According To Daryl Morey, The Lakers 2020 Title From The Bubble Has An Asterisk And Nobody Inside NBA Circles Thinks It's A Genuine Championship

Want a bit of a mindfuck? Today marks the 5 year anniversary of the NBA taking their talents to Disney World for the Bubble. Remember that shit? What a wild time in life. If we're being honest, even all this time later, my brain is still mush when it comes to trying to remember anything from like 2020-2022. That may as well have been 25 years ago, as my concept of time has been all fucked up ever since the entire world shut down back then. I feel like I'm not alone in that.

Given that today was the first day we had NBA games in the Bubble, the Athletic did a bit of a round table of players, coaches, and NBA executives who lived through it that was actually pretty interesting

If you have the time I suggest giving it a read, but for the sake of this blog, I'd like to focus on one of the answers given by Sixers GM Daryl Morey

“Had the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required. Yet, everyone I speak to around the league privately agrees that it doesn’t truly hold up as a genuine championship. Perhaps the lasting legacy of the NBA bubble is that the NBA should be proud of its leadership at both the beginning and end of the pandemic, even though the champion will forever be marked by an asterisk.”

Let me begin by being very clear about something. There are few things in this world that I despise more than the Los Angeles Lakers. Until my final breath on this planet, I will be praying for their downfall. There is nothing that pains me more than saying anything nice about them or giving them any sort of credit. It sickens me really. 

But I am nothing if I am not honest, and frankly, how their 2020 title is discussed is pathetic. When people talk about the Bubble, the first thing you hear them say is that the 2020 title has an "asterisk". Frankly, asterisk talk when it comes to NBA titles might be the dumbest thing basketball fans do. It's all mostly from butthurt fanbases that are just insecure that their favorite team either lost or hasn't won a title altogether. Grow up. We see it every year, regardless of who wins. It's pathetic.

When it comes to the Bubble, that's probably the year in recent history you hear this take the most, and as Daryl Morey is showing us, even he and others inside NBA circles feel the same way. I'll be honest, this comes off as extreme loser shit to me. The fuck does Daryl Morey know about a "genuine championship"? Discrediting the accomplishments of others when it's something you've been unable to achieve yourself is lame. Not only that, I actually push back on the entire narrative surrounding the Bubble season/playoffs.

Sure, it was different as there was no travel and no fans, but so what? Everyone had to play under the same circumstances. There were new challenges presented during that time that you don't see in a normal NBA season, so why shouldn't that matter? Players unable to see their family, all the bullshit when it came to the Covid rules and testing, having to spend a few months in a hotel etc. All of that stuff matters. Not only that, the basketball we saw was awesome. I would argue it was some of the purest hoops we've seen. No bullshit, just basketball. 

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Not to mention all the players talked about how it was one of the toughest seasons/playoffs, it's pretty obvious the narrative around that title is what it is because of who won it. Do I love that the Lakers won that title? Heavens no. It makes me want to vomit actually. But Morey's quote is exactly what I'm talking about. It would have been legit to him if his team won it, but because they didn't, he doesn't take it seriously. That's kind of pathetic.

Again, I don't want to stick up for the Lakers and that 2020 title, but I don't see how a title can't be genuine if it was won while every team had to deal with the same circumstances. It was "different" than a normal season/playoff run sure, but so were the lockout seasons. So was 2020-21 which had a short as hell offseason, a shorter season, and had players being held out left and right (including the playoffs) due to the Covid testing rules. That doesn't make the Bucks' 2021 title less "genuine" than any of the titles that have followed once things got back to normal. 

I dunno, maybe I'm alone in this line of thinking. The hater in me wants to hop on the train of invalidating the Lakers' season/title, but I sure as shit know had the Celts not blown the ECF against MIA and won their 18th banner in the Bubble that I would view it as perfectly legit, so credit to me for being consistent.