It's the second part of our look back at the 2019-2020 Lakers season as the new year begins, and along with it, the team's outlook starts to take shape atop of the Western Conference. But things for the Lakers, and the world, would soon take a turn for the worse with the tragic death of Kobe and Gigi Bryant. And despite back-to-back wins against the NBA's elite, the arrival shortly after of the Coronavirus, and the tragic deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police. This would lead to protests against racial injustice and systemic racism that stretched worldwide with the Black Lives Matter movement and full NBA player support of that cause. The combination of these two society-altering events would put the NBA season in peril. We remember these moments from our interviews with Tom Wong from lakerholics.com (full episodes at