6 years ago - Lakers win the 2020 championship.
Seeing this made me think of Vogel for the first time in a long time. He was so instrumental but now just a blip that barely registered in Laker lore.
He was a collateral damage to save Pelinkas job from that Westbrook fuckup
Yes, Westbrook did not fit at all but I feel like a championship coach could have worked some lineups to make at least the transition offense good. Vogel was bad after the 2021 season and Ham was worse after him.
It just wasn’t the kind of roster he needed to showcase his talents. He was always a poor offensive coach that won on gritty defense which is why the 2020 Lakers were so dominant on that end. Once they lost several key defenders and replaced them with old ass vets, the writing was on the wall.
Yeah Vogel was a 1-and-done in Phoenix the next year too. You can argue he’s just not built for teams with big stars on it. But he also didn’t do amazing in the Orlando years before he got the Lakers job.
Fired by Pelinka and he found out because a reporter asked him for his reaction post game in the last game of the season.
One of my least favorite things RP has ever done.
Crazy stat every coach that has won at least one title with the Lakers did so in their first year.
But the fact that you even mention “Laker lore” tells you why.
For many other franchises, winning one is enough to make you a legend. But the Lakers have the second most championships in the league with multiple multi-ring coaches. A one-ring coach like Vogel was always bound to get washed out among the greats.
People disparage bubble hoops just because LeBron and the Lakers won.
Anyone that watched a good amount of those games know how unexpectedly entertaining that part of the season was, and how intense the games were.
I had a blast watching our Houston series. Also loved all the huge scoring games out of nowhere from guys.
Bubble Jesus TJ Warren
Harden getting one over on Dort really felt bad at the time. I guess we get the last laugh though.
This sub really loved the Clippers in 2020. Had they won it, they’d be calling Kawhi top 5 all time and say this was the greatest title run of all time.
Thats why they downplay it because of how wrong they were they thought it was the clippers to win and instead they choked a 3-1 lead so people blamed the bubble instead
And you would be seeing many posts how this was actually “real basketball”.
If KP hadn’t gone out with that torn meniscus, Baby Luka and the Mavs could have plausibly eliminated the Clippers in Round 1. Put up 43-17-13 in Game 4 with the buzzer beater.
The NBA world, championed by Skip Bayless, were enamored with the Clippers until….
That’s hilarious
of of my favorite undisputed memories. I remember being so excited to wake up for that day’s show lmao
Heh
No one has ever loved the clippers
Yall were undeniably media darlings in 2020. You got “the best player in the world” and paired him with a guy who finished 3rd in MVP voting, had young pieces to supplement and picks. Yall were being called the model organization.
What about that one guy who made that rap about the clippers
To play devils advocate for a bit, if the clippers won the bubble title instead that’d be back titles for Kawaii, after that crazy raptors run.. it would’ve aged horribly now that we know what we know about him and the cap scandal, but that really would’ve been an incredible run until we found out lol. I agree with the point you’re making tho.
wouldn’t have aged poorly at all another chip would go on his resume and he would be a legend for clippers regardless of the punishments and rest of the basketball fanbase wouldve moved like we are currently doing with his scandal
Fair point. They would’ve gotten to this spot they’re in now anyways, they’d just have a title to show for it in our scenario I guess
The bubble season was fucking rad to watch. Quite honestly I sorta wish it could be recreated every now and then for like an every five years special event or something, idk.
It was some amazing basketball to watch and it makes you realize how much all the traveling and the grind of that sorta diminishes everybody a bit because when everyone had to stay in place it felt like they were hooping like crazy.
Honestly it was some of the best and most competitive basketball I’ve seen in a while.
All the teams isolated from the world for the most part and just focused on ball. Nobody had home court advantage foreal. Just focused on hooping and we got to see players going at it at their best. Everyone who was healthy was balling the fuck out it was crazy to see. Jamal Murray look like Jordan reincarnated 😂
It was some good basketball and as a fan of the game first/foremost it was fun to see everyone balling the fuck out. Even if we hadn’t won it would still be top 5 playoffs for me.
Shit was like Mortal Kombat.
End of the day you had to be the best basketball team in the country to win the NBA championship. Lakers proved themselves to be the best that year. Just can’t see how anyone can disparage that.
We know it’s because of Lebron. They do anything to discredit Lebron.
And the Lakers which is usually funny but in this case it’s sore loser bullshit
To be fair I do it to discredit Antony Davis.
