If it was so easy, it cuts far worse on the other end of that blade.

Because it means that those other players and their teams couldn't even win an easy chip.

Don't get me wrong, the bulk of this Lakers "run" has been trash.

But to put an asterisk on this chip, is to also take a Jumbo Jack In The Box Taco flavored shit on every other contender in the league for that year.

And it's absolutely better to win an "easy" chip than it is to NOT win the easy chip- because it if it was so easy, yet every other team failed to do it, then it's an indictment on how bad they all were that they couldn't win the easy one.

This is inescapable. You can't take the asterisk without taking a buttery, bacon bowel bomb on the rest of the league.