Ex-Rockets GM Throws Shade at Lakers’ NBA Bubble Championship

Andy Nesbitt | Jul 30, 2025

LeBron James and the Lakers won the 2020 NBA title. / Kim Klement-Imagn Images

Five years ago LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2020 NBA title in the wildest of circumstances as the league held all of the playoffs in what was known as the NBA bubble in Orlando during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The challenges of winning that championship were unlike anything the basketball world has seen before, as all the players and coaches were unable to leave the grounds of the Disney resort until their teams were eliminated from the playoffs.

On Wednesday, Joe Vardon of The Athletic published a lengthy look back at the NBA bubble and everything that took place inside of it, which included James and the Lakers celebrating the franchise's 17th title.

Former Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who is currently the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers, was interviewed as part of that story and he threw some shade at the Lakers' championship, saying it wasn't "genuine" and deserves an "asterisk."

"Had the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required," Morey said. "Yet, everyone I speak to around the league privately agrees that it doesn’t truly hold up as a genuine championship. Perhaps the lasting legacy of the NBA bubble is that the NBA should be proud of its leadership at both the beginning and end of the pandemic, even though the champion will forever be marked by an asterisk."

That's a pretty harsh take on what the Lakers accomplished in the most trying of times and others in The Athletic's story had took the opposite side, saying that it was just hard, if not even harder, to win a championship in those conditions.

You have to think LeBron will have something to say about these comments from Morey. Stay tuned.

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