Former NBA champion of Jordan’s Bulls on the Lakers and Lebron’s 2020 championship: “A bubble ring.... garbage!”
Ron Harper won five NBA titles during his career. Three with Michael Jordan and two with Kobe, and he has doubts about how legit LeBron’s last title is.
The debate will never end. Nothing will ever be settled, but that doesn’t stop us from discussing the Michael Jordan vs. LeBron ad nauseam. Now, one of MJ’s teammates has joined the conversation, to comparing the two, but talking about one of LeBron’s four titles.
Does the Bubble ring shine the same?
The championship in doubt in the mind of Ron Harper is 2020 title LeBron and the Los Angeles Lakers won in the NBA Bubble after the Covid shortened season. Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus shortly after going up to post game microphones, rubbing each and every one seemingly mocking the severity of COVID-19. He tested positive a few days later and the season was immediately suspended.
The NBA restarted the league in late July as 22 teams participated in what came to be known as the NBA Bubble. There was a two week period of what came to be known as the seeding games. Then Play-In Tournament. Then came the First round of the playoffs, the Conference Semis and the Conference Finals before the NBA Finals. The postseason was structured the same, although there was no home court advantage or travel or fans in he stands for that matter.
The Lakers were the last team standing after LeBron put up almost 28 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists in the 21 playoff games. He dropped a 28 point triple double in the close out game of the NBA Finals, but Harper isn’t buying the legitimacy of the Championship. The former Chicago Bull responded on an X post referencing the 2020 Lakers title referring to it as “The bubble ring is just that! A bubble ring… Trash.”
LeBron’s other shortened title season
There are few people more qualified to talk about championship titles and be able to back it up like Ron Harper. He spent five years in Chicago, winning three rings with Michael Jordan. He won another couple rings in Los Angeles with Kobe and Shaq in 2000 and 2001.
Harper was key player for Cleveland Cavs and the LA Clippers before heading to Chicago and becoming a role player on the Bulls teams that three-peated from 1996 to 1998. He played one more season in Chicago after MJ retired, and then went to LA where he won back to back titles with the Lakers.
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There have been two other shortened seasons in the history of the NBA, and those were cut short due to lockouts. There have been four lockouts in history, but the two in 1995 and 1996 didn’t affect the season or the amount of games that were played. The 1998-99 season after the Bulls three-peat was shortened by 32 games, after the six month long lockout. The San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Knicks in that shortened season.
The 2011 lockout shortened the season to 66 games after a five month standoff and LeBron and the Miami Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder for the first of his four rings. Two of LeBron’s titles came in shortened seasons, which is something you don’t hear a lot of people talk about in the GOAT discussion. Maybe Harper is on to something.