Alex Caruso Disses Lakers' Bubble Championship After Winning 'Real' Title With Thunder
That second championship tastes sweeter for Alex Caruso.
Alex Caruso became a two-time NBA champion on Sunday night after helping push the Oklahoma City Thunder past the Indiana Pacers in Game 7. Shortly after the final buzzer, he was sure to let the world know that this championship tasted much sweeter than his first.
Caruso was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers squad in 2020 that won the wildly unique NBA Finals held inside the bubble at Disney World amid the pandemic. He played a key role during the Lakers' run inside the bubble, averaging more than 24 minutes per game in the playoffs, but earning a ring with the Thunder had a much different feel to it.
It felt much more real—his words, not mine.
"Yeah, now I got a real one. Now nobody can say anything. Yeah, I think just because of the way the team is constructed now versus the team I had in 2020, like it was much harder with this team just because of the experience, right?" Caruso said.
"And everybody talked about you need experience, win a championship, and you need this, that, and the other. And I said multiple times through the postseason with this team that the good basketball is good basketball, winning basketball is winning basketball. And the best team can win no matter what happens if you go out there and execute and do the stuff that you need to do to win the game. And I think through the playoffs, this team grew up and learned on the fly, which most teams have to learn through losses and learn through defeat. And I think this team learned through success."
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Winning a championship, whether it's inside a shared bubble or one that requires cross-country travel and playing in front of raucous crowds, is incredibly difficult no matter what. Having said that, Caruso earning ring number two the more traditional way likely has to feel just a touch more gratifying.
Plus, as he alluded to, getting the job done with a young squad who hadn't been on the game's biggest stage as opposed to a team led by the face of the league in LeBron James during his 2020 championship, it's hard to think up two scenarios that could be any more different.