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This is Danny Green. It was by far the hardest championship that I had to achieve. 2020 NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers. We weren't just playing for ourselves. He's going to take you through their entire championship run presented by State Farm. This is the run. The 2019 to 2020 Lakers were built to win. LeBron James was entering his second season in Los Angeles. And after missing the playoffs the previous year, the front office snapped into action, acquiring free agent Danny Green and
trading for superstar Anthony Davis. But across the hall at Staple Center, another contender was forming. The Clippers had added Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, creating what many believed was the most talented roster in the league. The Lakers wasted no time proving they were serious, starting the season with a 36-7 record. But about halfway through the season, tragedy struck. On January 26, Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash, devastating the city of Los Angeles and leaving the Lakers organization grieving in the middle of a championship pursuit. All eyes were on the Lakers. It might have been the only year that I was a favorite to win it. You know, San Antonio, we might have been favored to
go to the finals, but Toronto, we were not favored. San Antonio, like Miami was f like they were the favorites to win. as a Laker with the that magnifying glass and that microscope on us throughout the whole year brought a lot of heat and a lot of attention and being the number one seed and all the guys that we signed, you're expected to win. You're expected to do it. Everybody's critiquing you from the major media to the small market media to people with fake accounts. There was definitely a I would say a huge amount of pressure, but added pressure following Kobe's death. And then of course when they brought in the Mama jerseys and wearing that Mama jersey, it was sleek. It was
nice. It was one of my favorite jersey of all time. Fire jersey, but it came with a little bit extra pressure on top. And then from that point on, it was like we weren't just playing for ourselves. In the month following, the Lakers would lose just two games. And by March, they were sitting comfortably at top the West. But everything changed on March 11th when Rudy Goar tested positive for COVID 19. Then just hours later, the NBA suspended its season indefinitely. As the world shut down, the league searched for a safe way to continue play. Eventually, the NBA created a quarantine campus inside Disney World in Orlando, Florida. And nearly 4 months after the shutdown, players began being notified
that they'd soon be entering the bubble to restart the season in isolation. I was still working out, so I was making sure I was running the beach. I was making sure I was lifting, make sure I didn't lose uh any steps. And they were like, "Oh, we're finally going back in and we're going to do it this way in a bubble." I was like, "All right, you know, it's kind of interesting. We all got to fly to this place. I'm wondering how is this going to be? It was very limited on the plane and we were on the plane. It was spaced out seats. You had to be 6 feet apart. I mean, how we were living then." And I remember like, "Oh, we can't have certain staff. We only bring one or two staff members. We
were kind of I feel like every team was under staff. We didn't have enough people or hands to make sure guys were getting the treatment that they needed." 22 teams entered Orlando knowing they could be there anywhere from a few weeks to nearly 3 months. Players started arriving on July 7th. But after weeks of quarantines, testing, and settling in, basketball finally returned on July 30th. And that first night back in action featured a marquee matchup. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers versus Kawhi Leonard in the Los Angeles Clippers.
Clippers were really good that year. This is where the rivalry was like at its peak. This is the matchup that uh everybody wanted, right? In the playoffs. We never got it. Here's George. He's going five of nine. That shot good. It's a three. I remember Brun cussing me out for that possession. You know, I had I could argue we were supposed to switch. Um he could argue that, you know, I was in the way or whatever happened, but PJ probably had six or seven. If I remember, he hit a couple threes before this point. He was already hot. Um I'm guarding him. I'm trying not to give up any space. But if him and Kawawaii, you know, coming together, it's again, I
don't know for sure cuz this is 6 years ago now. But most of the times like sizes we switch or he's hedging. Braun decided to hedge go under his hedge kind of throw off a miscommunication of you know my movements and it gave him that much of an inch just to see freedom. I mean this angle looked like great defense. I think still was good defense but in this league you give a guy a hair inch can cost you three points and it did and you know we talked about it. I remember him not being too huh happy about that possession but Braun does what Braun does. He continues to make plays. He knows how to move on to the next play. His sense of urgency of making getting back into the play said
0.1 seconds, one tenth of a second. He's he's right to it. So, he got us the bucket we needed. The fan noise was not enough. Like I was a like a player that I thrived off of the energy in the building. Even the road teams, like that energy, that even that negative energy kind of pushed me the adrenaline. Even home, like to get a block shot, to knock down a shot, it wasn't the same feeling. I felt like we were in LA Fitness, you know, with just some random background noise. Subconsciously, those things do take a toll on him. There's a lot of guys on our team. I think Braun is a guy that feeds off the crowd. And I
