Kentavious Caldwell-Pope says Lakers' 2020 bubble championship was 'one of the hardest championships to win'
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: “They just hating, man. It’s one of the hardest championships to win. You’re playing a season then the season’s shut down. You don’t know if you’re even going to come back and play basketball. We saw how, in the regular season, we was playing and then we was like, ‘What the f—.’ Season is over with, like damn. Like what if we can’t come back because we already had in our mind like, this is our championship regardless of if COVID stopped it or not. But then the season stops, boom, season starts back up and have to go to the bubble…Once we knew the season was starting back up in the bubble, we was hype. We was ready to go get our championship like we wanted. Then the season stopped again in the bubble. These things like had people’s minds messed up like ‘I’m ready to go home. Forget basketball.’ I’m so grateful and I appreciate all my teammates at the time, their mindset was on that championship. They were ready to go. They came here for a reason and we wanted it.”
Source: YouTube
Source: YouTube
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Reacting to the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope comments that the Nuggets were gassed at the end of the year:
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More on this storyline
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: “We wanted that one so bad we would have jumped through flaming hoops for it. For me, it was the hardest because of all the shut down, restarting, shut down. That can change a lot of people’s mindsets. Like, ‘F— this. I’m not dealing with this anymore.’ I always appreciated that and thankful that everybody on the team at that time had the same mindset. They weren’t ready to go.” -via YouTube / July 29, 2024
Ultimately, the Lakers came out on top and won their 17th championship despite these otherworldly conditions. Yet, NBA discourse still tried to disprove this title as arena environments and fans did not play a factor. But Caldwell-Pope believes that the 2020 championship was one of the hardest championships to win, via The Draymond Green Show. -via Lakers Nation / July 29, 2024
Denver made Caldwell-Pope an offer, but there was a sizable gap in annual salary, sources said. Denver could have tried compensating with a longer deal averaging a little north of Caldwell-Pope’s $15 million player option number — say a 5-year, $90 million contract — but the Magic’s offer might have rendered the conversation moot. -via ESPN / July 26, 2024