AJ Neuharth-Keusch

USA TODAY Sports

Ah, the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers rivalry. Twelve Finals meetings. At least five of the 10 greatest players of all time. A half-century of history.

There was the 1960s — when the rivalry was formed. Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Sam and K.C. Jones, et al, willed the Celtics to nine championships, six of which came at the expense of a Lakers team headlined by Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and, at the tail end of the era, Wilt Chamberlain. The Celtics' dominant decade was capped off in 1969 when, despite the 5,000 championship balloons ready to fall from The Forum's rafters, Don Nelson hit a late-game jumper to give the Celtics another title.

And the 1980s — when the rivalry was reborn. The Showtime Lakers, featuring Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott and A.C. Green, met the likes of Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge in the Finals on three separate occasions. The Lakers won two of the showdowns (1985 and '87), putting an end to the Celtics' hex, and by the time it was all said and done, another decade was ruled by these two franchises.

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"When you think back to the '80s, there wasn't anything like that for that decade," Green, who won three championships with the Lakers and holds the NBA record for consecutive games played (1,192), told USA TODAY Sports. "It brought fans to the sport of basketball worldwide. It was great to see and be a part of something like that — when you have great coaches, great players, great ownership, and then obviously great history."

And of course, most recently, the 2000s — when the rivalry was rekindled. In the 2008 and 2010 Finals, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol's Lakers met Boston's modern era Big Three of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. The Celtics won the first Finals series in six games — a 39-point rout at TD Garden, while the Lakers won the second — a down-to-the-wire, four-point victory at the Staples Center.

So on Friday night, when the red-hot Celtics (31-18) host the struggling Lakers (17-35) at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN, we can't help but remember the good ol' days, when the most storied rivalry in NBA history was alive and well.

"Our rivalry with the Celtics defines, epitomizes, what a rivalry really is," Green said. "You've got to have teams that are successful, both love to win, which obviously quantifies being successful, but then there's a fierce, competitive nature that is just instilled in the fiber of the teams. I think we epitomize that, as far as the history."

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But even though this matchup is far from marquee — the Celtics are looking to chip away at the 2 1/2 game lead the Cleveland Cavaliers have at the top of the East, while the Lakers are looking for just their sixth win of 2017 — there's still some history riding on the result.

Both franchises have accumulated an NBA-record 3,252 regular season wins throughout their decades of dominance, so the team that comes out on top Friday night will become the winningest team in NBA history.

How fitting.

Follow AJ Neuharth-Keusch on Twitter @tweetAJNK