noticed that when we first got into the bubble, regular season, I don't think he played his best basketball either. Like, he was struggling to try to find it. But he's a great, so he's a chameleon. He can adapt and adjust to any situation. So, he did, but you could tell if you watch some of his regular season games, I don't think he played his best basketball, and he was trying to find his rhythm, too. The Lakers finished the regular season with the best record in the Western Conference at 5219, narrowly ahead of the number two seed Clippers. Meanwhile, the Portland Trailblazers battled through the NBA's first ever playin tournament behind a
scorching hot Damen Lillard to secure the eight seed. And in game one, Dame stayed hot. Lillard scored 34 points as Portland stunned the Lakers in the series opener. The first sign of a trend that would follow LA throughout the playoffs. I wouldn't say it was a panic, but you know, you know how the media is. When you win, you're the best in the world. When you lose, it's like, oh, they're in trouble. They might be going home. And uh I remember that happening in the Portland series. I remember that happening in Houston series. That was a wakeup call. We had a great group that could score, but I feel like our offense wasn't that smooth because of we were trying to do certain things, make sure
LeBron, AD, got us touch. We had too many options and there's only one basketball and you know, we went like 12 deep, which is hard to do especially in the playoffs. Uh but they played well. Uh they got the game one and after that we kind of just had that sense of urgency to not let him get another one. And same with Houston. Like they both kind of shell shocked us a little bit. And it wasn't just LeBron who found his rhythm. AD was showing that he was one of the best players in the league, too. After the disappointing game one loss, AD dominated. He led the Lakers to victory in games two and three with 31 and 29 point double doubles. Even when
he wasn't scoring as many points, his impact was undeniable. In the Lakers 20 point game four win, AD dropped 18 points, but was a team high plus 35. This is pretty Anthony Davis, healthy Anthony Davis. This is what got him top 75. That was a top 75 player in the history of the game because of what he's capable of, what he could do, and what he did. He had a great series throughout the whole playoffs. But yeah, he was great. Hit game winners for us. Changed the game, blocking shots, protect the rim. It's easier for me, KCP, Alex Russo, to guard those guys in permanent knowing we got Jelle, Dwight, and
Anthony Davis blocking shots at the rim. It may not been the smoothest thing, but in the pick and roll, damn near unstoppable. Him in the post trying to figure out the hardest thing for him was like getting out of a double team, you know, finding guys, but when you have so many threats and so many weapons around you, it opened up the floor for him and all of us, too. Uh, but yeah, he was a he was a force and he was demonstrative in every fashion and everything that he did. And I'm I'm lucky that I got a chance to play with him pre, you know, the injuries happening. Just unlucky turn for him after that. Yeah, he was amazing.
Nothing short of that. He's doing the jokes thing now. I don't know if you see he's doing the pranksters thing. He wasn't locked. I mean, he said that during that time in the bubble, they had the little football league. So, he did play video games. Uh, but they like to joke around a lot. You know, gambling shots after practice, you know, who can beat who and what shot games, shooting games. But yeah, he was playing the video games at that point. Talk a little trash here and there. They had their little football tournament going on. They hung out. They kicked it. I want to say it was Xbox at the time. It was, you know, him, Duds, Quinn, Cook, Braun, I think J.R. maybe, and Cheese. Deion
Waiters called We called Deion Wers Cheese. Who won that tournament? I don't know. But I know they were big on said Braun was big on making sure we were together and click kicking it off the court. You would think he was a guy that went to college cuz he operated in his or like he was a true leader. And I can say that because I've been through multiple organizations and I've seen some really good ones and I've seen some bad ones. And you know, he is the true definition of in all aspects of the sense of leader. Like we're doing team dinner. We're going here. We're going to go to the movies. We're going to go paintball and we're going to do this. Um we're going out tonight. We got a team, you know, function. And on the
court, make sure we walk through. Make sure it's this person, you know, he's a big goofball. Crack a lot of jokes. And at a certain point, he always turns it up and gets a little more serious once playoffs comes around after we lost Cob and being in a bubble. You know, he knew was at stake, but he just raised his level of play, his level of focus, and his level of leadership. As the Lakers prepared for game five against Portland, the playoffs suddenly took a backseat to something much bigger than basketball. Following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Bucks made the decision to boycott their playoff game against the Orlando Magic. I have not seen anything like this in my life. NBA team boycotting.
