieri was approached by Celtics owner Walter Brown in 1949 to buy a minority stake in the team, he agreed on the condition that his friend, Red Auerbach, be hired as coach.

7) Waterloo Hawks vs Tri-Cities Blackhawks
8) Anderson Packers vs Fort Wayne Pistons vs Indianapolis Olympians

As of the 2020 census, the NBA had a franchise in 14 of the 15 largest U.S. metro areas, with only Seattle  excluded. That wasn’t always the case, as the early days of the league was more centered around smaller, basketball-obsessed markets. This was especially true in the case in the Midwest, where the sport of basketball had most caught fire in the first few decades after its invention. In 1949, when the BAA and NBL merged to became the NBA, the league expanded from 10 teams to 17. Seven of those franchises were located in cities that haven’t had a major pro team since, including four of the five listed above. The Tri-Cities Blackhawks and Fort Wayne Pistons live on today as the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons, respectively, but both the Waterloo Hawks and Anderson Packers folded after just one NBA season. The Hawks were and still are the only major U.S. pro team located entirely within the state of Iowa. Both they and their rival, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, were named after the Sauk leader Black Hawk, who led a revolt against the U.S. government in 1832. The “Tri-Cities” in their name referred to Davenport, Iowa, as well as Moline, Illinois and Rock Island, Illinois, which are located within a five mile radius of each other along the banks of the Mississippi River, which forms the Illinois-Iowa border, about 140 miles from Waterloo. The Hawks and Blackhawks played seven times in the ’49-’50 season, with the Hawks winning four but the Blackhawks finishing 10 games ahead of them in the Western Division standings. 

Meanwhile, Anderson, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis had a one year period as intrastate rivals in the basketball hotbed of Indiana. Named after their owner’s meat packing company, the Packers were champions of the NBL in its final season and carried over that success to the NBA, finishing with a 37-27 record and coming up just short of reaching the 1950 NBA Finals. In fact, all three Indiana teams had a stellar ’49-’50 season, with the Olympians and Pistons also finishing with winning records and playoff appearances. The Packers and Olympians actually met in the Western Division Finals, with Anderson emerging victorious but losing in the next round to George Mikan’s Lakers. 

Following the ’49-’50 season, the NBA essentially contracted the Packers and Hawks, along with the Sheboygan Redskins and original Denver Nuggets, supposedly at the behest of larger market teams like the Knicks and Celtics, who were fed up with traveling to far flung Midwest burgs. The Blackhawks moved a year later to Milwaukee, where they adapted the shortened Hawks nickname, then soon after relocated again in St. Louis, before finally settling in their current location, Atlanta, in 1969. The Pistons hung around Fort Wayne until 1957, when they moved to Detroit. And the Olympians only lasted until 1953, when they were forced to fold after their two best players were suspended for life as part of a point shaving scandal. It took seven years for Indiana to go from three NBA franchises to zero but they would receive one again in 1976, when the Pacers were added as part of the ABA merger.

9) San Antonio Spurs vs Houston Rockets

Often referred as the “I-10 Rivalry” due to the cities’ connection via that interstate, this one actually started in the Eastern Conference. That’s where the Rockets resided in 1976, when the Spurs joined them in the Central Division via the ABA merger, even though both cities are technically due west of then Western Conference teams in Indiana, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Kansas City. Houston won the division title in ’76-’77 and though the Spurs took the next two in a row, it was the Rockets that ultimately dominated the first two decades of the rivalry. They defeated the Spurs in playoff series in 1980 and 1981, the latter a major upset in the Conference Semifinals en route to a surprise NBA Finals appearance. In fact, the Rockets made the NBA Finals four times, winning titles twice, before the Spurs finally made their debut in 1999, which is when the rivalry really turned in San Antonio’s favor. The teams have met one time in the Conference Finals, in 1995, a series notable for Hakeem Olajuwon’s dismantling of reigning MVP David Robinson as the Rockets advanced in six games. But the last quarter century has been a real shift, with the Spurs winning five titles in six NBA Finals appearances, while the Rockets have made as far as the Conference Finals just twice, losing each time. In fact, in the last 24 seasons, the Rockets have won the I-10 season series just three times, finished with a better regular season record than the Spurs just four times, and advanced further in the playoffs than the Spurs just four times. While both the Spurs and Rockets also have rivalries with the intrastate Mavericks, those have never been nearly as heated, possibly due to Dallas being a slightly longer drive up north in Texas.