2. The 2020-2021 Los Angeles Lakers losing in the first round
Overconfidence and injuries ultimately lead to the downfall of the Lakers’ attempt to repeat this past season. However, this team started out the season 20-7 and set a franchise record with 7 straight road wins to start the year and looked like they were destined to win their 18th championship.
That early success probably led this team down that path of overconfidence, because it was all fun and games when LeBron was hitting 3-pointers and turning around to the bench before it went in. Yet when things got difficult and AD went down in the playoffs no one was there to step up and fill that void.
It is easy to argue that this team still would have had a good chance to win the championship had they stayed healthy, but being available to play and keeping the body in shape is part of what makes a champion. Each season top teams have to overcome injuries on the way to the title, but this season it happened in the playoffs more than ever and it also plagued the Lakers during the regular season.
The biggest excuse the Lakers could use for their injuries and the disappointing season would be that they had the shortest break in between seasons in the history of North American team sports.
Even LeBron came out and had a rant on social media that had to do with multiple all-stars missing games in the playoffs.
The most disappointing takeaway from this season had to be that a shortened offseason might have taken a year away from LeBron’s rapidly closing championship window. He is already pushing his limits playing so many minutes this late in his career, and forcing him into a quick restart probably contributed to him missing the last portion of the season and him not being 100 percent in the playoffs.