76ers–Celtics rivalry
National Basketball Association rivalry
The 76ers–Celtics rivalry is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics. The two teams have the most meetings in the NBA playoffs; they have played each other in 23 series (and the 1954 Eastern Division Round Robin), with the Celtics winning 15 of them. The 76ers are considered to be the Celtics' second biggest rival, behind only the Los Angeles Lakers.
History
Celtics–Nationals rivalry
The Syracuse Nationals and Boston Celtics played in the Eastern Division in the 1950s. The Nationals beat the Celtics in three straight playoff series in 1954, 1955, and 1956, winning the NBA Championship in 1955. After the 1956 season the Celtics traded for Bill Russell and drafted K.C. Jones, both of whom starred and won Championships at the University of San Francisco. Also adding Tom Heinsohn with a territorial pick, the Celtics would win their next three playoff series against the Nationals in the playoffs (1957, 1959, and 1961) before the Nationals were sold and moved to Philadelphia.
Chamberlain and Russell
In 1963, the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia and became the 76ers (also known as the Sixers), renewing the basketball rivalry between Philadelphia and Boston (from when the Warriors had been in Philadelphia). Shortly after the All-Star break in 1965, the Sixers acquired Wilt Chamberlain from the Warriors, bringing the Chamberlain/Russell matchup back into the rivalry as well.
The Celtics and Sixers met in the Eastern Division Finals that season with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line.
The public source identifies “76ers–Celtics rivalry” as national Basketball Association rivalry. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around 76ers, Celtics and rivalry.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5058570. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957.
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This entry incorporates text from “76ers–Celtics rivalry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.