First off, congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers for beating the Miami Heat in the NBA championship. It has been a long season, but we are finally at the end of it. Five months ago NBA fans didn’t even know if we were going to get to a point where we crown an NBA champion, but we are finally here.
The Lakers are now tied with the Celtics for the most NBA championships for a franchise in NBA history, with 17 championships total. This championship was more heartfelt for the Lakers than all others after losing the legendary Kobe Bryant earlier this year. “Ever since the tragedy, we wanted to do it for him, and we didn’t let him down,“ Anthony Davis said, after being asked after the game about what this championship means for him.
This is Lebron’s fourth NBA championship and fourth Finals MVP award. He has become the first player in NBA history to win a Finals MVP for three different teams. Lebron and Anthony Davis led their team to the championship, averaging 30 and 25 points respectively. As great as those two played, the Lakers had amazing contributions from their role players like Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma. These players were not asked for much, but were able to knock down some crucial shots when they needed them. Rondo reminded us why his nickname is “playoff Rondo” because he was their third best player. The way he affected the game with his passing ability and his shot making ability made it harder for the Heat to focus on Lebron and Anthony Davis.
The Heat have continued to surprise many with how they played this whole season, especially in the finals. Despite beating good teams like the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics, many people suspected that they wouldn’t even take a game from the Lakers, and they wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the spectacular play of Jimmy Butler. Butler has been known for the majority of this season to be a team-first guy: he focuses on getting his team involved and does not take many shots, however in order for the Heat to win he had to play like a superhero. In game three, Jimmy put up a 40 point triple-double, which has only been done by two other players in NBA Finals history. In game five, he put up a 35 point triple-double. He averaged the most minutes played with 42 minutes, and in game five he played 47 minutes (there are only 48 minutes in a basketball game). With these performances, you have to wonder what they could have done if Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic didn’t miss games due to injuries.
I want to shed light on all the hard work that was put into making the bubble possible. It is amazing that the NBA was able to create a whole environment where the players could safely continue to play basketball and give us fans what we were missing out on. Also, I want to offer a big shout out to the NBA and its players for continuing to push social justice issues while in the bubble. The fact that they were able to bring thousands of people including NBA players, staff and families, while nobody there tested positive for COVID-19, is impressive to say the least and deserves some appreciation.