The Lakers’ long, bumpy road to NBA champs
A decade of frustration vanished on Sunday with the 106-93 victory, the team’s first title since 2010. It wasn’t easy to get there.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The lowest point for the Lakers in the past decade is difficult to discern.
The 21-win season in 2014-15 followed by the 17-win season in 2015-16? The five coaches in eight seasons following Phil Jackson’s departure?
The attempted palace coup when Jeanie Buss’ brothers, Johnny and Jim, filed a suit to gain control of the franchise, culminating with her successful attempt to maintain control?
The six consecutive seasons without making the playoffs, the first time the franchise went more than two without a playoff appearance in 72 seasons?
The front office upheaval in which Jeanie fired her brother Jim and longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak?
The brief foray for Magic Johnson back into the front office that ended with his resignation before a game in 2019, with Johnson no longer wanting to work alongside GM Rob Pelinka?
Trading for Davis, filling the gaps
The Lakers struggled in the post-2010 championship era as Kobe Bryant’s career concluded and following longtime owner Jerry Buss’ death in 2013. Bigname acquisitions didn’t work out, and high-profile free agents, such as LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant, shunned the Lakers. The franchise struggled and was painted as a momand-pop operation – lost in a world of private equity billionaires.
The Lakers lost their way and had no direction post-Jackson and following Buss’ death. They were a mess.
“This is unchartered territory I am not prepared for,” Jeanie Buss told the Daily News of Los Angeles in 2015. “I hear the fans and hear their frustration. I’m hoping with every game it’s going to get better. I’m as impatient as any other Lakers fan.”
It didn’t get better until LeBron James decided to sign with the Lakers in 2018 and Los Angeles acquired Anthony Davis in 2019.
A decade of frustration vanished on Sunday as the Lakers won the NBA championship with a 106-93 victory over the Heat in Game 6. It is the Lakers’ first title since 2010 and the franchise’s 17th overall, tying it with the Celtics for most in league history.
“Lakers Nation, when it’s safe, I look forward to celebrating with you,” Jeanie Buss said Sunday. “Until then, I will bring back the trophy to Los Angeles where it belongs.”
The road from there to here was filled with potholes, slippery slopes, dangerous curves and strenuous uphill climbs – even after James joined the Lakers on July 1, 2018.
“What I have learned in life is the hard times or the trials is when you grow, and you turn to your faith, you turn to your family, your loved ones. And more than anything else, I think the lesson that all of us on the inside know is you’ve got to just be about the work,” Pelinka said. “You can’t really get caught up in the noise.”
James missed 27 games last season, mostly because of a groin injury, and the Lakers didn’t make the playoffs. They were a young team with Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma.
With Johnson no longer in the front office, Pelinka had full autonomy and went to work. He replaced Luke Walton with Frank Vogel, and even that wasn’t seamless. The Lakers interviewed others before Vogel, who was not their first choice even though he had success leading the Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals twice and losing to James’ Heat in 2013 and 2014.
While the Lakers tried and failed to acquire Davis from New Orleans at the 2019 trade deadline, Pelinka put together a package for new Pelicans vice president of basketball operations David Griffin. Los Angeles traded Ball, Ingram and Hart to the Pelicans for Davis, who is represented by James’ agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group.
Kawhi Leonard chose the crosstown Clippers, but Pelinka filled out the roster with complementary players – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, Avery Bradley, Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard in the offseason and Markieff Morris in March.
“Rob and Kurt and Linda (Rambis) and Jeanie and everybody upstairs did a helluva job this summer. From acquiring AD to acquiring everyone that is a part of this team to bringing back the guys that were free agents last year and bringing them back to the roster, they did a hell of a job,” James said.
Said Pelinka: “The chance to build a team around one of the greatest players and leaders to ever play doesn’t come along that often. So when he committed to us, it was a mutual trust. He showed trust in Jeanie and our front office to build a championship team, and once he put that trust in us, we had to deliver. There was no other option.”