In all honesty the bubble is by far the most competitive basketball I’ve seen you got Damian Lillard and TJ Warren both going nuclear in the Orlando Bubble. People who try to discredit and disparage the Lakers winning the championship that year is them being bitter and ridiculous. The Lakers were the number 1 seed in the Western Conference before the bubble if anything them not having home court advantage hurt them more than it benefited them. Everybody had the Clippers winning it in 2020 now they blew a 3-1 lead and choked they used the Orlando Bubble as an excuse despite every team that was invited to the bubble played under the same circumstances it’s just the Lakers were the team who capitalized on it.
Me and my buddies say In the car watching practically every game from 8pm-2am smoking. We always circle back to the bubble as hands down the best ball we’ve really watched. Shit was just straight raw buckets and grit
People that downplay it make no sense whatsoever its ridiculous. They didnt play a single real home game, they were the least advantaged overall 1 seed in the history of the league. If you wanna count it different count it for 1.5.
Yea I really struggle to understand why people disparage this ring outside of being a delusional hater. There were some mentally weak players that couldn’t handle being in a resort for a few weeks, but that aside there were no distractions from the crowd or outside influences and no home court advantage. This is exactly the type of environment all time greats would’ve excelled in.
Lakers were actually the best if not one of the best road teams in the league that season.
That’s pretty common for a 1 seed
Maybe the least advantaged until they got the the finals when 2 of Miami’s 3 best players were hurt and missing games
NBA is gonna sell us on Mr Beast’s Playoff Thunderdome Challenge and these same folks will talk about “finally! Real, unfiltered competitive basketball never seen before.”
thats part of it but even players disparage the bubble ring
Half
Personally my conspiracy theory is that 95% of the disparagement towards the Lakers winning came from Clipper fans who were salty they lost a 3-1 lead to the nuggets and hated all the teasing they got for it.
I dont think there is enough clippers fans for that to be the case
Not enough hipsters out there lol
It’s Lebron haters, there’s not enough clippers fans for that
No matter how you look at it, it was an anomaly. Doesn’t mean that the games weren’t exciting or that the Lakers didn’t deserve to win it.
I just mean the people who call it a fake ring
That’s a matter of personal taste. I don’t call it a fake ring but I do believe the circumstances warrant an asterisk.
Does the 2015 ring require an asterisk?
I agree. And an asterisk isn’t inherently a diminishment.
It was arguably the purest form of nba hoops.
Sure.
“not a real championship” comments incoming
This place puts an asterisk on every single championship except Dirk’s
You can put an asterisk on Dirk’s too if you try hard enough. One can make the argument that the mavs won only because Lebron choked.
“Dirk only won because Lebron lost”
you can put an asterisk on every single championship in history
They only won because the clippers decided it would be too embarrassing to win it all
The hardest road
They can say what they want. That banner swinging in the breeze at Staples for all time regardless 😂
Don’t let them take anything from you. Those guys being in the bubble were as focused as any group of players ever. Bubble basketball was as high level as I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe some of the games we were watching.
Thanks for calling it Staples and not the fucking Crypto arena
Hey I found one!
Reporting for duty sir
I don’t think that’s a common take anymore
I mean, they played like 75% of the games. It was a shortened season.
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The bubble was weird but the basketball was legit. Playing that long under that much pressure with no fans and no travel says a lot about both finalists.
What pressure lmao
Exactly! It was the lack of pressure that gave us pure hoops
Yeah that’s cool for pickup games but the NBA is supposed to have high pressure
That’s why the hornets has sucked so much. The bubble would’ve been a perfect fit for that bum franchise then.
What you mean with that much pressure ? They played in a resort. No traveling, playing back to hotel and chill.
Away from family and friends and their home ….
Funny thing is most players just complained about the food and not being able to go out.
“This isn’t Syria, mate.”
Still sucks to not see your family for weeks
Yeah wow, so much pressure. Like they don’t do that already
I’m sorry man, they are not ER providers, they play basketball, and for some reason it had to keep going so their bosses locked them all up in a hotel room, and said play until the end. I’m not clear how that is great for older players
The bubble was the opposite of pressure lol. No one cared. Most of the players didn’t even want to be there
Sure, why did they even go then? Or your team didn’t win the championship so you’re saying this? Probably a clippers fan as well
Except the non-bots who actually watched the games know how how intense those playoffs were. Narrative pushers man like you do this for what? Why? Nothing that matters, that’s easy to tell.
Pressure? Playing with no fans means less pressure as we saw with how guys like herro, Warren, bam, Duncan Robinson, MPJ, Gary Trent, AD, white, murray,,mitchell and more all peaked in the bubble. I can let mitchell and AD slide as they’ve shown up in more playoffs than not.
