There’s always been a lot of chatter about contextualizing the 2020 NBA title, but if you ask Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the asterisk would be on the season to signify just how tough it was.
The 2019-20 NBA season is unlike any other in basketball history.
It was put to a screeching halt in March 2020 due to the pandemic and restarted in "The Bubble" in Orlando, Florida, in July, where 22 teams competed for the NBA title.
Given the extended break, the seclusion, the reduced schedule, the play-in competition and a lack of travel or fans, people have long debated what to make of winning that title.
Some have claimed it should have an asterisk as it's unlike any other season and was, possibly, easier with no travel or fans watching.
On "The Draymond Green Show," former Laker Kentavious-Caldwell Pope tore that theory in half and set it on fire.
“They just hating man. It’s one of the hardest championships to win. You playing a season then the season’s shut down. You don’t know if you’re even going to come back and play basketball. We saw how, in the regular season, we was playing and then we was like, ‘What the f—.’ Season’s over with. Like damn. Like what if we can’t come back because we already had in our mind like, ‘This is our championship’ regardless if COVID stopped it or not. But then the season stops, boom, season starts back up and have to go to the bubble…Once we knew the season was starting back up in the bubble, we was hype. We was ready to go get our championship like we wanted.
Then the season stopped again in the bubble. These things like had people’s minds messed up like ‘I”m ready to go home. Forget basketball.’ I’m so grateful and I appreciate all my teammates at the time, their mindset was on that championship. They were ready to go. They came here for a reason and we wanted it.”
People forget all these details when it comes to 2020. Hopefully, the Disney, ESPN documentary on "The Bubble" will come to fruition and this narrative can finally be put to rest. Yes, it was unlike all other titles, but starting, restarting and starting again is tough. A season that began in October 2019 ended in October of 2020.
Throughout that duration, the Lakers were consistently a top team and had to keep that form up despite all these obstacles.
Did no fans help? If anything, it hurt, as the Lakers' only reward for being the best team in the Western Conference was the chance to have a Game 7 decided on a court with their name on it instead of a loud, sold-out stadium in Los Angeles.
Despite the situations, the Lakers rose above and won it all. Caldwell-Pope went on to discuss how they were able to do it.
“We wanted that one so bad we would have jumped through flaming hoops for it. For me, it was the hardest because of all the shut down, restarting, shut down. That can change a lot of people’s mindsets. Like, ‘F— this. I’m not dealing with this anymore.’ I always appreciated that and thankful that everybody on the team at that time had the same mindset. They weren’t ready to go.”
No two titles are the same. Like a snowflake, each is unique and can never be duplicated or replicated. The Lakers won the 2020 NBA title. Love it, hate it, dismiss it, or praise it. They won. They were the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and with all the top teams of that year competing against each other, no one could get the better of them.
Not the Hoston Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Denver Nuggets, the Miami Heat, or even the Los Angeles Clippers who imploded and Caldwell-Pope made sure to mention them during the podcast.
They won it all, despite and through it all. That's why banner No. 17 hangs at Crypto.com Arena.
Caldwell-Pope has spoken and as a current NBA player and a champion after 2020 with the Denver Nuggets in 2023, he knows a thing or two about winning it all. If he says it’s “one of the hardest” ever to win, I’m inclined to take his word for it.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.