From Day 1, Vogel preached defense and he got buy-in. The Lakers had the third-best defense during the regular season, and in the playoffs they made the necessary stops. Los Angeles had great length and size, allowing them to match up against small and big lineups.
“No. 1 thing for us with our size was to try to create a defense that didn’t allow the modern NBA offense to invert us too much,” Vogel said, “and I really like how the plan has taken form, but also developed throughout the course of the year where obviously in this league, there’s a lot of switching required.”
The Lakers, who opened the season 24-3, faced adversity right from the start. On their preseason trip to China, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s tweet “Free Hong Kong” ensnared the Lakers in an international geopolitical tumult. The Lakers were confined to their hotel and bonded over team dinners and playing cards.
From that moment until the end of the season, Vogel raved about how locked in and close players were.
Honoring Kobe’s legacy
By late January, the Lakers were 3610, atop the Western Conference. Then the unthinkable happened. On Jan. 25, James passed Kobe Bryant for No. 3 on the all-time scoring list in Philadelphia, Bryant’s hometown. The following day news broke that a helicopter had crashed in Calabasas, California, killing all those on board.
Bryant died in the crash, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others, leaving the Lakers, the city of Los Angeles and the NBA to mourn the loss of one of their brightest stars.
While Bryant wasn’t a rallying cry to win a championship – the Lakers wanted to win the title before Bryant’s death – his spirit wasn’t far from the team. The Lakers broke their huddle “1-2-3 Mamba.” They wore his special edition Mamba uniform multiple times, and after Davis hit a winning 3-pointer at the buzzer against Denver, he yelled, “Kobe.”
A month after the tragedy, a celebration for Kobe and Gianna’s lives was held at Staples Center and more than two weeks after that, the NBA suspended the season when Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
The season was in jeopardy and not for the only time. The racial justice movement played just as significant a role in the Orlando area bubble as the games did. When a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in the back Aug. 23, players came close to calling off the season during the first round of the playoffs. After the Bucks decided not to take the court against the Magic, the league postponed two-plus days of playoff games in support of the players.
Four weeks later, James expressed his pain and anger after a grand jury found none of the three Louisville police officers criminally liable for the death of Breonna Taylor.
Still, he managed to focus on basketball. “It’s probably been the most challenging thing I’ve ever done as far as a professional, as far as committing to something and actually making it through,” James said. “But I knew when I was coming what we were coming here for. I would be lying if I sat up here and knew that everything inside the bubble, the toll that it would take on your mind and your body and everything else, because it’s been extremely tough. But I’m here for one reason and one reason only, and that’s to compete for a championship. That was my mindset once I entered the bubble.”
James, the Finals MVP, and Davis were fantastic in the playoffs and just too much for a team to handle in a seven-game series. “You guys ask me about my relationship with AD, the first thing I think about is the respect, the no ego, the challenging each other,” James said. “We want each other to be better than actually ourselves. I want AD to be better than me. AD want me to be better than him. Every single night, every single day. And we challenge ourselves. I think that’s a part of it.”
The Lakers had answers for every team – Portland, Houston, Denver and then Miami. The criticism of Jeanie Buss dissipated.
“I think she’s an unbelievable owner.” James said. “I think she’s a powerful woman. I think what she believes in is an extension of her father, and continuing to build this legacy of this great franchise.”
The Lakers won a title in the most unusual and difficult of circumstances in a bubble amid a COVID-19 pandemic.
“You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have ups and downs in the bubble,” said James, who left the championship party shortly after 3 a.m. ET. “At times I was questioning myself. Should I be here? Is this worth sacrificing my family? So many things. I’ve never been without my family this long. ... I heard some rumblings from people that are not in the bubble, ‘Oh, you don’t have to travel.’ Whatever. People just doubting what goes on in here. This is right up there with one of the greatest accomplishments I’ve had.”