It has been nearly five full calendar years since the Los Angeles Lakers won their last NBA championship. They won it under strange circumstances, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to complete the 2019-20 season and hold the playoffs inside of the Walt Disney World Resort bubble.
Because there were no fans in attendance in the bubble, not to mention no traveling, many critics have questioned the legitimacy of L.A.’s world title. Others, however, have said it was a very difficult championship to win, if not the hardest ever, because of the stringent health and safety protocols that were in effect.
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Podcaster Zach Lowe said that not only is the Lakers’ 2020 championship legitimate, but he also claimed that critics attack its legitimacy only it was the Lakers and LeBron James who earned it.
“If any other team and any other superstar had won that title, there would be none of this crap. Every team went there under the same circumstances, every team, same challenges, same circumstances, same hotels, same travel circumstances. One team won. And yet we continue to hear this… I think it’s totally legit. It’s different. That kind of makes it cool to me. It’s a real title. Stop disparaging it, everybody, it’s a real title.”
Earlier this summer, Philadelphia 76ers executive Daryl Morey stated that everyone he spoke with around the NBA “privately agrees that it doesn’t truly hold up as a genuine championship.” Phil Handy, a key assistant coach for Los Angeles during that 2019-20 season, fired back at Morey’s claim.
Back then, Morey was the general manager of the Houston Rockets, who went 44-28 and finished fourth in the Western Conference during the 2019-20 campaign. The Rockets barely got past the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the 2020 playoffs, and they took Game 1 of the second round from the Lakers before falling to James and crew in five games.
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This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Podcaster reacts to Lakers 2020 championship narrative