Bound to the NBA's Disney Bubble for months on end, Dru Anthrop had his share of fun.

"There was a waterslide I went down once," Anthrop said. "I saw it out my window every single day. So I was like, 'I'm gonna go down it at least once.'"

Once.

Otherwise, the Los Angeles Lakers' head video coordinator was consumed with work, his job being one that doesn't exactly lend itself to bulk discretionary time.

Anthrop, the West Lafayette native and former Purdue player, joined the Lakers this season after previously working with Coach Frank Vogel with the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic. He signed on with one of the most storied franchises in sports in advance of one of its most memorable seasons.

The Lakers, led by stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, ultimately beat the Miami Heat to win their 17th title, and James' fourth, to finish the season during which NBA legend Kobe Bryant died tragically.

The championship came under the most uncommon of circumstances, as the league shut down due to COVID-19, idled for a few months, then resumed at Disney, as the NBA pulled off its innovative Bubble format flawlessly.

"This year, it felt like four different seasons all rolled into one," Anthrop said. "We were in China playing preseason games, and then we had a stint of regular season games that flowed like normal, then the passing of Kobe Bryant, and what that did to our team and how it impacted everyone. Then a few more weeks, and then COVID hit and that break. ... And then getting ready for the Bubble was its own issue, with so many questions, not knowing how things were going to go."

That doesn't mean it was easy, especially for Anthrop, who was responsible for establishing the Lakers' video infrastructure in a setting that had never been done before. He had to plan knowing that emergency runs to Best Buy wouldn't be an option. Beyond his video-coordinator work, Anthrop works with the Lakers' analytics staff to streamline the resources being brought to coaches and players, and serves in a player-development role.

"I'm still a practice player when Coach Vogel needs me," Anthrop said. "That was my favorite part of the Bubble, actually. The Jared Dudleys, and the Quinn Cooks, the guys who need to stay in shape and stay active, they'd play four-on-four or five-on-five, and if they needed an extra body, I'd be out there."

That in mind, even the fun stuff was work.

All worthwhile, though.

It's fair to suggest no one has ever been happier leaving the Happiest Place on Earth than the Lakers were last month. Not only to get out of Disneyland after being holed up from late July to mid-October, kept on site, undergoing daily and rigorous COVID testing, but to do so with a championship, James having added another line to his résumé as an all-time great, Vogel to have won it all for the first time in his career as part of one of the league's flagship franchises, and all of it to have happened to conclude a season spent mourning a Lakers legend.

"Everything was worthwhile for us," said Anthrop, who months earlier had begun his off-season routine after the league shut down in March, not knowing whether the season would resume or not. "The sacrifice that not only the players and the coaches and all the staff members made being away from their families, taking a chance and going to something we didn't know if it was going to work or not. And then obviously, coming together and be able to actually win is is incredible."

For the 30-year-old Anthrop, it was the highlight to this point of an eventful career that started with an internship with the Pacers, an hour down the road from West Lafayette, where his parents and three brothers still live.

"I'm the only one in my family who's ever had to move to take a job," Anthrop said, "and for me, it felt like I was moving away to the big city when I went to Indianapolis."

They got bigger and bigger.

Next came a G.A. job at St. John's in New York City, followed by NBA stints with the Magic in Orlando and Grizzlies in Memphis. Anthrop was just settling in as video coordinator at Vanderbilt in Nashville, when Vogel called to ask him to interview in L.A.

Among those who've hired Anthrop already in his career: Chris Mullin, Jerry Stackhouse and Kurt Rambis, all household names in NBA circles.

"It's pretty wild to think of some of the some of the people I've been able to not only work for, but just get to know as people," Anthrop said.

And now, to think of where it has all taken him.

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