BOSTON -- As Lakers coach Byron Scott gritted his teeth through another postgame press conference, this time after a 113-96 loss to their equally struggling rivals, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge stopped to ask, "Want to get some breakfast?"
He was joking, of course, about Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bryant sharing a morning meal at The Paramount in Boston on Thursday, a concept that might have seemed absurd when Ainge's Celtics and Scott's Lakers split four straight trips to the NBA Finals from 1984-87.
It's a different NBA landscape nowadays -- what with AAU, shared agents and summer workouts making bros out of foes more than ever before -- and it's a different rivalry.
"We've had our battles, but it doesn't carry over," Bryant said after his team fell to 5-15 on the season. "The stone-throwing and all that doesn't carry over to these types of games."
There were times when two straight wins over the Pistons and Lakers meant something -- in 1987 and 2008, when Boston beat Detroit in the conference finals before splitting two more titles with L.A. -- and both Bryant and Rondo are old enough now to reminisce.
"We just kind of talked about the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons," Rondo said of his now notorious breakfast with Bryant, "him being a leader, leading a lot of young guys this year, and me doing the same thing, the struggles he's going through, the struggles I'm going through as far as leading this team and just how to handle it."
For more on the Celtics, visit weei.com/celtics.
