Every other Lakers championship has ended the same way – a ticker-tape parade through downtown Los Angeles, players riding trucks and fans lining the streets. When the team won in 2010, the celebration drew hundreds of thousands of screaming fans for a two-mile route from Staples Center to the Galen Center. One championship in franchise history never got that moment, and a player from that team still hasn’t let it go.

Dwight Howard tweeted on X on Saturday.

“We need to do a 2020 Lakers vacation since we didn’t get a parade,” he wrote.

The 2020 championship, won inside the NBA’s Disney World bubble during the height of the COVID pandemic, remains the only title in league history that never got the celebratory send-off every other champion receives. The New York Knicks were the latest, with the players receiving the key to the city, and one player almost getting into trouble.

Howard has spent years defending that title’s legitimacy against critics who call it a “Mickey Mouse” championship, and the lack of a parade joke has told the same story of a team that won, but the world barely got to see it.

Howard’s frustration with how that championship gets remembered isn’t new. He’s previously pushed back on the idea that empty arenas made the bubble title easier, arguing the opposite was true.

“That’s what makes it harder,” he said in one prior interview. “For both teams, there are no fans in the stands, so now you can go out there and just focus on what’s going on in the game, which is winning. You’re going to get the highest quality from all the players.”

Furthermore, he also reminded fans that the “bubble” Lakers entered the break with the best record in the Western Conference at 52-19, well ahead of the field. That, to Dwight Howard, proved that the title was just a continuation of a season they were already dominating.

LeBron’s Cavs Reunion Tour Adds Another Layer to the Bubble Nostalgia

The timing of Howard’s tweet comes as LeBron James relived his own piece of championship history. James and former Cavaliers teammate Kevin Love were photographed together in London last week, where they celebrated the 10th anniversary of their 2016 title in Cleveland – a reunion tour that has also helped to fuel rumors about both James’ free agency future and a potential Love reunion, this time in Los Angeles.

NBA insider Marc Spears reported on ESPN’s NBA Today that James is “likely coming back” to the Lakers, while Love “could likely be joining the Lakers, too.” “I could see those two guys being reunited there,” Spears said.

NBA insider Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson reported mutual interest between LeBron James and Cleveland.

He described conversations between James and current Cavaliers players, checking to see what a third time might realistically look like. That momentum has cooled in more recent reporting, however. Marc Stein and Jake Fischer wrote that James remains widely expected to stay with the Lakers, noting he is “so entrenched in Los Angeles now after eight seasons with the purple and gold.”

Although Cleveland’s finances further complicate any reunion, the Cavaliers are currently operating over the second tax apron, the league’s most restrictive threshold, which prevents them from using the full mid-level exception or completing the sign-and-trade needed to bring James back.

However, the Lakers have an exclusive negotiating window before he can have offers elsewhere. Brian Windhorst reported that James intends to keep playing, with both sides actively negotiating a new deal in Los Angeles.

For Howard, the entire moment is a reminder of unfinished business from a championship year that never got its proper send-off. While James revisits Cleveland’s victory lap a decade later, Howard is still hoping for a celebration his own title win never received.