The rest of the league followed. Games were postponed and for a moment it was unclear whether the NBA season would continue at all. Players were very serious about leaving. There was real heavy consideration. There was not much else going on in the world. It was mainly the movements of what was happening in our communities. So, we talked about it every day. And then of course when the shutdown happened, it was all right, where do we go from here? Like if we're going to stop playing and we're going to make a stance, we need to come up with some solutions. We need to figure it out. We
had our meetings and all the groups came together and it was figuring out who wanted to play. I remember a certain coach that spoke and this is before I actually got a chance to play for Doc. And I was like, you know, Doc, damn, Doc got some good stuff. You know, he talked about the league when he played and how different the world was then. And it was not easy, you know, growing up as a African-American man during those times or playing basketball during those times. So sharing that and shedding that light to us on those times, I think put a lot of things in perspective for us moving forward and what we needed to do. Lakers played a huge role because I mean everybody's following what we were doing. LeBron
James been the face of the league for 20 years and whatever LeBron says he's going to do, you better believe a lot of people are going to follow. I'm not saying what he said or what he did in the bubble, but he was on the verge of like he wasn't sure. They were looking at us, they were looking at the Clippers, they're looking at Kawhai, they're looking at certain head coaches, but you know, people were looking at Braun. I was like, "What are you going to do?" And there was some serious consideration there. After 3 days, the playoffs resumed. The Lakers closed out Portland in game five, advancing to face James Harden and the Houston Rockets in the second round. And once again, the Lakers dropped game one. But just like before, LeBron and AD
responded immediately. The two superstars combined for 62 points in game two to even out the series. Then in game three, another veteran stepped up. Rajan Rondo gave the Lakers a huge lift off the bench, finishing with 21 points and nine assists in a 112 to 102 win. And in game four, it became clear the playoff Rondo had fully arrived. you know, the biggest, best players in the world um shine when the stage and the lights are the brightest. And he's an example of that. He knows every play the other team is running. He's going to watch film, watch the game three times and tell us what he saw.
Morris across court. Rondo just hit a three. Better put a hand up. AND RONDO HAS GOT HIS THIRD MADE three of the night. And he's going to get steals and deflections. He's going to make it happen whatever needs to happen for us to win. When people ask me like who would I love to play with I never got a chance to play with. I got a chance to play with Rondo, but I wanted to play with Boston Rondo. He grew up in that Boston culture where like it's from that era where MJ used to talk trash to himself to like, well, I took that personal. It's like that guy never said that. You just made that up in your mind. Like KG, I think, used to talk to himself. Rondo, he didn't need anybody
else to get him up for G. Like he was just a trash talker and a lot of times to himself to get himself going and you know, he would talk to other team, talk a little trash and he always found an angle. Even if we're playing competitive games, he's going to find an angle to mess with you. He might cheat a little bit, but that's who he was. I don't think he played anything honest. He's I'm always find that edge and whether it's cards, whether it's shooting games, he might foul you. That's why people hate, you know, Pat Bev, Dylan Brooks. I got a chance to share locker room with both those guys. And even Rondo like he's a pain in the ass. But when he's on your team, you're like, we need this guy. We need that.
With help from playoff Rondo, the Lakers closed out Houston in five games and advanced to the Western Conference Finals. Waiting for them was a Denver Nuggets team quickly becoming the story of the playoffs. After making history by coming back from consecutive 3-1 deficits against the Jazz and Clippers, Denver had emerged as a serious threat in a brutal Western Conference. I mean, Joic was still a very good player, but he wasn't three-time MVP Joic at this point. And Jamal Murray was just Bubble Murray was on another level, too. I remember playing great defense on him and him still hitting shots. And I'm
like, god damn it. like this guy just won't miss. So that was a tough series. It was a lot closer than what this the series showed and what sometimes the scores showed and a lot of them came down to the wire because of how well not only how good Joic is but how well Jamal Murray played and he didn't miss many shots and he just thrived in that environment. But Joic was also a tough assignment. We had Dwight for that. You know obviously Jelle and when you have multiple bigs you can put on him it makes it tougher. I mean Dwight was our he was one of our cornerstones man. physicality, set the tone, set good screens, rough some people up, use his fouls, use them wisely. And also this
