In the year of COVID, civil unrest, and lockdown restrictions, the Los Angeles Lakers somehow found a way to prevail. In what was, arguably, the strangest season in league history, it was LeBron James who led the Purple and Gold to the top and he has been trying desperately to get them back there ever since.
Looking back, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions on that 2020 season as far too many variables were at play. Still, it hasn’t stopped fans from calling it the easiest title run ever.
But in a chat with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks, Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray argued the opposite.
Jamal Murray Adds Weight To Lakers’ 2020 Bubble Championship
According to Murray, the lack of distractions in the bubble itself (during the playoffs in Orlando, specifically) put the game in its purest form.
“I think that was the highest level of basketball being played, because it was only basketball,” Murray told Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks. “Guys were so locked in. You go to the gym. You have shootaround. You eat. You play. Win or lose, you’re in your room or you go back to the gym.”
“That was the highest basketball being played, because it was only basketball.”
Jamal Murray describes how players were LOCKED IN during the NBA Bubble 🔒 pic.twitter.com/VfxJ2Fr7XZ
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 5, 2022
While there are many haters and doubters who completely disagree with Murray here, there are also plenty of people who share his view, including former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas.
In a scene on his podcast, he explained why he feels that the 2020 championship was actually the hardest to win, not the easiest.
“People are like man that was the easiest championship. I say technically, technically that is the hardest championship because it’s LeBron [James] and the Lakers,” Arenas said. “Now, when you think about the fan base of the Laker team and a LeBron team, every arena they would have went it in, he was fan favorite. So when you are in a Bubble, it took the fans’ favorite out of them. Now you don’t get booed at your own home.”
The bubble season will always be remembered in the NBA history books. It was a time of uncertainty for the entire world, and not even the game of basketball went untouched.
People will always have their own opinions on that run and the level of difficulty involved in pulling it off. But a win is a win, and it counts just as much as all the others for the Purple and Gold.
