Daryl Morey: People around NBA don’t consider Lakers Bubble Title a true title | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Daryl Morey: People around NBA don’t consider Lakers Bubble Title a true title | FIRST THINGS FIRST

The Athletics Joe Varden looked back at the NBA bubble now that we’re 5 years out. Varden spoke to players, media, and executives about the experience in the Lakers Championship. Here’s what Sixers GM, then Rockets GM, Daryl my is quoted as saying, “Had the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required. yet everyone I speak to around the league privately agrees that it doesn’t truly hold up as a genuine championship. Your reaction to reading this? All right. So, I think a lot of the audience knows if not I I consider Daryl dear friend. So, I text him without any context in all caps just your worst take of all time. and he wrote back, I said the opposite of what folks are mad at. I said it was a legit title and I have been surprised when I tell people in the league that that they say they think it’s not legit. So I think what people are getting hung up on is when he said agree. He was trying to say again what he’s telling is they agree with each other not agree with me. And so just to help out my buddy Daryl who I he at least feels like he’s being not misqued but misconstrued what he was saying. It’s coming off exact the 180 of what he ex exactly that he thinks it’s legit. take away is most people in the league most most people in the league and this gets to Brew one time on the air it might have been off the air I don’t know one time said to me everything is not about LeBron and he’s right about that but this in my opinion is there were three teams that year that all year long were the title favorites the Milwaukee Bucks the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers and I think the only one that could have won the title and five years later we’re still trying to disparrage it is that one. But now if somebody had won the title coming out of nowhere, you the bubble felt funny or whatever then maybe. But of any of the favorites that Lakers team started 24 and three, they were the best team in the league before the season stopped. LeBron was neck andneck with Giannis for MVP. He ended up finishing second. So they had one of the best players in the league. They had the best record. Anthony Davis was playing great. Then the bracket breaks and some people, some very smart, very handsome folks thought they could get popped in round one by the Blazers. Even had a little suit, right? And then in round two, they play the Rockets. And then in round three, they play a Denver team that we now know, oh, with healthy Jamal Murray and Joker, is that a real contender? And then in the finals, ah, little fluky Miami team. Except for the fact that two years later, Miami was in game seven of the conference finals. And the year after that they were back in the finals. And so they played a tough road. They were the best team from start to finish. They had one of the two or three very best players in the league. Check, check, check, check, check. And the next year, Brew, at the midway point of the season, the year the day that Solomon Hill fell into LeBron in defending their title, they had the best record in basketball at 28 and 13. So every benchmark of the deserving champion applies. But because that guy’s holding both trophies, people want to denigrate it. I don’t think anybody’s saying I don’t agree with the take that it’s not legitimate, and I’ll get to that in a moment. I don’t think anybody is saying it’s not legitimate because of the things you just mentioned. It’s not because they beat a not very good Miami team in the finals. It’s not because of Denver, the Clippers, or Houston, any of those. It is because of the bubble. It is because there were no fans. It is because there were no uh road. You didn’t have to deal with road fans. You didn’t have to deal with travel. You didn’t have to deal with even family being at home games wanting tickets and so on and so forth. Now, my baseline for whether or not something’s legitimate or not to me or deserves an asterisk as my did. We didn’t show that quote, but he said a lot of people basically put an asterisk on that championship. is did you have an advantage an unfair advantage over the people you competed with? Okay. And if if that’s not true, then it’s legit. And if all that’s true that I said, there were no fans, there was no travel, all that. But everybody dealt with it. The Clippers dealt with it. Denver dealt with it. Miami, Milwaukee, which went out like some chumps in the second round to the the the Heat. They all had the same exact circumstances as LeBron, AD, and the Lakers. And the Lakers came through and won. It’s legitimate. Period. There’s no asterisk. Now, the reason I don’t think it’s about LeBron is because remember Phil Jackson said this about the Spurs when they won the lockout or strike title in 99. Uh, somebody else implied it about uh Miami’s first championship. I can’t remember who it was. Yeah. So, I just don’t think I and and I also don’t think like my said basically