We currently live in crazy, strange, and unprecedented circumstances. There’s no question about it. The COVID-19 pandemic has tilted the world dramatically, and it sucks that our beloved sports had to take indefinite hiatuses.

Still, that’s not enough reason to downplay any of the teams’ achievements once the season resumes just because the situations are modified, because who cares? And since we all admittedly miss sports, why would anyone find time to be negative that the NBA is working its way back?

NBA commissioner Adam Silver and other league executives were somehow able to put together a concrete plan that would allow an entire team to safely continue the season, all during a time where social distancing is basically a global requirement. We basketball fans in particular, should just stay hopeful and glad that our favorite form of entertainment is slowly but surely trying to fix the unfortunate mess, which no one really anticipated.

It’s sad that even all-time greats like Shaquille O’Neal are dishing out asinine comments:

 “I think we should scrap the season … Everybody go home, get healthy, come back next year. Just scrap the season.”

While he’s at it, he also threw dirt towards fellow Hall-of-Famer Tim Duncan, particularly Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs’ championship in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season:

“I won a championship in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2006, and it was done the right way – the correct way. For example, if we would have won the championship in 1999, I would not have accepted that. It’s not a real season.”

“I would tell Mr. Duncan this to his face, ‘you have four rings.’ Yeah, it says you have five, but the asterisk doesn’t count. Anything I do, I never want an asterisk by it. It’s not a real season. I’ll tell all of San Antonio to their face, you only have four.”

Can you smell the absurdity from your screen? If he thought the season was going to be irrelevant, why the hell did he play? He looked like he was in his typical dominant self too, as he finished second in the league in scoring with 26.3 points per game and led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 31-19 record.

Or maybe it’s because of how he and the Lakers got bounced? They got throttled by Duncan and the Spurs in the Western Conference Semifinals, 4-0.

Then you also have the so-called experts chiming in, like professional idiot Skip Bayless:

I know we’re supposed to regard Skip as this amazing troll, but he’s been in character for so long that I think he’s now believing all the crap he’s saying.

You can tell that LeBron James is living in his head. Why is he concerned about LeBron and the Lakers winning a title? There are a handful of teams that are arguably better.

The Milwaukee Bucks have the best record, offense, defense, and reigning Most Valuable Player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, on their side. The Los Angeles Clippers have a Hall-of-Fame coach, a deep bench, and two of the best two-way forwards in the game – and one of them is Kawhi Leonard, who, by the way, is the reigning Finals MVP!

Oh, right. It’s because Skip would have to come up with another set of long-winded rant to discredit LeBron. If the Lakers don’t win the title, you think he’s going to put an asterisk to the loss? No. He’ll have the floor and go on an episode-long discussion about “LeChoke.”

There are no “asterisks” needed

Whichever team wins this season’s championship will deservingly have the lifelong prestige of being called the 2020 NBA Champion. Competition is competition, regardless of the circumstances. Besides, they are all under the same situation: everyone got quarantined, and all playoff teams would have the chance to hold a training camp and get back in shape. So, what’s the issue?

All things considered, it might be even the other way around: winning a championship this season is much harder than all the prior seasons. Imagine the list of adversities one must have to go through – getting back in shape, having anxiety because of health risks, never enjoying homecourt advantage, focusing on your opponent, making sure everyone is on the same page, etc. It goes on and on.