The argument for LeBron James in the GOAT debate definitely strengthened after the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2020 NBA Championship in the Orlando Bubble. FS1 analyst and well-known ‘LeBron hater’ Skip Bayless dismissed the Championship ring as a Cubic Zirconia version, advocating for an asterisk to be placed beside the name of the 2020 Champions. Bayless substantiated his argument by saying that the tournament was basically a series of pick-up games to decide the winner because of the absence of a road-game crowd. However, the general consensus hailed the Championship win to be a monumental victory for King James amid the ravages of a worldwide pandemic. Well, that narrative is slowly changing, thanks to Steven Adams‘ candid ‘Syria’ perspective on the bubble.
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The NBA was forced to suspend the 2019-20 season following the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the league management led by Commissioner Adam Silver decided to conclude the season by isolating a select few teams in an artificially created seclusion zone in Disney World, Florida. The players of the teams had to leave their families and spend the entirety of the postseason in quarantine in the designated Orlando resort.
LeBron James compared the Orlando Bubble with the movie ‘The Shining’
A lot of NBA stars didn’t like the idea of spending months away from their families to contend for the NBA Championship amid such troubling times. The players were completely cut-off from the outside world to avoid contamination and had to avail all kinds of amenities from within the bubble. Even though they were kept at a five-star resort, many players expressed their dissatisfaction with the conditions.
During a 2020 interview with Richard Jefferson for UNINTERRUPTED, LeBron James painted a very sombre image of the Orlando bubble. The King couldn’t stress enough how depressing and ungodly the atmosphere was inside the secluded zone. “And if you were not in the bubble you don’t quite understand it. This is out of your whole comfort zone. No family-I didn’t see my family for 8.5 weeks. The room-literally seeing the walls-It’s like The Shining…Just like blood coming down my walls.”
James, who received an annual salary of $37,436,858 for the 2019-20 season, compared living in a 5-star resort to the 1980 horror thriller The Shining, where the hauntings in a secluded hotel would turn Jack Nicholson’s character into an insane murderer. Although the accounts of James and other players had accrued the empathy and admiration of NBA fans, Steven Adams’ nonchalant description of the situation might shift the prevalent narrative a little bit.
Steven Adams’ ‘Syria’ comment provides a foil to James’ remarks
NBA fans have contrasted the contradictory accounts of Steven Adams and LeBron James to decide the real value of the Bubble Championship. During a 2020 interview, Adams had this to say about life in the bubble,
“It’s all good, mate. Let’s be clear, it’s not Syria, mate. It’s not that hard. It’s not difficult, you know what I mean. We’re living in a bloody resort.” This perspective surely puts things through a different lens and provides an alternative account of the Bubble Championship.
