Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif

That’s not likely to change, but LeBron James has a lot of detractors. They’re quick to point out that his time with the Lakers has been a failure overall: since his arrival in 2018, the forward has only reached the conference finals twice. That’s not much considering his ambitions, and worse still, he’s missed the playoffs twice since settling in California…

On the other hand, there’s no denying the fact that he still managed to win a title with the Purple and Gold, becoming only the fourth player in history to earn a ring with three different teams. Even then, his haters insist it took place in the Orlando bubble, at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a reminder, the NBA had put its regular season on hold for a few weeks before inviting a few teams to Florida to finish it and play the playoffs. Due to health protocols, the players were restricted in their movements and even while staying at Disneyland, they were entirely focused on basketball. LeBron made no secret in Mind The Game that he was delighted to leave:

We won it and we went back to the room and I started packing. I went back to my room and started packing my sh*t. I started throwing stuff, like “I can’t wait to get the hell out of here!” They had the little after party downstairs at the outdoor place, and we all went there and celebrated with the family and had drinks and it was fun. You got an opportunity to finally see your family, and everybody was excited and happy.

Sh*t, we had won a championship so I didn’t take that for granted. That was an amazing feat. But I was ready to get the hell out of there.

The Chosen One’s feelings are easily understandable, given that the bubble was a very difficult situation for many players to navigate.

Indeed, they were forced to live apart from their loved ones for weeks, which had a psychological impact on them. Damian Lillard and Paul George, in particular, admitted that they had a very difficult time with this living environment. A detail that those who criticize Los Angeles’s title in the bubble tend to forget…