You guys truly struggle seeing things broad view.
Yankees aren't JUST the best from their titles, it's their players. Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig, Maris, Mattingly, Jeter, Mo, A-Rod Greats of the greats.
Lakers throw the rest of the NBA in the garbage with West, Baylor, Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Worthy, Shaq, Kobe This is the who's who of the NBA.
What you guys keep confusing with the whole "put that stat up in 50 more years" well, that'll be easy, because the game only been around 64 years, and 59 of them the Lakers were in the hunt at least. It ain't gonna stop now. 'Nother 50 years we'll be just fine.
The Celtics are clearly great, but all that work they did in a 10 team NBA in the 50's and 60's dried up rather quick. Since 75, they have what, 5 titles or something like that? They did 11 in less than 2 decades, and 6 the next 4 decades. They went from 86 to 08 from titles, and several of those years they did less than nothing. They were a high lottery team multiple times, Lakers haven't been in the lottery on their own since I don't even know when. Magic and Worthy were #1 picks that we made trades to get, not sucked so bad we got top picks. Hell, even when we "bottom out" after Magic and Shaq, we got the 10th pick, and turned those to Eddie Jones and Bynum.
Some teams draft #1-2 and can't get players better than Jones or Bynum.
It's not a knock on the Yankees at all, and I do understand the 17>16 argument side of Boston vs Lakers, but as I have pointed out, all that work came before the true foundation of the NBA was built. The Celts got all their work done before any other franchises had even popped up to compete against. Lakers been around every year, every decade. Hence the Yankee comparison.