They were NBA champions, seemingly unstoppable. Just months later, the 2020 Lakers imploded in a firestorm of chaos. This is the inside story of the bizarre feuds, secret injuries, and catastrophic decisions that led to one of the fastest and most shocking collapses in sports history

In the bizarre, unprecedented landscape of 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers achieved a feat of supreme focus and dominance. Inside the sterile, fan-less confines of the Orlando “bubble,” they conquered the NBA, capturing the franchise’s 17th championship. Led by the iconic duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, supported by a perfectly curated cast of savvy veterans and energetic role players, the 2020 Lakers looked like the beginning of a new dynasty. They were tough, defensively dominant, and built for the playoff grind. Yet, just two years later, that championship roster was a ghost, a cautionary tale of how quickly a winning formula can be abandoned in a misguided quest for more. This is the story of the weird, rapid, and self-inflicted downfall of the 2020 Lakers.

To understand how it all fell apart, one must first appreciate the unique triumph of that 2020 team. While critics were quick to label it a “Mickey Mouse championship” due to the unusual circumstances, the reality is that the Lakers were a legitimate powerhouse. They had finished the regular season as the number one seed in a stacked Western Conference, with LeBron James finishing second in MVP voting and Anthony Davis finishing sixth. They were not a fluke.

Their roster was a masterclass in construction. Alongside their two superstars, they had a deep bench of high-IQ veterans who understood their roles. Rajon Rondo was the crafty floor general, Dwight Howard a rejuvenated defensive anchor, and Danny Green a reliable “3-and-D” wing. They were complemented by gritty, high-energy players like Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and the still-developing Kyle Kuzma. This blend of star power, experience, and depth made them a formidable opponent.

The bubble environment, in many ways, played to their strengths. The long, mid-season hiatus caused by the pandemic allowed their older, injury-prone roster to get fully healthy and rested. The concentrated, two-month sprint to the championship favored their veteran savvy and physical, bruising style of play. They steamrolled through the playoffs, dispatching the Blazers, Rockets, and Nuggets each in five games before defeating the Miami Heat in a hard-fought six-game Finals. They were, unequivocally, the best team in the world.

The expectation, both internally and externally, was that this was just the beginning. With LeBron and AD at the helm, the Lakers were poised to contend for years to come. But then, the dismantling began. Instead of running it back with the team that had just proven its championship mettle, the front office, led by Rob Pelinka, made a series of significant and ultimately misguided roster changes.

The first mistake was undervaluing the chemistry and specific contributions of their role players. Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, and Danny Green—all key cogs in their defensive machine and playoff success—were allowed to walk or were traded away. They were replaced by seemingly impressive names like Marc Gasol, Montrezl Harrell (the reigning Sixth Man of the Year), and Dennis Schröder. On paper, these moves looked like an upgrade in individual talent. In reality, they were a downgrade in fit. The delicate chemistry was disrupted. The new pieces didn’t mesh with the same seamless efficiency, and the team’s identity began to erode.

The 2021 season was a warning sign. While the team remained an elite defensive unit, their offense, particularly their three-point shooting, plummeted. The compressed offseason, a direct result of the bubble, took its toll on their aging stars. Both LeBron and AD missed significant time with injuries, and the Lakers, who had been the class of the league just months earlier, limped into the playoffs as a low seed. Their season ended with a disheartening first-round exit at the hands of the Phoenix Suns.

This is where a moment of patience and perspective was needed. A clear-eyed analysis would have pointed to the injuries and the unusual schedule as the primary culprits. The core formula of LeBron, AD, and strong, defensive-minded role players was still sound. Instead of trusting that formula, the Lakers overreacted. Panicked by their early exit, and reportedly driven by the desire of LeBron and AD to add a third star to lighten their regular-season load, the front office made the single decision that would seal their fate: they traded for Russell Westbrook.

The Westbrook trade was, in hindsight, a complete and utter disaster, a move born of a fundamental misunderstanding of what had made the 2020 team great. The Lakers sent away their remaining championship-caliber depth—Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope—along with Montrezl Harrell and a first-round pick to acquire the former MVP. The idea was to add another ball-handler and playmaker, but the fit was catastrophically poor from day one.

Westbrook’s strengths—his athleticism and ability to attack the rim—were negated by his weaknesses. He was a non-shooter on a team desperate for spacing, and his defensive lapses were a stark contrast to the disciplined, switchable defenders he had replaced. The trade gutted the very depth and defense that had been the hallmark of their championship run, all to accommodate a third star whose style of play was fundamentally incompatible with their other two.

To compound the error, in the same offseason, the Lakers made another crucial mistake. They let fan-favorite and defensive dynamo Alex Caruso walk in free agency over a relatively minor contract dispute, choosing instead to re-sign the younger, but less proven, Talen Horton-Tucker. Caruso was the perfect role player for a LeBron and AD-led team: a tenacious defender, a smart cutter, and a capable shooter. His departure was another blow to the team’s identity.

The 2021-22 season was the predictable result of these disastrous decisions. The team was an awkward, disjointed mess, and the Westbrook experiment failed spectacularly. They missed the playoffs entirely. The once-mighty champions had become a league-wide laughingstock in less than two years.

The final dissolution was a slow, painful process. Westbrook was eventually traded at the 2023 deadline, a move that cost the Lakers even more precious draft capital to undo their original mistake. By then, the 2020 title team was a distant memory. Of that entire championship roster, only one player remains today: LeBron James. Everyone else was either traded or left in free agency. A championship core was completely dismantled in the pursuit of a flawed vision of a “Big Three,” a vision championed by the very superstars whose supporting cast was sacrificed to achieve it. The weird downfall of the 2020 Lakers stands as a stark lesson in the NBA: a championship is a fragile ecosystem, and sometimes, the greatest threat to a dynasty comes not from the outside, but from within.