LeBron James has won four NBA championships, but one of them still feels incomplete in a way that has nothing to do with what happened on the court.
Reflecting on the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020 title, James admitted that missing out on a championship parade with the team’s fans continues to bother him. The Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals that year, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the franchise from holding the traditional celebration through the streets of Los Angeles.
Asked how much the missed parade still bothers him on a scale of one to ten, James did not hesitate.
“That bothers me 1 to 10. 20,” he said.
James even has a route in mind for the celebration that never happened. He imagined the team traveling along Olympic Boulevard before finishing downtown near the Lakers’ home arena, which he still prefers to call Staples Center despite its current name, Crypto.com Arena.
“It would have been super duper dope, man,” James said.
The 2020 championship was particularly meaningful for the Lakers. It was the franchise’s first title since 2010 and came during an extraordinary season that was suspended for months before resuming inside the NBA’s isolation bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida. Los Angeles won the championship without the usual home-court atmosphere, packed arenas or a crowd of Lakers fans waiting to celebrate at the final buzzer.
For James, the absence of a parade meant losing a chance to share that accomplishment directly with the city. He had experienced championship celebrations with the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers, but never got to enjoy one with Lakers fans following his first title in Los Angeles.
Still, James made clear that the lack of a parade does not diminish what the team accomplished.
“But yeah, we did that. We did that,” he said. “And that banner is up there. That banner is in that arena forever along with the other ones that been able to go up in the history of the Lakers Franchise.”
LeBron James says he still thinks about not being able to do the parade after winning the championship in 2020:
“That bothers me 1 to 10. 20 like just to be able to celebrate with the Laker faithful. I don’t know what the route would have been. I’m thinking go down Olympic just… pic.twitter.com/poxzft6L1j
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) September 25, 2026
The 2020 title remains an enduring part of Lakers history, even if its celebration looked unlike any other. James and his teammates earned their championship on the court, and the banner hangs alongside those won by the franchise’s previous generations.
