The Los Angeles Lakers won the 2010 NBA championship thanks to their two stars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, but it could not have been done without the contributions of actors Metta World Peace, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, among which others.
World Peace, who joined the Lakers after their first championship in 2009, added a defensive edge to a team that needed a little extra on the perimeter.
Nearly 15 years after this championship, it is impossible to imagine this season without world peace on the Lakers. He immediately ingratiated himself with the fan base and became a fixture on the Lakers even in the years after he left the team and retired. He also spent a season as a developmental coach for the South Bay Lakers.
But all of this could never have happened if Dr. Jerry Buss had honored a trade request made by World Peace at the start of the 2009-10 championship season, he revealed on the World Peace website. LADE Show with Lamar Odom:
“What was easy was that Lamar was there. I requested an exchange. I remember asking for a trade at the beginning of the season because I just couldn’t handle it mentally. But then I talked to Dr. Buss. He’s an incredible human. RIP Dr. Buss. He told me, “You came here to win,” and I told him, “That’s true.” I just wanted to control my position. It took me a while to get used to it. I wanted to do my best in my role. I remember that in the final, I was ready. One game, I only had two shots. I remember being in Boston, I had two shots. It was cool. At that moment, I finally agreed. But it took me a long time.
The Lakers might not have been able to win this season without world peace. He was instrumental for the team in the Western Conference Finals and made some of the biggest shots, including a buzzer-beater against the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Finals and a game-clinching trio in Game 7 against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Learning to accept a role is perhaps one of the toughest challenges for NBA players, and the best actors are those who can accept it quickly. This is exactly what World Peace did in 2010 to achieve the final result.
The Lakers try to prove their place in a difficult Western Conference
Fast forward to 2024, and the Lakers are in a battle for position in a deep and tough Western Conference. Lakers forward The Taurus Prince talked about it and what big wins mean for them as a team.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Prince said. “I think, shoot, over the last five or six years, the West has been, I think, the better conference. I’m just trying to continue to prove that we belong at the top where we want to be. And it starts with one game at a time. So we’re just trying to accumulate them.
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