The Boston Celtics broadcast took a shot at their longtime NBA rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, by comparing how many championships both franchises have.

Last season, the Celtics claimed an 18th NBA Championship with a 4-1 Finals series win over the Dallas Mavericks. Jayson Tatum and Co’s triumph also pushed Boston one clear of the Lakers, who also had 17 NBA Championships before the Finals victory.

During the Celtics‘ 2024/25 NBA season opener, Boston’s broadcast team decided to highlight the NBA Championship separation between the two. They highlighted the number of NBA Championships that the Lakers have in gold, while their 18 sits at the top of the pile.

However, some NBA fans have pushed back and asked how many of the Celtics’ rings came in the modern era. “It took this team 16 years to win its first ring in a while after flexing all their ancient rings,” one said. “Celtics won most of their rings when it was 8 teams in the NBA,” another said.

“Bodied the Lakers, they won’t go back to back though,” a third said. On the night, the Celtics remained focused on the court and blew away the New York Knicks.

Boston won 132-109, with Tatum leading the way with a game-high 37 points. Tatum also put up 10 assists and had four rebounds, a stellar performance by the guard, who played a limited role for Team USA in the summer during their Paris Olympics campaign, where they retained the gold medal.

The blowout win over the Knicks is a strong statement of intent as the new NBA campaign starts. Tatum says the Celtics are looking to go back-to-back. “I know we not supposed to talk about repeating, but the fans got so excited,” he said. “So I was like —- it, let’s do it again.”

The Celtics are the reigning NBA champions and have 18 championships

The Celtics are the reigning NBA champions and have 18 championships ( 

Image:

Getty)

With the game out of the Knicks’ stretch, the Celtics tried to break the NBA record for 3-pointers made in a game but ultimately failed. “It was almost like we got jinxed or something,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said.

“It was like when we were just playing, having fun, playing our style of basketball, everything was going in. And then once the crowd got into it and we started hunting them, we couldn’t even hit the broad side of the barn. Everything was off. We got a bunch of great looks, and it was like a lid on the basket.

“So that just shows, like, we’re not a team that’s hunting 3s. We play the game and we do what we’re supposed to do, but I think towards the end it was tough because we wasn’t playing the way we had normally played. But we still had a bunch of great looks.”