Daryl Morey says that Lebron’s, the title of Bubble Lakers will forever marked by an asterisk “
Five years have passed since the NBA entered a bubble on the Disney campus in Orlando to keep things out while crowning a NBA champion.
In a look back to the bubble of The AthleticThe manager of the NBA Daryl Morey – at the time with Houston, now head of the basketball operations with Philadelphia – said that the title Lebron James and Lakers won in the bubble should come with an asterisk.
“If the Rockets had won the title, I would have absolutely celebrated it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience requested. However, all those with whom I speak throughout the League agree privately that does not really hold up like a genuine championship. Perhaps the lasting legacy of the NBA bubble is that the NBA should be that NBA should be proud of its leadership both for the beginning of the Pandemic, even if the sample will be marked forever by a handful forever.
It looks like a little time revisionist history of Morey. Then the assistant Phil Handy of the Lakers felt like this and replied to Morey.
They can speak all that shit they want. If you were not in the bubble to win it, they may want to keep silent. Each team entered the bubble to compete and win. If Houston had beaten us and won it, I’m sure they wouldn’t say that Lol was not real.
– Phil Handy (@94Feetofgame) July 30, 2025
A great takeaway at the time – and discussed at the time – was that this was the highest level of basketball playoff that anyone could remember. This was due to some reasons: the mid -season times to rest to rest the bodies of the players, the lack of travel to wear people and the lack of distractions and focus on basketball. The challenge was more mental, since the players were blocked in the bubble and far from their families, lacking the feeling of “normal” life. Lebron’s Lakers and Jimmy Butler’s heat have managed that mental part better, which is why they played for a ring.
The bubble was its thing, certainly different from any other NBA title, but this does not make it less. Everyone was playing according to the same rules, the challenges were simply unique for that season and the bubble. This did not stop Lebron’s critics (or at least those who try to break down his goat discussion) from jumping the possibility of saying that this title was not legitimate. The point are missing, there are no missing the mental force of Lebron brought the Lakers to a title. That matters.
Although it is different, the bubble should not have an asterisk.