The franchise and its best player made a lot of history with another championship on Sunday.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — From the top, the view is clearer. LeBron James had the vantage point of a champion late on Sunday night, and he seemed reflective in between puffs of his cigar. With 17 years of his career under his belt, so much of what he says can feel rehearsed. But from his spot on stage, minutes after cradling the Larry O’Brien trophy and the Finals MVP award in each hand, a well-practiced champion had a moment to think about what he had never done before. Were any of his other championships this difficult to win? “I can’t sit here and say one is more challenging than the other or one is more difficult than the other,” he said. “I can just say that I’ve never won with this atmosphere. None of us have.” Even for a franchise that has now won 17 championships, and for a franchise player who has as many rings as anyone still suiting up, the 2020 NBA title carries a pioneering spirit. For a season that lasted longer than any before it, in a sterile venue where no one has had to play before, the Lakers set a number of firsts – and accomplished a feat that might never be required again. Veteran point guard Rajon Rondo, who was last seen raising a trophy 12 years ago after beating the Lakers, was less diplomatic: “This one, by far, is the hardest one.” It was difficult for many of the Lakers to articulate in the immediate moments afterward, and not only because of the swigs of champagne that had added to their championship delirium after their dominant Game 6 victory over the Miami Heat. They spent 95 days in the bubble, and while the mission was always winning, the daily prerequisite was testing negative for COVID-19. Like everyone else on the Disney campus, the Lakers got used to the regimen, and many people in the bubble inevitably took the most important component for granted. The NBA eventually stopped releasing data for test results, as Adam Silver put it, for “nothing to report.” The NBA has said no one living on campus tested positive in the midst of a global pandemic. James did not take it for granted. He said he checked off a calendar for each day that passed. It was telling that the only statistic brought up in his postgame press conference was zero.
