Darvin Ham reflected on his experiences as the Los Angeles Lakers previous head coach, recognizing his failing expectations with the team but finding his dismissal unjust.
After the Lakers failed to enter the playoffs after the 2021-22 season, they installed Ham as their new head coach, replacing Frank Vogel, who gave the team the championship back in 2020.
Ham’s first season managing stars like LeBron James and Anthony Davis proved difficult as they landed in seventh place, but managed to bring the team to the Western Conference Finals, only to be swept by the Denver Nuggets, 0-4. The same squad expelled the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs in another swift manner the following season.
The Lakers’ failing expectations under Darvin Ham caused him to be fired by the team last May. However, he gave them the NBA Cup championship, a relieving feat amidst criticisms of his lack of in-game flexibility.
In an interview with Andscape’s Marc J. Spears, Ham shared his dissatisfaction with the Lakers kicking him, believing they were too focused on his playoff losses while overlooking how he brought the team to that spot in the first place.
“To do as well as I did… I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension. I’m not talking feelings, just facts,” Ham said.
“They go from not making the playoffs to the Conference Finals, and we won the in-season tournament… people always talk about us losing to Denver, but they don’t talk about how we got to Denver. We beat a kick-ass young squad in Memphis, and we beat Stephen Curry and Golden State.”
Darvin Ham goes at the Lakers… my goodness:
“To do as well as I did… I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension. I’m not talking feelings, just facts. They go from not making the playoffs to the Conference Finals, and we won the in-season tournament…… pic.twitter.com/WMERa90saB
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) December 18, 2024
Darvin Ham returns to the Milwaukee Bucks after coaching the Lakers for two seasons. He defended his NBA Cup championship this season, seeing the Bucks emerge victorious in the in-season tournament.
Darvin Ham’s former player “smarter” than him according to analyst
Darvin Ham managed two years with the LA Lakers, bringing them to the Western Conference Finals and the NBA Cup trophy throughout his career. However, for ex-NBA player Gilbert Arenas, Ham failed to connect with his players’ basketball prowess, particularly LeBron James.
In his podcast last Friday, Arenas responded to Darvin Ham’s comments about his time with the Lakers, claiming that Ham fell off James’ expectations of intelligence, resulting in his dismissal from the team.
“Your star player’s probably smarter than you. And the fact that your star player is smarter than you, that’s a hard job to have. You literally have to talk to LeBron’s ego. … For him to accept you, it’s like talking to some genius. … You have to outsmart him,” Arenas said.
“LeBron’s basketball IQ is so high, if you don’t speak the same lingo as him, he’s not listening to you,” the analyst added.
Arenas further compared James, a “prodigy,” outsmarting Darvin Ham, this time as a high school teacher. Despite the criticisms against the assistant coach, the analyst’s episode also acknowledged Ham had a better run with the Lakers than the coaches of the previous decade.
For more sports content:
Follow me on X at @ErnestLeo, and follow us at @WisconsinHeroics, @HardwoodHeroics and @GridironHeroics. You can also reach out to Ernest Hernandez via email at [email protected]. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Ernest also manages a YouTube account called Sports On Air with over 103 thousand subscribers. The channel contains interviews predominantly from the Philippine Basketball Association. They can be reached at [email protected].
