Lakers leave Duke basketball champ behind after winning title

Surely, Duke basketball alum Quinn Cook eventually rejoined the team party.

What would have been more interesting is if Quinn Cook hadn’t commented on JR Smith’s Instagram Live late Sunday night. Would the former Duke basketball point guard have walked all the way back to the hotel without anyone ever noticing that the bus had left without him?

We’ll never know. Actually, it’s still not clear as to how or if Cook ultimately caught back up with his celebratory teammates. Uber? Hitchhike? A late-night jog?

What we do know is the two-time NBA champ’s interaction with Smith went viral due to it being an instant source of a chuckle. As the other Los Angeles Lakers were laughing it up on their ride back after beating the Miami Heat, 106-93, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to capture the franchise’s 17th title, Cook was complaining and begging Smith to get the driver to come back for him:

“Gotta walk back after I win a [expletive] ring…Come backkkk…Make a Uturn.”

Cook, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound third-stringer who is now more than five years removed from playing a major role as a senior in Duke winning the 2015 national title, wasn’t exactly one of the most important pieces to the championship puzzle for Los Angeles.

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Evidently, Cook must not have been all that memorable to the rest of the Lakers either.

The Duke basketball great’s forgettable postseason stats

After averaging only 5.1 points and 1.1 assists across the 44 games he played in the regular season, Cook saw action in only five playoff games for the Lakers, including less than three total minutes between his two appearances against the Heat. The 27-year-old finished with only 13 points for the entire playoffs.

That’s a far cry from his postseason contributions for the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors, who lost in the Finals to the Toronto Raptors in six games, in which Cook scored 29 points across almost 80 combined minutes on the floor. But his Finals numbers this go-round were on par with those from Golden State’s sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers to take home the 2017-18 crown.

Though Cook was primarily a benchwarmer in his first season with the Lakers, he did extend the streak of at least one Blue Devil being on every LeBron James championship team (Shane Battier was on the 2011-12 and 2012-13 Heat, then both Kyrie Irving and Dahntay Jones were alongside James on the 2015-16 Cavaliers).

Yet in summary, while it’s a bit surprising some team official wasn’t responsible for checking a list to see if anyone hadn’t boarded the bus — in the manner of a chaperone on a school field trip — it’s not too surprising that Cook was the one guy the Lakers overlooked.

However, seeing that Cook grew up a diehard fan of Los Angeles and the now-late Kobe Bryant, it’s a championship he’s sure to forever treasure, regardless of whether some folks — notably, bus drivers — forget he was even on the team.

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