When LeBron James joined the Los Angeles Lakers he envisioned bringing one of the NBA’s most historic franchises back to prominence, and that is exactly what he did.
Alongside Anthony Davis, James led the Lakers to the 2020 NBA Championship. It came under unique circumstances inside the NBA Bubble in Orlando due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but at the end of the day every team had a chance to win it and L.A. came out on top.
It’s hard to know what would’ve happened had the pandemic not hit, but the Lakers were the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference at the time and were looking like the best team regardless.
Even though the Lakers haven’t been able to get back to the NBA Finals since, it’s hard to deny how special that 2020 team was and that they were deserving of the championship. People still try to do exactly that though, and Austin Reaves feels it is because of their feelings toward James, via BustaJack Golf:
“It’s not a Mickey Mouse ring. I don’t wanna say it’s the hardest. I think – I mean, everybody had an equal playing field. I think it’s the same as every other year. I just think if LeBron doesn’t win it, then nobody says anything. Everybody hates LeBron. Actually, everybody loves LeBron, but he gets so much hate.”
Reaves makes a good point in that even though the circumstances in the Orlando bubble were unique, they were the same for everybody which makes it fair.
Regardless of how people feel about it, James has four championships and the Lakers organization has 17. The hope is those numbers will grow by one this upcoming season, but that means that guys like Reaves will need to give LeBron enough help in order to compete against the league’s best.
Austin Reaves explains why Lakers star LeBron James won’t play one-on-one
LeBron James has always been known as a team-first player. In fact, the Lakers star won’t even play his teammates in games of one-on-one and Austin Reaves explained why.
“I’ll play anybody one-on-one. I’m not saying I’ll win but I’ll play anybody. He doesn’t play one-on-one,” Reaves said. “He said one-on-one’s not real basketball which I kind of agree with. I’ll play Sam Hauser, NBA champion. Congrats.”
Guys like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan loved playing one-on-one, but that is just not the way James enjoys playing the game.