Rivalries are not a thing in the NBA because the NBA didn’t really pop off in terms of popularity until the Magic/Bird era. There are rival teams but because the history of the modern era is quite young and very few teams have actually had multiple playoff battles with one another, it doesn’t feel like there are many rivalries yet. The lack of parity didn’t help either in growing rivalries over the years. I think rivalries will grow now especially with the addition of the play in tournament.
Rivalries are not a thing in the NBA because the NBA didn’t really pop off in terms of popularity until the Magic/Bird era. There are rival teams but because the history of the modern era is quite young and very few teams have actually had multiple playoff battles with one another, it doesn’t feel like there are many rivalries yet. The lack of parity didn’t help either in growing rivalries over the years. I think rivalries will grow now especially with the addition of the play in tournament.