1) Celtics vs. Lakers, 1958-1969
2) Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain, 1959-1969

Applying the term “one-sided” to an NBA rivalry will inevitably always start with Bill Russell. When you win 11 titles in 13 seasons, you tend to lower the success ceilings of your opponents. Seven of those 11 titles for the Celtics came against Elgin Baylor and the Lakers, and the dominance wasn’t limited to the postseason. Starting in Baylor’s rookie season, ’58-’59, the Celtics won 25 out of the next 28 games against the Lakers, and ultimately finished 64-31 against L.A. through 1969. Both Baylor and his longtime Lakers teammate Jerry West repeatedly put together some of the greatest individual losing performances in Finals history. Of course, Chamberlain probably would have gladly accepted an NBA Finals loss for much of his career. Chamberlain was on the losing end of an Eastern Conference Finals series against Russell’s Celtics five times. He also dropped Finals against the Celtics with the Warriors in 1964 and with the Lakers in 1969, when Chamberlain teamed up with West and Baylor. Chamberlain did have a title run in his pocket by then, in 1967 with the 76ers, which included overcoming the Celtics in the Conference Finals. After Russell’s retirement, Chamberlain and West won a title with the Lakers in 1972 but without Baylor, who had retired mid-season.

3) Bulls vs. Cavaliers, 1988-1994
4) Bulls vs. Knicks, 1989-1998

Michael Jordan’s dominance negatively defined the career of every other superstar and franchise of his era, with special devastation saved for the Cavaliers and Knicks. Over a six year stretch of postseasons starting in 1988, Jordan’s Bulls eliminated the Cavaliers and Knicks four times each. The Cavs had the makings of a burgeoning dynasty in ’87-’88, with Lenny Wilkens coaching a talented, youthful roster centered around Mark Price and Brad Daugherty. They pushed the favored Bulls to the full five games in a first round series in 1988, a Pyrrhic victory that was arguably their peak. 1989 was the most desolating example, when the Cavs were favored over Chicago but lost in game five when Jordan hit his iconic “The Shot.” The Bulls defeated the Knicks in the subsequent second round that year, portending another one-sided rivalry. In 1992, the Bulls defeated the Knicks in seven games in the Conference Semifinals and then upended the Cavaliers in the Conference Finals. In 1993 the series order reversed, with Chicago taking out the Cavs in the second round and then the Knicks in a tight Conference Finals. That was essentially the end of that Cavaliers era but the Knicks were still contenders when Jordan made his 1995 comeback and suffered one more defeat at his hands, in the 1996 Conference Semifinals.

5) Lakers vs. Kings, 2000-2004

For the first 15 years of them residing in the same state and playing in the some division, the wolfish Lakers were unconcerned with the sheepish Kings, for good reason. The Kings had failed to win a playoff series for almost two decades starting in 1981, a stretch in which the Lakers won 39 playoff series, including five NBA Finals. When the Kings joined the Lakers in California in 1985, Los Angeles won 32 of their next 34 games against each other. But the Kings finally built a contender in the early ’00s and a brief but heated rivalry was formed. 2002 was the rivalry’s epicenter, with the Kings taking a 2-1 series lead on the two-time defending champion Lakers in the Conference Finals. Things then spiraled out of control, starting with a logic-defying buzzer beater from Robert Horry to steal game four for L.A. When controversial officiating helped the Lakers even the series 3-3 in game six, the Kings mentally collapsed in a game seven loss. The Lakers went on to win their third straight title and Shaquille O’Neal labelled their rivals as the “Sacramento Queens.” Things got so intense that a fight broke out during a 2003 preseason game between the foes. Los Angeles was finally dethroned in 2003 but not by the Kings, who lost in the second round to Dallas. That was the beginning of the end, with O’Neal soon after getting traded to the Heat and the Kings dismantling their roster for a rebuilding project that has yet to resurface a winner.

6) Knicks vs. Heat 1997-2000

How did two teams separated by an 18 hour drive on I-95 become the defining NBA rivalry of the late ’90s? The answer is simply Pat Riley. When the Knicks front office refused to grant general manager powers for the legendary coach he left in 1995 for a Heat team fully willing to hand over the franchise keys. That arrangement would eventually pay off with three titles in the ’00s but in the late ’90s, Riley’s Heat were regularly stifled by his former team. For four straight years starting in 1997, the Knicks and Heat met in a playoff series that went the full distance and New York was victorious in three of them. The Heat won round one in the 1997 Conference Semifinals but it came with an asterisk, as the series turned on numerous Knicks receiving undue suspensions for leaving the sidelines during an altercation. New York got its revenge with first round upsets of the Heat in 1998 and 1999, the former featuring the memorable image of Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy hanging on to Alonzo Mourning’s leg during an on-court brawl. The rivalry waned in the early ’00s as the Knicks slipped into sustained mediocrity, but the influence reverberated for years as the impetus for the NBA to alter rules and regulations to discourage the ugly defensive style that defined the these battles.

