A year ago, the hardest thing in front of LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers was resurrecting a storied franchise that had missed the playoffs six consecutive seasons. And at the time, that seemed like a pretty steep hill to climb.
There was no way to know what awful events lay ahead for the franchise and the world when the season began with media day on September 27, 2019.
No way to know that franchise icon Kobe Bryant would perish along with his daughter and eight others in a helicopter crash just four months later.