series, he had to play smart. So he knew how to guard Joic and he made it physical for him. So I think that also pushed Jokic to be even better. Like he knew he had to make adjustments and playing against Dwight and playing against us. It was like he definitely went back home and people think he just goes watches his horses. I'm pretty sure he watched the clips in that film and was like, "All right, I need to be better at this, this, and this." And I think that's what kind of made him so great. The Lakers controlled game one behind 37 points from Anthony Davis. And early in game two, it looked like more of the same. Midway through the third quarter, LA led by 16 points. But the
Nuggets refused to go away. Denver stormed back, cutting the deficit to just four entering the fourth quarter and turning game two into another bubble classic. Was this AD gamewinner? Man, it was a close game. It was tight. And I'm like, I don't know if we get out of this. If they won that game, they would have changed the whole series around. I don't even know if he had a play drone up for this. Like Rondo's just like, yo, just go. You go. I'm trying to cut. Here's Davis 4-3 IN THE WIN. OH, IT'S GOOD. Anthony Davis, you see how frustrated he punched the ball with that game winner gave us the momentum, the confidence, everything we
needed, and also kind of put them in a like that's a devastating play to experience on the other side. And when you lose by a gamewinner, it's really hard to bounce back from it. That was a play that pretty much I think won us the championship. Like no disrespect to Miami. Miami is a very good team, but I think this was the hardest overall team that we faced throughout that playoff run. Denver took game three, but the Lakers answered in game four to regain control of the series and take a 3-1 series lead. In a closeout game five for the Lakers, LeBron delivered one of the defining performances of the Bubble
playoffs. 38 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists to send the Lakers to the NBA Finals. But even as the stakes got bigger, life inside the bubble remained surreal. I remember Brian having his bike riding around as if he needed to do it. Just he wanted to feel normal. Some guys golfed, some guys fished. You know, a couple of us went to the same breakfast spot every day. And you know, Jelle did his vlogging. I just walked around sometimes, some guys went to the pool. Uh but you needed some normaly. It's like groundhog day every day. You seeing the same thing, same people over and over every day. So I've been in a league
long enough to where there was back tobacks in the playoffs and we had back to back to backs during the regular season. But most playoff years we had especially the earlier games we had days in between. I think it was shorter during that time. We didn't have many days in between even in the early rounds like people were playing. So as much as they thought we were getting rest, it was a lot of wear and tear on the body too. I remember coming out of there and my body feeling like a newborn baby deer when I got off the plane and I was younger then. But it was a tough task playing every other day. So the days off, you do stuff to get your mind off, but it's also get off your feet and
trying to avoid other teams, which also made it awkward cuz you don't want to hang out with other teams. You're supposed to be competitive. Uh so having to beat a team or lose a team and then see them right after or share the same restaurant with them, it's like, man, what the hell we doing here? But there was one star who seemed to thrive in this bubble environment, and the Lakers were about to face him in the NBA finals. Jimmy Butler's playoff intensity had powered the number five seed heat through the Eastern Conference and into the finals against the Lakers. Behind dominant performances from LeBron and AD, LA controlled games one and two. But in game three, with Miami desperately needing a win, Jimmy Butler
delivered one of the greatest performances of his career. Four to shoot. Butler drives, flips it up, and in. Jimmy Butler playing nearly the entire game. Butler finished with a 40point triple double in a win to bring the Heath back into the series. Jimmy Butler was hustling on and off the court, launching Big Face Coffee where he upcharged fellow NBA players for cups of coffee. I'm not a coffee person, but even if I was, I'm not paying $20. I think it was like $40 for like he was charging like $40 a coffee cup. Yeah, I'm cool.
Jimmy's cool. I think he's great. I'm a fan. I'm not that much of a fan. Bubble Jimmy. God damn. He just looked like a scruffy. He didn't shave his face. He was just gritty, grimy, and just didn't care about anything but basketball. And he killed us. He killed everybody. And I feel like he's one of those guys that again like Rondo turns into a different player when the playoffs start. Like he's a guy during the regular season, it's like, "All right, we can guard him to where, you know, make him shoot jump shots. You can't do that in the playoffs against Jimmy." Like he's hitting jump shots, he's hitting threes, he's hitting fadeaways, he's getting fouled. He was doing it all. And for some reason, I guess when the playoffs and the lights get
brighter, he turns into said an all-around like player athlete. Like he is a great athlete, but he just turns into a unbelievable like star. And I think part of it is also the way he plays and way he approaches the game and empowers his teammates or what he does it raises the level of play of everybody around him. And that's why you can take a playin team and go to the finals. You know, you can take a lower seated team and beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. Uh cuz not only is he playing great, but everybody's around him has that same attitude and that same mentality of, you know, f them. We don't care. We're going to come out here, nothing to lose. You know, they're fearless.
