The Best Title
December 22nd, 2019 I went to Lakers vs Nuggets. I probably got either COVID there or the day before as I was deathly ill 48 hours later and could barely breathe even by my standards until February but it was a pretty crazy night. LeBron didn't play that night, but still something felt different. I'd been going to the Lakers nearly every year for the past seven years, basically as soon as I wasn't drop dead poor and this team definitely felt different. Walking outside and seeing the [ LeBron’s Beginning’s commercial on that giant screen in LA which was amazingly emotional, I had no idea that the world was going to change the next year, but that is when I stopped being so damn critical this team and at least thought they weren't going to suddenly lose 20 games and miss the playoffs again.
I don’t think I actually believed they were going to win a title though until Game 2 against the Rockets. The Lakers lost that game but . . . .the Rockets played the best game they could and the Lakers barely lost. I had seen the Rockets get hot and roll over teams. The Lakers were not to be rolled over. Teams like that don’t lose 7 game series.
Kobe dying. . . then COVID . . . . then seeing people rise up and seeing how society put that all down. It isn’t the same as a Sports championship and doesn’t cancel any of that. But it is something to feel nice about. And it feels very, very nice.