Jamal Murray — 2023 Championship Run
1st Rd vs MIN | 4-1 | 27.2 | 5.6 | 6.4 | 47.1 | 42.9
2nd Rd vs PHX | 4-2 | 24.8 | 4.8 | 6.5 | 45.2 | 35.9
WCF vs LAL | 4-0 | 32.5 | 6.3 | 5.3 | 52.7 | 40.5
Finals vs MIA | 4-1 | 21.4 | 6.2 | 10.0 | 45.1 | 38.7
Total | 16-4 | 26.1 | 5.7 | 7.1 | 47.3 | 39.6
Yep murray in 2023 was fantastic. Outside that he has been ass.
Point remains. Many guys saw a rise in the bubble but have not been as good or consistent since.
AD used all his magic for that stint
He was never the same afterwards
No.
But he was pretty awesome in 2021 before injury, and he was pretty awesome in the 24 season in totality
I think AD was just better shooting at 3s in practice gyms than arenas. Didn’t the dude shoot like nearly 40% in the bubble?
It wasn’t so much 3’s but just his midrange jumper altogether that he excelled at in the bubble. He got to play the 4 and take way more middies and he was buttery smooth with them too. We had Javale and Dwight at the 5 so AD was free to shoot more. His midrange jumper was his bread/butter all 2020
Plus he was shooting damn near 90% free throws. So you either sagged off and let him swish middies all game, or you let him attack the rim and he was either going to get their with strength/footwork and get a bucket or lob, or you fouled him and gave him 2 easy points. AD was basically unstoppable in the bubble and was going to get points everytime he touched the ball.
Yeah dude shot 81% from 16-24 feet against us in our first round series
Like idk what you’re supposed to do when a dude is drilling deep middies like that.
7⁄8 on stepback jumpers, including one from 3 lol. Aiiiight
He was shooting lights out all season even before the shutdown
That quick turnaround for the next season hurt all the teams who made a deep run in the bubble. I’m convinced it led to more injuries immediately after in that following season. . There’s a reason none of the top teams from 2020 made it very far in 2021
Plane trips really fucks him up
AD didn’t have to get through regular season and was healthy enough
Fake championship
Sorry not sorry but the Bubble was the purest form of basketball we ever got to experience in recent history, and I won’t ever accept the “Mickey Mouse” cup designation it gets.
Not having court side people had guys hustling toward the out of bounds line
This is the kind of detail I want to see.
It was pure basketball but it was a glorified tournament. There’s so much missing from the regular season grind etc and that needs to be considered
But wasn’t it literally played at Disney?
So why not call it the most magical tournament in the world instead?
It doesn’t count bec my favorite team didn’t win.
The Bubble some of the best basketball.
The Clippers blowing a 3-1 lead. Murray and Mitchell going insane. Luka insane game winner and pop off. ADs insane game winner and after squandered the lead. Jimmy’s insane herculean effort.
It’s a was great to see teams have absolutely no “home field” advantage. So it was just all hoops. I still remember Danny Green air balling an open three and RDCWorld’s skit 😂😂🤣. So many good memories.
Of course this win is always “not real” for some stupid reason…smh.
Still happy Vogel got one, even if it was with the Lakers.
It counts whether you like it or not. People just unhappy the Lakers and LeBron but would defend it if their team won.
everyone shits on the “bubble” ring but tbh I’ve never seen a post season as competitive as this one. everyone was game, rested, no media bs, just pure fucking hoops.
I find this a great litmus test on nephew-ism.
Basically if you discount the bubble it invalidates any basketball opinion you have.
Funny how people that dismiss it are either fans of bum franchises or of teams that lost in it.
I’m used to rooting for a terrible basketball team every year for decades so I used to think it’s just a vocal minority of losers that are the ones always making a stink of another team winning a championship. Until I realized this past summer that the vocal minority actually isn’t so small after all.
Jealousy is so real and people clearly don’t know how to handle it, especially when they already hate your team.
AD said that he wants to know what it’s like to win a championship outside of the pandemic so they can have a parade and have a more authentic experience and this is why.
Rondo won Celtics 17th Championship then Laker’s 17th Championship.
And what Rob Pelinka decided to do after this is unforgivable
The 2021 team was better. Injuries derailed that team, and that was likely due to the extremely short offseason.
Why are some people claiming it’s not real? It was literally the strangest and hard to adapt to season. If anything, this championship worth even more than others.
Some truly weird shit. Not sure worth more but def legit legit. Some players found it probably easier to adapt and some found it harder. Winning under those circumstances is still incredibly difficult no matter how well you adapt. Congrats to them.