Even with injuries piling up around them, the Heat refused to go away. The Lakers knew they needed to respond in game four. LeBron took control early, finishing with 28 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. But Miami refused to back down, cutting the deficit to two with just over 3 minutes to go. Then in the final minutes, AG not only played incredible defense, but hit the dagger three to steal an 102 to 96 Lakers victory. The Lakers were now just one win away from an NBA championship. LA broke out their Black Mamba jerseys for game five, hoping to celebrate a title that night in honor of Kobe Bryant. But the game turned into a neckand-neck battle led by
Miami's past and present superstars. Braun delivered 40 points. Jimmy answered with a 35point triple double. The Lakers trailed by one point as the clock wound down. That's when LeBron attacked the defense and found Danny Green wide open at the top of the key for a potential title winning three. I don't remember how it began. When you have a play like this happen, you don't remember anything but this play. Green coming up to set a screen. James goes the other way. Drives down a lane. Back out to Green. GREEN FOR THREE. OFF THE MARK. IF I can get that one back again. Was there a shot clock on that or No, there was no shot clock on that,
right? I had a lot of time. Holy Damn. I thought it was like 4 seconds. When I caught it, like three or four. So, even after I saw it in replay, I thought there was still like less time than that. When I caught it, I thought it was like two or three sec like 2 seconds. So, I rushed it sooner than I should have. And even after watching it, I still remember being 8 seconds when I shot the ball. Like I thought for sure when I shot it was like 4 seconds. But like I definitely had time to pump fake or take a dribble or get my catch, my gather, but the plan was to get LeBron James to switch, right? I had Duncan Robinson guarding me and most of the times I had the weaker defender guarding me most games. So a lot of me, a lot of games my like I would set
screens for Braun, get the switch on him so he can go to the post, either set a rip screen or a flare screen. They trapped him. I tried to set on the outside. I thought Braun like he likes to get to his left hand. Fans don't know that or not. So, I try to set it to where he rejected the screen and had two guys on him. Threw it back. Me not knowing the time I catch it, drop it, I see a guy running at me. I'm just trying to get the shot off fast. And then, uh, we actually had time for another shot. And Keith got the rebound and I was like I was right behind him like, "Yo, if I get another look at this, I'm wide open.
This one's going." But he shot it again. Not ideal, not the shot. And in hindsight, it's easy to be like, "Yo, I could have had more time. I could have took my time." But I rushed it. Didn't get a good catch on it. And it was short. It was ugly. You know, you live and you learn from again your biggest failures and the toughest losses. I remember after the game, wifey was like just turn your phone off or like get don't go on Instagram. And I was even thinking about that at the time. I was just thinking like damn, I could have missed the shot. And then she was like just turn your phone. I was like, oh damn, people are actually they're going to come for me for this one. And they
still do to this day, but I don't give a damn. You know, I mean this basketball game obviously we still won. you know, we ended up making it happen. Of course, I would like love to have made the shot. There's been plenty of shots I've been a part of that were big moments and I made some and I missed some. That was one of them. It's unfortunate, but it helped build character within me and within us before the game even started. I was like, we're going to get the next one. And I think everybody had that same confidence. I think they just ran out of gas, but they've been playing shouldn't say above themselves, but you know, they've been playing at their peak potential as a group, which
you don't get that from every person on the roster. You might have two or three guys peeking at a moment or, you know, three or four or maybe one or two. It's hard to have your full rotation of eight guys on the same page and playing their best basketball at the same time. They took us to six and 10 different series. Nine of those series we probably win in five games. It was like all of 30 people. There's just our organization. And also the weirdest part is the rest of the resort does not like you or wants to be. They all leaving and it's just an empty place. And I guess in perspect like I had think about it in retrospect after the fact like you have to go through all those days and like Miami is
probably sick to lose. Like if you have to go through all those days and lose and then be there and watch a team for at a restaurant like 30 ft away celebrate it's it's kind of awkward. It was by far the hardest championship that I had to achieve. Said making that adjustment playing through co having your family and friends not really there not be able to even celebrate it properly. We went to the same restaurant that we go to every day and celebrate as a team. But after that, no real parade. So, it was it was just different. But, you know, in the bubble, like a lot of different things going on where the balls just start closing in on you
mentally and emotionally. It was a hard f. And again, also the physical task of every other day playing which wears on you by far like the hardest because again, mentally taxing. I think people understand most of it, but I think there's a lot that went into play for us to be there, get there, and win. And I think they most fans do, the real fans appreciate it. That was a iconic legendary team. And I think we would have won regardless if it was a bubble or not.
