The 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers may not have been one of the greatest teams in the storied history of the franchise, but it was a special one that fans will always remember. In fact, for the last couple of years, plenty have missed that edition of the Purple and Gold.
That team faced plenty of adversity from day one, starting with LeBron James’ comments about the protests in Hong Kong in October 2019, to the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant a few months later and the COVID-19 pandemic that suspended the NBA season. But Los Angeles remained focused through it all, and it captured the world championship in October 2020 inside of the Walt Disney World Resort bubble.
A fan posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) of forward Jared Dudley hitting a transition 3-pointer to end the third quarter of a game against the Brooklyn Nets in January 2020. In the video, Dudley showed plenty of emotion after knocking down the trey, and the fan posted a message about missing those types of plays.
James commented by saying he agreed.
That team got dismantled not too long afterward. The Lakers traded 3-and-D wing Danny Green and a first-round draft pick for Dennis Schroder a month after winning it all, and then in August 2021, they made an unbelievable blunder by shipping Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell and another first-round pick for Russell Westbrook. According to multiple reports, James was the impetus behind the Lakers making that deal rather than going after DeMar DeRozan and/or Buddy Hield.
To this day, they’re still paying the price for giving up a few perfectly good assets for a player in Westbrook who never fit in.
