“It doesn’t truly hold up as a genuine championship” – Daryl Morey reveals NBA sentiment about Lakers’ 2020 championship having an asterisk

Time flies in the best basketball league on Earth. It’s already been five years since the NBA bubble in Orlando and the LA Lakers’ last championship. However, as time has passed, the sentiment and the controversy around that championship remain.

Some believe the title is legitimate, while others argue that it should always hold an asterisk next to it.

When asked about that, Philadelphia 76ers executive Daryl Morey agrees with the latter statement. In Wednesday’s interview with The Athletic, Morey revealed that the league-wide sentiment was that the Lakers’ 2020 championship should be taken with a grain of salt:

"Had the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required," Morey said. "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."

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To each his own, and there are multiple ways to make a case for and against that asterisk and that title.

Of course, LeBron James has always been polarizing, and as popular and beloved as he is, there are also millions of NBA fans who have always tried to discredit all of his accomplishments, so perhaps the narrative around the title would be different if another team had won it.

But as things stand now, James' haters will continue to have arguments to look down on two of his championships, as his first ring also came in the lockout-shortened season.

Bam Adebayo disagrees with Daryl Morey about the Lakers' championship

Nevertheless, Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo respectfully disagrees with that statement. If anything, he believes that it was the toughest championship anybody could've won because of the unique challenges it posed.

In a 2023 interview with Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem on their "The OGs" podcast, the Heat's big man looked back on that title run:

"That was the hardest championship to win in my opinion," Adebayo said. "It's you and your thoughts in one room, boxed in. It felt like you were gang-affiliated when you were in the bubble."

Of course, Adebayo also speaks from the perspective of the other team that reached the NBA Finals, and talking down on that series would essentially mean agreeing with those who claimed that the 2020 Heat was a fluke.

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About the author

Ernesto Cova

Ernesto Cova is a journalist at Sportskeeda with a PhD in Sports Psychology. His education helped him develop a clearer understanding of the sports world as a whole, including basketball. Ernesto has over eight years of experience in the field, working for Fadeaway World, The Inquisitr, NBA Blast, The Cold Wire and Bolavip, among others.

His favorite team is the Chicago Bulls because of the Michael Jordan era. Jordan is Ernesto's all-time favorite, as he changed the game forever. Ernesto's second favorite was Kobe Bryant because he embodied that same competitive fire and Ernesto watched him play throughout his entire career. Nowadays, Ernesto really likes Stephen Curry, who he believes to be the most influential player of the past 15 years or so.

Ernesto's favorite basketball moment was when Venezuela -- his country -- took down Canada to take home the 2015 FIBA Americas Cup.

When not watching or writing about basketball, Ernesto likes to read and is interested in photography.

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