An NBA general manager without a title is policing the legitimacy of other NBA titles.
Because it’s the middle of the offseason, that means it’s time for the nearly yearly debate on the legitimacy of the Lakers’ 2020 title.
This time around, there’s at least the excuse that it’s the five-year anniversary of the bubble. That served as enough of a reason for The Athletic to pen a piece, written by Joe Vardon, that included the likes of Adam Silver, former Lakers beat writer Kyle Goon and now Sixers general manager Daryl Morey.
And it was Morey who really delivered the doozy of a quote. Naturally, there was a whole section of the article dedicated to whether the title has an asterisk on it and Morey claimed that no one in the league views the title as a genuine championship.
Had the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required. Yet, everyone I speak to around the league privately agrees that it doesn’t truly hold up as a genuine championship. Perhaps the lasting legacy of the NBA bubble is that the NBA should be proud of its leadership at both the beginning and end of the pandemic, even though the champion will forever be marked by an asterisk.
Incredible ability to talk out of both sides of your mouth on this one. To say you’d celebrate the title as legitimate and acknowledge the “immense effort and resilience required” and then immediately follow it up by making it clear it’s not a real title is incredible.
It’s nice of Morey to take some time away from running the Sixers directly into the ground to offer his insight on this. He’s replaced his annual tweet to the Warriors around mid-May with, instead, figuring out how to further minimize the Sixers’ title odds each year after watching them flame out the year prior.
A team missing 427 straight threes in a row — only a slight exaggeration — in Game 7 could not have happened to a more deserving GM, truly.
Go win anything of note before trying to handicap an actual title.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.