NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joined The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night and played a game where he settled various debates, either basketball related or not.
One of the debates centered around the best hot dog topping. Abdul-Jabbar surprised Fallon and the audience when he gave his quick response.
“The tears of the 1985 Celtics when they lost to the Lakers in the finals,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
Although this specific NBA title was Abdul-Jabbar’s fourth out of his six rings, the 1985 series obviously meant a lot to him. He also won his second NBA Finals MVP award that year. This was the first time in his career that he beat the Celtics in the Finals after facing them two previous times in the ‘80s. The two teams went on to face each other again that decade in ‘87, when the Lakers pulled off another title.
Boston was seen as the Lakers’ biggest rival during that era of basketball. The 19-time All-Star has been previously outspoken about how the 1985 title “made his career.”
“We finally beat the Celtics,” Abdul-Jabbar said previously, via Sportscasting. “The Laker–Celtics thing was dead now because we went up there and whooped them in Boston Garden. We were the only team to win a championship in Boston Garden other than the Boston Celtics. They got to live with that forever. That’s awesome. That made my career. It was that good to me. I enjoyed 1985, and I’m still enjoying it.”
