The 2020 NBA bubble championship continues to stir debate years later, but for Danny Green - a three-time NBA champion and a starter on that Lakers squad - the criticism surrounding that title still doesn’t sit right. And frankly, he’s got a point.
On a recent episode of No Fouls Given, Green didn’t hold back when addressing the persistent narrative that the Lakers’ 2020 title deserves an asterisk. His message was clear: if anyone else had won that championship, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“They wouldn’t call it a Mickey Mouse ring,” Green said. “They’d give them way more respect… because it’s Bron, because it’s the Lakers, people will find a way to hate on it.”
That 2020 Lakers team, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, didn’t just win a title - they endured something no other champion in NBA history had to: three months of isolation in a quarantined environment, away from family and the outside world, all while navigating the emotional toll of a global pandemic and the social justice movement that defined that summer. Mental toughness wasn’t optional - it was the price of admission.
Green’s frustration is rooted in the inconsistency of the criticism. He pointed out that had the Clippers - the team many expected to face the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals - made it through and won the title, the narrative would’ve been entirely different.
“If we matched up and they beat us, they would have been like, ‘Oh, fair and square, that’s what happened in the regular season,’” Green said. “Even if Miami would have won, they would have been like, ‘Oh, they were the best team.’”
He’s not wrong. The Clippers, despite their star-studded roster, couldn’t make it past Denver in the second round.
Meanwhile, the Lakers stayed locked in, battled through the unique emotional and physical grind of bubble life, and came out on top. Yet somehow, that accomplishment gets downplayed.
“If Denver would have won, they wouldn’t call it a Mickey Mouse ring,” Green continued. “But because the Lakers won, even though we were the best team in the f****** league that year, it was like, ‘Ah, we’re gonna discredit it.’”
Green’s not just defending the ring - he’s defending the grind. He’s been part of three championship teams, and he knows what it takes to win at the highest level.
The bubble wasn’t a shortcut; it was a crucible. The Lakers didn’t just win - they endured, adapted, and executed under unprecedented conditions.
And let’s be real: if we’re going to start handing out asterisks for every playoff run affected by injury or unusual circumstances, we’d have to rewrite a lot of history. Did the Thunder’s title last year get an asterisk because Tyrese Haliburton went down in Game 7?
Did the Raptors’ 2019 championship get one because the Warriors lost Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson? No.
And it shouldn’t. Championships are earned, not gifted.
What made that 2020 Lakers run special wasn’t just the talent - it was the resilience. The Clippers, by all accounts, didn’t want to be in the bubble.
They lacked the same mental edge, and it showed when Denver sent them packing. The Lakers, on the other hand, stayed focused, stayed together, and finished the job.
Green’s take taps into a larger truth: there’s a segment of fans and media that’s always ready to knock the Lakers, and even more so when LeBron is involved. But the reality is, that 2020 championship counts just the same.
The banner hangs in Crypto.com Arena. The rings are real.
The grind was realer.
You don’t have to like the Lakers. You don’t even have to like LeBron.
But if you’re being honest about what it takes to win in the NBA - especially under those circumstances - you have to respect what that team accomplished. The 2020 ring doesn’t deserve an asterisk.
If anything, it deserves an exclamation point.