the whole league feels this way. The whole league isn’t against LeBron. There are some people that feel Jordan’s better, but the whole league isn’t like out to get LeBron. I just don’t think this is about LeBron. And I don’t think the even belittling the bubble championship is has anything to do with the competition. I think it has to do with the circumstances, but it’s just it to me a piece of it the the the lack of home fans and the lack of a homec court advantage I think is a legitimate piece to bring into it. Which is why in my opinion it’s all the more impressive that the team that earned homec courted like the two teams in the bubble that got penalized the most. what you’re saying is not fair that didn’t get what they earned were the two number one seeds, right? the two teams that would have had home court throughout the Lakers were one of them like and so I the it is there is to me real revisionist history on before any of us knew what COVID was who the title favorites were and that’s you know that it is discussed like they a and the other piece is well LeBron and AD got that four-month layoff the Lakers had a better winning percentage pre-bubble bubble than postbubble, you know what I mean? They they were they they had a worse record after the layoffs and within it was like eight games. No, but if you include the playoffs, didn’t they? Yeah. I mean, look, I do think that break helped LeBron an older LeBron, he feels young compared to now, but an older LeBron and AD who hardly ever gets through a full season. But again, Kawawaii had that same thing like everybody else had the same advantage resting for three or four months. So I now I don’t agree I don’t agree with the take that it’s illegitimate but I also don’t agree with the take that it’s one of like LeBron said it was one of the most difficult championships ever. I think you said my feels that way that it’s one of the most difficult. I don’t agree with that. I think I just think it’s as legitimate as any other championship and it’s certainly one of like it’s I I don’t know how you discern difficulty the in that regard like what the for all for everybody what that period of time was is just different than you know what I mean than anything else and for those guys yeah living in Disney World and like being away from their family I don’t know that that is harder than traveling from place to place but it is it is different than all of those I understand that but it doesn’t I it seems it it and I think maybe you agree with me on this there is a cottage industry of actually when you think about it like were any of LeBron’s like the Kyrie saved him and won and Ray Allen saved him and won and there’s the bubble and you mentioned and that first one which no one can say anybody saved him oh yeah the the season was uh shortened you know what it was shortened season so really like it’s 20 years and it’s how many and so but there’s the same thing with Jordan. He didn’t play anybody in the finals. There were no super teams. I mean it’s it’s whoever most people which is one sad thing about the LeBron Jordan debate. People act like I love LeBron. I think Jordan was better. I got LeBron second. It doesn’t mean I hate LeBron, but a lot of people take that approach. They have if they are on the Jordan side, they got to rip LeBron and all his accomplishments and vice versa. So, I I just don’t think it’s unique to LeBron as far as this the way you I I I think there’s something to like calling it like the bubble championship. Should probably just lose that. I agree. I think that hurts. I I totally I And well, can I ask you this real before you move on? Do you think in 15 years it will be called the bubble championship? Because I don’t. I think that there was I think that there was a brief period of time when Duncan’s first title was called the strike season and and then and now I think a lot of people watching had no idea that like 99, you know what I mean? That was the a strike year. I never think of LeBron as having three real championships and then the B like I think he’s got four championships. Yes. Like and I think most people view it that way but Yeah. I you know. Okay. Thanks for watching.

Nick Wright, Chris Broussard and Kevin Wildes discuss whether Daryl Morey’s comments about the NBA’s overall thoughts on the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020 Bubble Title is about LeBron or not.

#FirstThingsFirst #NBA #Lakers

Download the FOX Sports App: https://tinyurl.com/y4uouolb

► Breakfast Ball’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastBallonFS1
► First Things First’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstThingsFirst
► SPEAK’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SpeakOnFS1
► The Facility’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheFacilityonFS1
► All Facts No Brakes with Keyshawn Johnson YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AllFactsPod

About First Things First:
Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

Daryl Morey: People around NBA don’t consider Lakers Bubble Title a true title | FIRST THINGS FIRST
www.youtube.com/@FirstThingsFirst