Ever since LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2020 NBA championship inside the league’s Orlando, Fla. bubble, plenty of people have discredited it since it came under abnormal circumstances.
The four-month break while the 2019-20 season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the lack of fans in the bubble has made many feel that the Lakers’ championship is somehow illegitimate.
In fact, former NBA player Evan Turner seemingly threw some shade at James by saying if there’s ever another postseason played in a bubble, the championship trophy given out should be named after him.
It’s impossible to assume that had the pandemic never happened, the Lakers wouldn’t have won it all. Some believe that if the four-month break never happened, either James or Anthony Davis would’ve suffered a major injury, which is also impossible to prove and inaccurate to assume.
Los Angeles lost their 2019-20 season opener to the Los Angeles Clippers, the team that many were picking to win the world title in the beginning. During that contest, James and company looked very outmatched.
But after that, the Lakers won 24 of their next 26 games and gradually started to look like the team to beat. Little by little, it started to feel like it was their year.
Right before the season was suspended, they made a major statement to the rest of the NBA by defeating the Milwaukee Bucks, who had the league’s best record at the time, and the Clippers in a 48-hour span.
Once play resumed in Orlando, Fla., the Lakers picked up right where they left off, holding a 3-1 lead in each playoff series. It all culminated in their 17th Larry O’Brien Trophy with a Game 6 win over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
James took home his fourth championship series MVP award in the process and added to his already impressive legacy. He recently made it clear that winning a fifth ring is more important to him than becoming the league’s all-time leading scorer.
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