Kentavious Caldwell-Pope reacts to critics who put an asterisk on the Lakers' Bubble title: "It's one of the hardest championships to win"

The Los Angeles Lakers have won 17 championships in franchise history. However, critics have put an asterisk on their latest banner.

COVID-19 halted not just the NBA but the entire sports world in 2020. A couple of months after the pandemic broke out, the league returned but with restrictions— the 2019-20 season continued in the Orlando Bubble. The Lakers went on to win the championship, but their detractors call it a 'Mickey Mouse' title.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope , a member of the 2020 Lakers title team, talked about the criticism during his recent appearance on The Draymond Green podcast.

"They just hating; it's one of the hardest championships to win," KCP said. "We play in a season, and season's shut down. Like, we don't know if we're gonna even come back to play basketball. We're so high off the regular season on how we was playing and then what the fu**, season's over with."

The Lakers were off to a strong start

The 2019-20 season was the Lakers' first with superstar big man Anthony Davis. During the offseason, the team re-signed Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, and Caldwell-Pope. They also added veterans Danny Green, Avery Bradley, and Dwight Howard.

With a loaded lineup, the Lakers were 52-19 when the season was suspended. They had won 11 out of their last 13 games, and it looked like they were starting to peak. KCP says that, at that point, they were confident they could win it all. But then the season was suddenly shut down, and it didn't restart until four months later.

"Once we knew the season was starting back in the bubble, we was hyped," added Caldwell-Pope. "We was ready to go get our championship. The season stopped again in the Bubble. These things have people's minds messed up like it's time to go home and forget about basketball. I'm so grateful, and I appreciate all my teammates. Their mindset was on the championship. They were ready to go. They came here for a reason, and they wanted it."

Bubble title gets props from Bam

KCP's teammates also agreed that the Bubble chip was very difficult to win. But perhaps the biggest prop for the Lakers' 2020 title run came from Miami Heat forward Bam Adebayo, whose team faced the Lakers in the 2020 NBA Finals.

"That was the hardest championship to win, in my opinion, just because you're in there with just literally a 15-deep lineup, plus coaches, staff, training staff. Other than that, it's you and your thoughts in one room boxed in. … It was literally you, your thoughts, and your teammates. That's it," Adebayo explained .

KCP's Lakers had to battle their thoughts every day and win 16 playoff games without the benefit of home-court advantage. Does that make their title run tougher than usual? Everyone from that Lakers squad would say so.

Related: "You can't run. You can't hide. It was dope" - Carmelo Anthony on how everything was magnified in the "Orlando Bubble"