To this day, people continue to attack the credibility of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020 NBA championship because it came during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and inside the Walt Disney World Resort bubble. But there are players who know how difficult it was to win that title because of the conditions and restrictions within the bubble environment.
Danny Green was a key 3-and-D player on that victorious Lakers team who already had two championship rings. He said in a video for Bleacher Report that for him, it was the toughest world title he won.
“It was by far the hardest championship that I had to achieve,” Green said. “To make that adjustment playing through COVID, having your family and friends not really there, not being able to even celebrate it properly. We went to the same restaurant that we go to every day and celebrated as a team but, after that, no real parade. So, it was just different. In the bubble, a lot of different things were going on where the walls start closing in on you mentally and emotionally. It was a hard-fought win. Also the physical task of every other day playing, which wears on you. By far the hardest because, again, mentally taxing.”
As Green alluded to, there were strict rules about allowing friends and family members into the bubble, and one cannot underestimate the impact that had on players. There were also strict rules about where players could go between games, and the fact that their movement was somewhat restricted added to the tension.
He also said there was another factor that made winning that championship difficult: the death of Lakers great Kobe Bryant, which occurred in January 2020.
“It might’ve been the only year that I was a favorite to win it,” Green said. “… As a Laker, with that magnifying glass and that microscope on us throughout the whole year, brought a lot of heat and a lot of attention. And being the No. 1 seed and all the guys that we signed, you’re expected to win. You’re expected to do it.
“Everybody’s critiquing you from the major media to the small-market media to people with fake accounts. There was definitely a — I wouldn’t say a huge amount of pressure, but added pressure following Kobe’s death and then of course when they brought in the Mamba jerseys and wearing that Mamba jersey.
“It was sleek. It was nice. It was my favorite jersey of all time. Fire jersey, but it came with a little bit of extra pressure on top. And then from that point on, it was like we weren’t just playing for ourselves.”
The Lakers won each playoff series that year decisively. They knocked off the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets in that order in the first three rounds in five games each. They then got past the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals in six games to claim their championship.
As far as the league was concerned, the bubble was a huge success. When it was first announced that the season would resume at Walt Disney World Resort, people were skeptical that transmission of the novel coronavirus into the bubble could be prevented. But everyone was kept safe, and that year’s playoffs offered America a welcome respite from one of the worst overall years anyone could remember.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Danny Green: Lakers’ 2020 title was ‘by far the hardest championship’
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire | USA TODAY Network