7) Spurs vs. Suns, 1992-2010

In their 1993 run to the NBA Finals, the heavily favored Suns eliminated the Spurs in a surprisingly close second round series. The teams would meet in the playoffs seven more times over the next 15 years and the Spurs won six of them. That dominance spanned several eras of Suns basketball, starting with a 1996 Spurs first round series win that ended Charles Barkley’s time in a Phoenix uniform. When the Suns finally built another title contender in the ’00s the Spurs were there to thwart them, winning matchups in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2008 and turning this into a rivalry in name only. In the 2005 Conference Finals, the Suns were the higher seed but lost Joe Johnson to an eye injury right before the series. In 2007, Phoenix was the favorites on paper in the Conference Semifinals but had an incredible streak of bad luck. It started with Steve Nash suffering a broken nose that opened the door for the Spurs to steal game. Then in game four, a Robert Horry hip-check of Nash led to Amare Stoudmire leaving the bench and therefore triggering an automatic one game suspension. Phoenix finally got the better of the Spurs in the 2010 Conference Semifinals but that was the end of their Nash era of title contention and it took them over a decade to return to the playoffs.

“Though the arena was ostensibly built for the teams to share, there was no doubt who was the true “home” team, as the Lakers got the bigger locker room, all the banners in the rafters (the Clippers had never even won a division title at that point), and the color scheme of purple seats in the stands.”

8) Cavaliers vs. Wizards, 2006-2008

Being a Wizards fan is hard enough without a brief period of success getting mitigated by the ascendancy of LeBron James. The Wizards won a playoff series for the first time in 23 years in ’04-’05, which should have been the start of something big. Instead, they were eliminated in the first round for the next three years, each time by James’ Cavaliers. 2006 was James’ playoffs debut and he made a statement, with a triple-double in game one and game-winning shots in games three and five as the Cavaliers eliminated the Wizards. In the 2007 rematch, Washington was without the injured Gilbert Arenas and got summarily swept. They met one more time in the first round in 2008 and this time the storyline revolved around Washington’s DeShawn Stevenson. The defensive specialist was waging a decidedly one-sided feud with James, repeatedly calling him “overrated.” As if you need further proof of this rivalry’s imbalance, James was defended by his friend Jay-Z, who recorded a Stevenson diss track, while Stevenson’s top celebrity supporter was one-hit wonder Soulja Boy. The Cavaliers won the series in six games and the Wizards fell apart from there. No matter how much the team is struggling, Washington fans still get amped for every opportunity to boo James when he comes to town, be it with the Cavs or Heat.

9) Rockets vs. Spurs, 1976-1995

Known as the I-10 Rivalry in reference to the highway separating Houston and San Antonio, this one dates back to 1976, when both of these teams were placed in the Central Division. Neither had been in the Lone Star state for very long. The Rockets started in San Diego before relocating to Houston in 1971. The Spurs were entering their 10th season as a franchise but their first in the NBA, following a merger from the ABA. The Rockets dominated this new rivalry from the get-go, defeating the Spurs in 1980 in a first round sweep, and in 1981 in a second round upset. Their rivalry remained fierce but confined to the regular season for a while after that, up until the Spurs acquired a franchise center in David Robinson. He turned around the team’s fortunes immediately but was also no match for Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon. The rivals met in a Conference Finals for the first time in 1995 and the underdog Rockets dominated, with Olajuwon treating reigning MVP Robinson like a predator does with prey. Things turned drastically in 1997 when the Spurs drafted Tim Duncan but the Olajuwon Rockets era was already fading away and the rivalry fizzled out into the ’00s. They’ve met in the playoffs just once so far in this century, a Conference Semfinals Spurs win in 2017.

