Williams said this on Trae Young’s podcast “From the Point,” referencing the Clippers’ loss in 7 games to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.
Williams said, “We started to hear the rumblings that nobody is going to respect this chip so we kind of just took our foot off the gas”
NBA players acting like the bubble was like being in solitary confinement in a Siberian jail will forever be funny to me.
most of these dudes came from the dankest, dirtiest, shittiest places too. Got a taste of the good shit and forgot where they came from
Four of the Nuggets starting 5 come from a basketball background with a comfortable upbringing. Basketball is a skill sport that is getting more skilled every year
The majority of the league the last 15 or so years has been players from middle/upper middle and higher households. Guys like LeBron, AI, Jimmy Butler, etc are the outliers
You gotta have the work ethic and genetics to make it to the league, and then add resources (AAU, private workouts, etc) on top and those prospects naturally rise above
Older article but the point still stands
Even Lebron dude. Like yes, his early childhood was tough. But by age 13-14, he was already kind of living the high life
And it’s always the players who underachieved in the bubble lol
You understandably don’t hear anything from the champs or the finalists, but other early exit but still good teams like Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Boston don’t have these constant “The bubble was literally the gulag” takes either.
You clearly haven’t seen LeBron’s comments on the bubble
These dudes were basically in a 5 star resort with nothing to focus on except for basketball, no travel, no nightlife, no media rumble and people pretend like that results in a less competitive basketball environment lmao…for a guy with no rings this is a pathetic statement.
You know how much I would have loved to have a break from my family with Catered meals and time to play video games and hanging with my boys in 2020?!
Then there’s Steven Adams who thought the opposite. Love him for that response. Lebron was so over dramatic about it. It’s okay Lebron you don’t need to try to justify the championship lol.
The things is even if it was like that, everybody else was under the same circumstances so the ring itself still shouldn’t have an asterisk
They were playing ball while we were fighting over toilet paper and getting in that bitch Carol Baskin’s business. The nerve.
Being away from your kids for almost 2 months does suck though even if you are at a resort.