In the summer of 2019, Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka quickly assembled a championship-caliber roster once Kawhi Leonard turned down the team to sign with the L.A. Clippers.
When LeBron James is on a team, the goal is always to surround him with 3-point shooters and capable defenders. With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the house already at that time, bringing in an experienced 3-and-D wing Danny Green and guard Avery Bradley to join him in the backcourt went a long way.
However, when coronavirus pandemic hit and the season was finishing inside the Orlando bubble, Bradley opted not to go, which meant Caldwell-Pope, Green and Alex Caruso saw an increase in workload. Given the straining circumstances to protect players from COVID-19, being away from family for months and playing with no fans proved to be taxing mentally.
Ultimately, the Lakers came out on top and won their 17th championship despite these otherworldly conditions. Yet, NBA discourse still tried to disprove this title as arena environments and fans did not play a factor. But Caldwell-Pope believes that the 2020 championship was one of the hardest championships to win, via The Draymond Green Show:
“They just hating, man. It’s one of the hardest championships to win. You’re playing a season then the season’s shut down. You don’t know if you’re even going to come back and play basketball. We saw how, in the regular season, we was playing and then we was like, ‘What the f—.’ Season is over with, like damn. Like what if we can’t come back because we already had in our mind like, this is our championship regardless of if COVID stopped it or not. But then the season stops, boom, season starts back up and have to go to the bubble…Once we knew the season was starting back up in the bubble, we was hype. We was ready to go get our championship like we wanted. Then the season stopped again in the bubble. These things like had people’s minds messed up like ‘I’m ready to go home. Forget basketball.’ I’m so grateful and I appreciate all my teammates at the time, their mindset was on that championship. They were ready to go. They came here for a reason and we wanted it.”
With everything happening in the world, particularly politically, it could have been easy for Lakers players to call it quits and step away. However, Caldwell-Pope appreciates everyone buying in and willing to go for a championship in the bubble:
“We wanted that one so bad we would have jumped through flaming hoops for it. For me, it was the hardest because of all the shut down, restarting, shut down. That can change a lot of people’s mindsets. Like, ‘F— this. I’m not dealing with this anymore.’ I always appreciated that and thankful that everybody on the team at that time had the same mindset. They weren’t ready to go.”
At the end of the day, a championship is a championship. The factors were the same for everybody, and ultimately it was the Lakers that came out on top, a memory that Caldwell-Pope and his teammates will remember forever.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope explains ‘love-hate’ relationship with Lakers fans
Being a Laker is not for everyone as the fans expect championships every season, which could result in some criticisms on players. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope explained that ‘love-hate’ relationship with L.A. fans and hpw he felt it while playing for the Lakers.
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