History TheRival / Sports

* [[https://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/ryan_rivalries.html The Wilt Chamberlain/Bill Russell rivalry]]

* For a long time, there was even less love between Kobe Bryant and Creator/ShaquilleONeal--The Other Wiki has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaq–Kobe_feud its own article]] on their relationship, or lack thereof. However, by the end of Shaq's career, things began to improve between them, and this trend continued in the final years of Kobe's career.

** Liverpool vs. Everton a.k.a. 'the Friendly Derby'. It got the name for off-pitch reasons - it's the only derby that doesn't enforce fan segregation, since fans of both teams can usually be found in the same family, sometimes even players: Steven Gerrard was a legendary Liverpool captain, while his cousin, Anthony Gerrard, came up through the Everton academy system, but left before playing a senior game for them. Indeed, sometimes players grow up supporting the other team, as with Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher, a boyhood Everton fan. However, ''on'' the pitch, it's the single dirtiest fixture in top-flight history.

*** Liverpool vs Chelsea after the Abramovich takeover and up to the early [[TheNewTens New Tens]], largely thanks to several classic Champions League encounters and a bitter personal rivalry between Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez and Chelsea Manager José Mourinho. Ironically, Benítez would go on to manage Chelsea, while Mourinho would end up managing Liverpool's arch-rivals Manchester United (and get sacked after a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool).

** El Clásico: Barcelona and Real Madrid are THE most famous [[ArchEnemy Arch-enemies]] in club football.

** Celta Vigo vs. Deportivo La Coruña, though this also died down recently after Deportivo's collapse

* Some sports rivalries, including 99% of all college sports, don't include the "respect" part. In the case of rivalries like Auburn-Alabama (Auburn famously won their 2013 football matchup), Ohio State-Michigan, Duke-North Carolina (mainly in basketball, where their teams are usually much better), Cal-Stanford (Stanford to this day still contests how their 1982 football matchup ended), UCLA-USC, Cincinnati–Xavier (mainly in basketball; XU hasn't played football since the mid-70s), or Arizona-Arizona State, there's nothing but pure hatred. "Sports rivalry" just has a better ring to it than [[ArchEnemy "sports arch-enemyship"]]. The Other Wiki has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_rivalry#United_States an incomplete list of the many intercollegiate sports rivalries in the U.S.]] Though a fairly comprehensive list can be seen here at [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball our page for College American Football]].

* Soccer-wise, there's a well-established rivalry between Brazil and Argentina. Others with large traction include Portugal-Spain, Netherlands-Germany, England-Argentina, Mexico–USA, and Japan-South Korea.

** New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox, the most famous (and possibly most terrifying) of them all. In terms of World Series titles, it's incredibly lopsided. The Red Sox were one of the top teams in the early days of baseball, having won 5 of the first 15 World Series played (to the Yankees' 0)...and then the Yankees managed to win '''26''' before the Red Sox got their 6th, which came in the ''100th'' World Series played (which Boston got to by famously overcoming a 3-0 deficit against the Yankees). (It now stands at 27-9.) Even with the lengthy drought, however, the Red Sox' 9 titles stands as tied for third most with the Philadelphia/Oakland Athletics. (The two are also both among the most successful at winning the World Series when they get there--the Yankees winning 68% of World Series they've been in, the Red Sox 69%. Only the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are 71% successful at 5-for-7 (one victory and one defeat coming against the Yankees), and a few expansion teams that have 100% success rates but only 1 or 2 appearances (such as Arizona and the Miami, both of whom also beat the Yankees at least once), are better.)

* Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson faced each other in the 1979 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship game (still the highest-rated game in the history of televised college basketball). They both entered the NBA that year, each landing with one of the NBA's bell cow franchises (Bird with the Boston Celtics, Johnson with the Los Angeles Lakers). Between 1980 and 1991, eleven of the twelve championship finals featured Bird's Celtics' (three wins) or Magic's Lakers (five wins), meeting each other three times (the Lakers taking two of three). The Bird/Magic rivalry is often credited from saving the NBA (before Bird and Magic, the NBA finals were notorious for being shown on late-night tape delay). Ironically the two of them were friends ''off'' the court (having befriended each other filming a commercial that capitalized on their rivalry, no less), with Johnson attending Bird's retirement ceremony and Bird serving as Johnson's presenter during Magic's Hall of Fame induction.
** Lakers-Celtics is a similar rivalry, as both are the most successful teams of the league - both teams have 17 championships, are located in opposite coasts (though it started locally, as the Lakers were in Minneapolis) and made a staggering 12 finals against each other (9-3 to the Celtics so far).

* [[http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/ryan_rivalries.html The Wilt Chamberlain/Bill Russell rivalry]]
* Nearly ''30'' UsefulNotes/{{tennis}} rivalries have their own pages on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]. Just to name a few...

*** Manchester United vs. Leeds United. Although this died down after Leeds' epic collapse in the 2000's, and following Leeds' return to the top flight, only they really take it seriously.

*** [[PunnyName El Tráfico]] is the intra-city derby for Los Angeles, contested by LA Galaxy originally with Chivas USA, and today with Los Angeles FC.