Oh boohoo, it was so scary to go to basketball camp at one of the fanciest resorts and have all the travel and playoff environment removed.
Mikey mouse ring will never count, proven by the heat getting swept in the first round the very next year
We’re using next years playoff performance as a metric of legitimate rings?
Or the fact a 40 win team was in the finals, better? Fake ring is fake.
Brother why don’t we just put the one seeds in the finals then? Are ya fucking 6 or a dumbass?
The same team won 44 games and went to the finals 3 years later when covid wasn’t a factor
I don’t care what anyone says, the bubble was some of the best basketball I’ve ever seen.
Say what you want about the “bubble” championship but you know every team there wanted to win and having no home court advantage evened the playing field.
And the crowd goes… wait where’s the crowd
We were in downtown LA celebrating my guy
What a fun time for Miami. I loved the whole butler coffee and the whole team mean dogging in the hallways.
Complete underdog story.
So random.
They were a damn good team that year that’s the bottom line but I’ll still die on the hill that with a healthy Bam and Dragic that series may have gone differently anyone who watched the Heat’s run saw how well those guys were playing prior to that
We should have a break before playoffs imo.
Haha. I bet we are all thinking Covid more then anything!!
I’m fucking old
Mickey ring. Such a shame this one doesn’t really count :/ Would have been cool..
Mickey Mouse ring
Even the NBA players agree that this championship and playoff run was an all timer - they all agree this was a very tough grind and I think it’s one of the best wins by LAL
If the season wasnt delayed the Lakers wouldnt have been healthy and would’ve fallen out of the playoffs. As soon as LeBron got hurt they decided to pull the plug and continued the season when he got healthy.
LeBubble
My favorite era of professional basketball… shit was the most purest of hoops from the best in the world. Closet thing you will get to gym runs but with actual a championship on the line… I watch games from this era ALOT
Bubble boys!!!
The hardest championship to win.
Would’ve been a b2b if we didn’t get injured in the 21 playoffs
They started the next season so quick, the Lakers had no time to recover after winning the ring. It’s like Silver didn’t want them to win again.
Or maybe it’s because there was a global pandemic that delayed everything and that in order for the next season to be played they had to have a shorter layoff between seasons. Also, there’s no way that it’s because they didn’t want the Lakers to win again considering they’re one of the biggest markets, and the media glazed them to hell in the early 2020s because they had LeBron on their team.
Nah, Silver doesn’t like Lebron, plain and simple.
They were the 7-seed that season, and if they were that low because of injuries, well maybe being an injury-prone team isn’t sustainable, and their seeding reflected that. Availability is important too.
Maybe having a finals in mid October and the start of the regular season in early December had something to do with it
They were up 2-1 against the suns who eventually went to the finals when AD got hurt. All I’m saying is that we had the talent to do it. Injuries are an unfortunate part of the game.
never forget the Lakers the next season went 21-6 and then had LeBron and AD injured, yet still had the best defense in the league. The quick turnaround from the 2020 season is almost certainly a massive reason they were so injured.
Everyone saying this was the same achievement as a normal season championship, is right. Yes, there was zero crowd presence and thus objectively less pressure than normal games, but all players are able to tune that shit out anyways. Not to mention that crowds these days are so weak, there might as well not be any distracting noise at all, just like in the bubble. Yes, players did not have to travel to and from away games, but any one who has ever traveled extensively for their profession knows that it definitely does not affect your mental, ever. And yes, the players got to stay at a resort the whole time, but have you ever had to stay at a vacation destination for more than a few days? It gets repetitive and boring, literal hell on earth. So to all the nephews saying this was a Mickey Mouse chip, even though it was literally at Disney resorts, y’all are wrong.
(insert Mickey Mouse ring joke)
The bubble was such good basketball.
Plus we got to see another Doc Rivers 3-1 collapse lmao
Mickey mouse championship 🤣🤣🤣
15 day old account, your mother isn’t proud of you
Pandemic ring😷🤣🤣
this was a great finals. if only dragic was healthy
If we had Dragic we win that title instead
while i was and am grateful for the entertainment of the bubble during that time, it is a radically different thing than all playoffs before or since and i’ll never take it quite as seriously
Oh LeMickey Chip…Ok
LeMickey
Anyone calling this a “Mickey Mouse” ring should look up the 2020 MLB season. A 60-game season opposed to a regular 162. And then a postseason where fans were allowed at the World Series. Now that it is the mickiest of rings. Also, FTD.
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