10) Celtics vs. Hawks, 1983-1988

If you’re searching for a reason why the ’80s Hawks are one of the best team eras in league history to never even reach a Conference Finals, look no further than Larry Bird and the Celtics. The seeds of this one were sewn back in the early days of the NBA, when Red Auerbach left the then St. Louis Hawks to coach the Celtics and the teams subsequently met in four NBA Finals, with the Celtics winning three of them. When the Hawks relocated to Atlanta in 1969 and switched from the Western Conference to the East, the Celtics were there to greet them with playoff series defeats in 1972 and 1973. It was mostly dark days for the Hawks from then to the early ’80s, when they rebuilt around Dominique Wilkins just as the Bird Celtics dynasty was getting started. In a first round series in 1983, the Hawks gave the favored Celtics all they could handle and more, including Tree Rollins biting Danny Ainge during a melee. They met again in the 1988 Conference Semifinals and it came down to a thrilling game seven mano-a-mano battle between Wilkins and Bird. Wilkins was awe-inspiring in game seven, finishing with 47 points on 19-of-33 shooting, Bird responded with 20 points in the fourth quarter, willing his team to a 118-116 win.The teams didn’t meet again in the playoffs again until 2008, when the Celtics appropriately won in seven games en route to another title.

11) 76ers vs. Bucks, 1981-1991

76ers vs. Celtics gets the headlines but this was the true Eastern Conference rivalry of the ’80s. It started in 1981, when the Sixers were nearly unbeatable at home at The Spectrum. Milwaukee found out the hard way, losing all four games in Philly in a Conference Semifinals loss. That included a devastating game seven where the Bucks erased an 18-point second half deficit only to lose by two points. The Bucks finally won a playoff game in Philadelphia in the 1982 Conference Semifinals rematch but it wasn’t enough as the 76ers advanced again in six games. When Milwaukee upset the Celtics in the 1983 playoffs, guess who was waiting in the Conference Finals? A 76ers squad that was one of the greatest in NBA history and defeated the Bucks in five games. Say this for Milwaukee, their one win in that series was the only playoff defeat the Sixers suffered that year. The tides seemed like they’d finally turn in 1985 when the Bucks entered the Conference Semifinals as favorites. But the aging Sixers had one last bit of magic left and swept Milwaukee in an upset. When the Bucks got the upper hand on Philadelphia in the 1986 playoffs, it hardly felt like an accomplishment. Heavily favored against a overmatched Sixers team missing Moses Malone to injury, the Bucks still needed the full seven games to advance, surviving when a Julius Erving buzzer beater went awry in the winner-take-all battle.

12) Knicks vs. Nets, 1976-Current
13) Lakers vs. Clippers, 1984-2013, 2018-?

Like familiarity, adjacency tends to breed sports contempt. Just ask anyone who grew up with siblings. The big brother-little brother dynamics in these two rivalries were apparent from the beginning. The Knicks began their domination of the Nets before the latter have even played an NBA game. Based in Long Island at the time, the Nets had won the final ABA title in 1976 and seemed potentially formidable post-merger. But the Knicks used their influence with the league office to hamper Nets ownership with an “invasion” fee, forcing them to sell Julius Erving and struggle financially for years. When owner Ray Boe decided to relocate to New Jersey in a cost cutting measure, the Knicks threw in one final insult by levying a fee for the rights to move. This imbalance reflected in the standings for quite a while. Though the Nets have always played the Knicks about even in head-to-head regular season matchups, New York had 18 playoff series wins over their first quarter century as rivals, compared to the Nets’ one. Things shifted in the ’00s as the Nets made back-to-back NBA Finals just as James Dolan was beginning to decimate the Knicks’ reputation. But even with the Nets recent relocation to Brooklyn, there’s no doubt the Knicks have always been the kings of the New York area. They still have all the celebrity fans, all the biggest free agent and trade rumors, and remain shorthand for basketball in New York.

For a long time, the Lakers and Clippers were rivals only insomuch as they shared a zip code and played each other several times a year. Following their 1981 move to Los Angeles from San Diego, it took the Clippers 10 games to beat the Lakers and 10 years to beat them on their home court in The Forum. The Clippers had their own stadium then… well, sort of, as they shared the Memorial Sports Arena with USC. In 1999, Clippers owner Donald Sterling was able to basically blackmail the city of L.A. into forcing the Lakers to share their newly opened Staples Center. Though they were ostensible co-habitants, there was no doubt who the true home team was. The Lakers got the bigger locker room, all the banners in the rafters (the Clippers had never even won a division title at that point), and their signature purple-and-gold color scheme in the seating. Over their first 40 seasons together in Los Angeles, the Lakers won 106 out of the 138 games they played against the Clippers. In that same span, the Lakers earned six championships while the Clippers made four playoff appearances period. While the Clippers have finally overtaken the Lakers as the better team in Los Angeles in the last few years, they still lack any accomplishments of note, having never advanced past the second round of the playoffs. And this brief upper hand from the Clippers has likely come to an end with LeBron James now donning purple and gold for the foreseeable future.