The Los Angeles Lakers put away the Miami Heat on Sunday to win the franchise’s 17th NBA championship. The Lakers are now tied with the Boston Celtics for the most titles of any club, and remain the team with most championship victories in the 21st century.
LeBron James captured his fourth championship, and third with a different team, the only NBA player to ever do so. He previously won titles with the Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s the Lakers’ first championship since 2010, and comes nine months after franchise legend Kobe Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash.
The Lakers defeated the Heat by a score of 106-90 Friday night and ended the longest season in NBA history, which first tipped off last October. The league suspended play for four months in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, before reconvening down in Orlando at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Friday night puts an end (hopefully) to the NBA bubble, which most importantly was able to complete the season without a single positive case of COVID-19 among its inhabitants.
The NBA now faces an uncertain winter and doesn’t expect to start its next season until after the New Year, which it hopes will coincide with an approved vaccine on the market.