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| Dates | April 4–9 | |||||||||
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| Hall of Famers | Celtics: Bob Cousy (1971) Bill Russell (1975) Bill Sharman (1976, player/2004, coach) Tom Heinsohn (1986, player/2015, coach) Frank Ramsey (1982) Lakers: Vern Mikkelsen (1995) Elgin Baylor (1977) Coaches: Red Auerbach (1969) John Kundla (1995) | |||||||||
| Eastern finals | Celtics defeated Nationals, 4–3 | |||||||||
| Western finals | Lakers defeated Hawks, 4–2 | |||||||||
The 1959 NBA Finals, then known as the 1959 NBA World Championship Series, was the championship series of the 1958–59 National Basketball Association season, and was the conclusion of the 1959 NBA Playoffs. The best-of-seven series was played between the Western Division champion Minneapolis Lakers and the Eastern Division champion Boston Celtics. It was Boston's third trip to the NBA Finals and Minneapolis's sixth. This was the first Finals meeting in the history of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, marking the start of the storied rivalry between the two franchises.
The Celtics swept the Lakers 4–0. This was the start of the streak of the Celtics' eight consecutive championships, from 1959 to 1966. To date, this is the most recent time that an NBA team from Minnesota appeared in an NBA Finals, as well as the first of two times in NBA history that a team with a losing record made the NBA Finals (the other was in 1981).