When I was a young, Los Angeles versus New York sports championships happened fairly often.

And they were intense.

The Dodgers and the Yankees met in the World Series in 1963, 1977, 1978 and 1981.

The Lakers and Knicks met in the NBA Finals in 1971 and 1972. (And, a reader reminds me, in 1970.)

Those events included cross-country sniping. Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times (who seemed to like nothing more than trashing cities) poking fun at New York. Dave Anderson or Red Smith of the New York Times firing back. Or sometimes firing first.

It seems a little strange now, looking back, that LA versus NYC would be such a big deal.

That 1981 World Series was the last time teams from the nation’s biggest cities met with something important at stake. Until this week, when the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers begin arriving in the championship series of the Stanley Cup finals.

And, actually, I wasn’t very much into this, until the Wall Street Journal (of all newspapers) printed a fun (but also a bit acerbic) humor piece “explaining” Los Angeles to New Yorkers.

A couple of my favorites:

–Built on a haunted former go-kart track, Los Angeles was founded in March 2007 by Nicole Richie and Adrian Grenier, the guy from “Entourage”.

–The greater metropolitan Los Angeles area is home to 3.8 million people, at least 53 of whom have never been on “Ellen”.

–Its principle industries are sequels, vanity and valet parking.

–Professional hockey came to the city last October as part of the NBC fall lineup.

A few decades ago, we might have been tempted to fire back, but now?

We probably need the Kings and Rangers to have a competitive series, with a few cheap shots involved, and some trash talk from players.

It was simpler, half a century ago. Los Angeles hated New York (for being snotty New York), and New York hated Los Angeles (for taking the Dodgers from Brooklyn).

Perhaps one of the greatest weeks of my childhood was when the Dodgers swept the Yankees in the 1963 World Series.

And I remember being annoyed when the Yankees (remember the infamous Reggie Jackson ball-blocking “hip check”?) defeated the Dodgers in the 1977 and 1978 World Series …

But I don’t remember being as satisfied as I could have been when Fernando Valenzuela and the Dodgers won the 1981 World Series. (I think it may have been a function of a strike-shortened season.)

And the two run-ins with the Knicks in the early 1970s … they just paled in comparison to the white-hot hate we felt for the Boston Celtics.

Reviving the rivalry , then, is in the hands of the Kings and Rangers.

Otherwise, New York will reserve its deepest loathing for Boston and Los Angeles will save its bile for San Francisco.

Over time, proximity makes for hard feelings; distance, not as much.