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BOSTON -- When you look at the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers now, it's hard to imagine there being much a rivalry once Kobe Bryant retires at the end of this season.

But the Lakers forward is sure it will continue despite the lack of star power. It just might not rekindle soon.

"I think one thing we can all trust as sports fans is you can trust the sports gods are going to line these teams up again," Bryant said before his final game in Boston on Wednesday. "It's going to happen. You go back to (Bill) Russell, Wes (Matthews), and Magic (Johnson) and (Larry) Bird. It's going to happen. That's just how sports are. Whether its 20 years from now or it's 30 years from now, who knows, but its going to happen, and when it does we'll all sit back and enjoy it."

So while it doesn't look as though these two teams will be meeting in the NBA Finals in the near future, we can be sure it'll happen again someday.

Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images