Up next for Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics? An familiar rival. The Philadelphia 76ers./AP Photo.

Whenever these two teams met in the 1980s, it was classic.

Bird vs. Dr. J. McHale vs. Barkley. Moses vs. Parish.

Go back even further to the 1960s. Legends emerged.

Wilt vs. Russell. Havlicek vs. Greer. Jones vs. Walker.

On Saturday, the Sixers and Celtics will renew their rivalry in the Eastern Conference semifinals as the two teams haven’t faced each in the postseason since 2002 when the first round was still a best-of-5 series.

Boston won 3-2.

Who will take this series and likely face Miami in the conference finals?

Go Green.

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Ivan Johnson's first NBA season ended with the Boston Celtics beating the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, but he'll be remembered for more./AP Photo

Ivan Johnson is out.

So is Mike James. Include Blake Ahearn as well.

The three former Erie BayHawks are on NBA teams that have been eliminated from the playoffs. Last night, the Boston Celtics escaped the Atlanta Hawks, 83-80, to win Game 6 and the series, 4-2.

Johnson has been with the Hawks all season. Not playing in Game 6, Johnson gave a fan the middle finger as he left the TD Garden court in Boston.

There were better ways for him to end the season.  After having a great year with Erie in 2010-11, Johnson, for the most part, took advantage of his first NBA season, but didn’t end it graciously.

Before the Celtics eliminated the Hawks, the Philadelphia 76ers pulled out a miraculous 79-78 win in which Andre Iguodala hit a game winning free throws with 2.2 seconds left.

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No one was more fun to watch in college basketball last season than Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall.

Let’s take a look at the first five picks of Thursday’s 2010 NBA Draft and see what they bring to the table.

1. Washington Wizards – John Wall (6-4, PG, Kentucky).
Strengths: Gifted athete, playmaker and brings size to PG position. Weaknesses: Needs to improve FT (Shot 75.4 percent at Kentucky), inexperience.
Impact on Wizards: Not only will he bring fans to the arena, Wall gives Washington a player they can immediately build around and put past troubles with the franchise.

2. Philadelphia 76ers – Evan Turner (6-7, SG/SF, Ohio State).
Strengths: Clutch, seasoned (played three years in college) and shoots a  high percentage  (shot 51.9 percent from the field last season). Weaknesses: Turnover prone and not as explosive around the rim in terms of finishing in traffic.
Impact on 76ers: Will have to play small forward, but teaming up with Andre Iguodala will give the 76ers two very good perimeter defenders. Has a very competitive edge, which Philadelphia has lacked in recent years.

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Nike has this new commercial featuring four NBA players. I recognized one right off the bat – Kevin Durant.

Took me a while to identify Andre Iguodala and Rashard Lewis, but the fourth guy? I’m saying to myself, who is this cat with the jheri curl?

Since the commercial is so long, I finally figured it out.

Mo Williams. Fog Raw? Six fingers? Wow. He’s made the come up since coming to Cleveland during last off season, but that wig has got to go.

Guard Andre Iguodala rocks the old-school uniforms well for the high-energy Philadelphia 76ers.

That’s how the Philadelphia 76ers should look from now on.

Their other jerseys are hideous. No need to even waste my blog space showing them.

Particularly those black ones. Ugh.

From now on, they should rock these old school uniforms. Philadelphia wore them back the 1980s when it had Julius “Dr. J.” Erving, Moses Malone and Bobby Jones.

It’s hard to believe Philadelphia hasn’t won a world championship since 1983 when it swept Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Allen Iverson got the Sixers back in the NBA Finals in 2001, but they lost to the Lakers in five games.

This year’s 76ers (40-35) aren’ t championship contenders, but they may make some serious noise in this year’s playoffs.

If Philadelphia can get the 5th seed, it will likely take on Atlanta, but the Sixers are only 2-1/2 games behind the Hawks for the fourth playoff spot. So that’s not out of reach.

If the 76ers can get home-court advantage in that first-round series, they can beat the Hawks and set up a potential Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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