The Lakers fell face-first in this season of the NBA. Just around 20 or so months after winning an NBA championship, the Lakers failed to qualify for the play-in tournament. They ended their season as the 11th seed which concluded their worst season in recent times. In fact, it was one of the worst seasons of their history. Despite a quality season individually from LeBron James, the Lakers in no way did any justice to that.
Frank Vogel had his first season with the Lakers behind closed doors because of Covid-19 restrictions. He led them as their head coach in 2020. The Lakers won the NBA championships without fans in the arena. However, there are people who ‘discredit’ that season just because the pressure to perform because of the unavailability of fans was less. Patrick Beverley is one of those people.
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JJ Redick praised the Lakers for the talent they had which won them the championship. Pat Bev interrupted in between and kind of decreased the value of that title-winning run.
ALSO READ: NBA Twitter Calls Out LeBron James After He Surprisingly Praises Timberwolves’ Patrick Beverley
JJ said, “They had a treasure trove of young players and assets. They put them all on the table to get Anthony Davis and they won a championship like….” Pat Bev interrupted and said, “Bubble championship”. At this Redick told Patrick that there could be many title-winning runs where the “asterisk” could be put next to the teams over the injuries to the rivals, circumstances, and luck involved on the way. The two went into a small to and fro argument about the same.
NBA Fans react to Patrick Beverley’s dismissal of LeBron James’ Lakers winning NBA in 2020
Pat Bev made it seem very clear that he did not value the 2020 NBA-winning run of the Lakers. He faced some backlash from LeBron‘s fans whereas there were fans who did not disagree with him.
Nobody even watched the bubble championship. It was the least important championship ever in the NBA. If the Lakers didn’t win it. We all would have forgotten who won. It was no pressure in the bubble other than majority of the players didn’t want to be there.
— Jottí™️ (@jotti_santana) May 17, 2022
— “Three-Peat” Fan/WestBRICK (@opinionsondanba) May 16, 2022
It’s crazy how Pat Bev would be beating his chest is clippers won the bubble
— suns no Mo (@purpleandddgold) May 16, 2022
So if 2 team go into a completely empty gym and 1 wins 4 out 7, you telling me that other team needs to have ppl in the bleachers to win and u think that team may be better? I’m just asking cuz that sounds weird
— Kevin Perry 💙🔱👆🏽 (@kevp720) May 16, 2022
Lmao in the bubble you had TJ Warren turn into prime Jordan, Murray and Mitchell have back to back 50pts games against each other, the fifth seed Heat make the finals etc….
The bubble was a joke.
— Jake (@Jake37592348) May 17, 2022
Bruh the rhetoric has swapped so insanely since then. The same media was talking about how the Blazers were the toughest 8 seed in history. The narrative was that the lakers didn’t have what it took to survive the bubble before dominating everyone lmao
— LONZO MIP/CARUSO 6MOY (@EdwardIrr4) May 17, 2022
Thank goodness for JJ. He's one of very few people on TV today to speak logically and make sound arguments, instead of simply saying whatever a show's producer wants in order to fit a pre-written narrative.
— Whose House?! Showtime (@vinodiese1) May 16, 2022
Yes but travel and lack of rest affects older and more injury prone players more like Bron+AD.
Bubble there was a long break to heal and rest and then no travel. Considering Bron/AD have NOT been able to play a FULL healthy season in 2019,21,22..the bubble clearly helped them
— startingvbasketball (@startingvbasket) May 17, 2022
nah, Davis wouldn't be healthy. No crowd pressure on players. Role players step up on homecourt. Essentially it was 24 hours gym tournament
— WCF Ben (@independentbeck) May 17, 2022
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— Izzy P (@izzypvh) May 16, 2022
Although of course, the pressure was less on the Lakers due to no crowd that was the same for every other team as well. The situation was dire at the time and the world was not normal. Whatever ‘luck’ Lakers had could have been someone else’s.
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WATCH THIS STORY: When LeBron completely lost his cool at Pat Bev.
Similarly, if a team was missing key players and were not full strength then again Lakers could have been ‘unlucky’ in that way. All in all the situation was not normal, it was all new, and each team was going through it. So discrediting the Lakers for that NBA championship does not seem to do justice to that difficult time.
