The Los Angeles Lakers returned to glory on the backs of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a whole bunch of effective role playing. It’s the iconic franchise’s first title since 2010 was different than any other championship ever won.
That’s because it happened in a bubble… in Disney World.
With the COVID-19 outbreak creating limitations worldwide, the NBA headed down to Florida to conduct the adjusted NBA playoffs with no fans. There were a lot of people that basically explained that the league shouldn’t bother, because the winner would not have actually won a legitimate championship.
In other words, many thought the championship would have “an asterisk”.
Now that the Larry O’Brien trophy has been handed out to the Lakers, Pat Riley – President of the Miami Heat and legendary basketball mind – thinks the championship still deserves an asterisk, but not becaue of COVID-19.
Speaking to the Miami Herald, Riley explained that he think there’s an asterisk based on the injuries to key Heat players Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo.
“They beat us fair and squarely. But there will be always be that asterisk; if we had Bam and Goran 100 percent — Goran was our leading scorer [entering the Finals] — it might have gone to a seventh game.”
While it’s true that they may have been able to force a Game 7, it’s hard to claim an asterisk when injuries are often part of the narrative. The Toronto Raptors won a ‘ship against a Golden State Warriors squad that saw Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and DeMarcus Cousins, and the Warriors won one after Kyrie Irving was injured too.
It definitely would have been fun to see what Dragic and Bam could have done at full health.
(H/T FTW, Miami Herald)
