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USATSI

There have been multiple players that have chosen to leave the NBA bubble in order to attend to personal matters. Los Angeles Lakers guard Alex Caruso is not one of them. He was set to attend his older sister Megan's wedding in Texas this past weekend, but Caruso had a last-minute change of heart and elected not to leave the bubble. He has his eyes set on a different kind of ring.

"If I was on a team that didn't have title aspirations — a team trying to hold on to the No. 8 seed or something — it might have been different," he told ESPN's Zach Lowe on Tuesday. "But we have worked too hard."

Caruso added that Lakers head coach Frank Vogel and general manager Rob Pelinka had no problem with him leaving the bubble to attend the wedding. The choice was fully Caruso's. 

If Caruso would've left the bubble, he would've been forced to quarantine for at least four days in addition to testing negative for COVID-19. The Lakers informed Caruso that he was going to have to quarantine for closer to 10 days if he left.

Along with Vogel and Pelinka, Caruso also had the support of teammates LeBron James and Anthony Davis in whatever he decided to do.

"They supported my decision either way," Caruso said. "They also helped me realize how important I am to what we are trying to do here, now that [Avery Bradley] didn't make it and [Rajon Rondo] hurt his hand. There is some added responsibility… They had my back. I felt genuine support from the organization."

The wedding being in Texas may have made Caruso's decision that much easier. It has had the fourth-most cases of any state in the country since March. There have been almost 72,000 cases this week in Texas.

Prior to the league putting the season on pause, Caruso was averaging 5.4 points and 1.9 rebounds while shooting 35.5 percent from three. Now, Caruso could be depended on even more with Rondo going down with a hand injury.