Goes without saying that anyone who tries to dismiss any ring for any reason anywhere is insane, lol. Rings are insanely fucking hard to win. Even if you think the bubble was the exception for the Lakers with Bron, they still had to, y'know, go win it, lmao. Shit wasn't handed to them.

But it's also pretty clear that the bubble *is* an anomaly for the Lakers in the Bron era. They've finished 10th, 1st, 7th, 11th in these four years. That's a big spike.

Whereas the Heat were young in the bubble, and while they performed above how folks expected, I think it was and is reasonable to assume that it was a sign of good things to come for Miami. And here we are two years later, and the Heat have earned a 1 seed-- in a year where they dealt with some noteworthy injury absences to boot.

So I don't think the praise for Spo and the Heat comes primarily from their bubble success. I mean, the Lakers are 65-79 since the bubble, the Heat are 93-61. I think it's easy to see why people think the Heat making a deep run in the bubble felt like it was a predecessor of things to come whereas the Lakers' deep run and win within the bubble feels more anomalous. It's shaken out that way over a pretty large sample.

The Heat very clearly has a culture right now, and the Lakers very clearly don't in the Bron era. We know what to expect of the Heat next season, and I've no clue what the Lakers will be or look like.

(But again, anyone trying to dismiss any ring ever is an obvious hater, lol.)