EL SEGUNDO — Darvin Ham has by no means been extra afraid than he was when he was 14 years previous.
He was driving for a pizza along with his brother when gunshots sprayed throughout the road in his Saginaw, Michigan, neighborhood in a drug deal gone unhealthy, as Ham as soon as put it. Ham took a bullet that was by no means meant for him within the jaw, with it lodging at the back of his neck – lacking loss of life by a matter of levels.
Many individuals may wish to shelve that trauma, leaving it at the back of their thoughts. However what Ham took from that day – by no means taking a second as a right – has change into a central pillar of his life. When requested about going through the stress of teaching the Lakers, Ham introduced up the 1988 capturing. After surviving that, a brand new job isn’t going to offer him the jitters.
“You undergo one thing like that, it’s going to be one in all two issues: It’s going to make you fearful or fearless,” he mentioned. “It made me fearless.”
The 48-year-old emphasised his dedication to toughness and accountability on Monday, his first official day as head coach of the Lakers. Ham began his NBA teaching profession right here in 2011 on the participant growth workers below Mike Brown. Since then, he’s grown a repute as a no-nonsense assistant with a present for constructing relationships – all traits he’ll want to attempt to carry the Lakers from the lottery workforce they had been final season again right into a championship contender they had been two years in the past.
Whereas Ham’s X&Os base was cultivated on a championship-winning teaching workers in Milwaukee, Lakers normal supervisor Rob Pelinka emphasised that Ham earned the unanimous assist of the teaching committee due to his character traits. After ending 33-49 and lacking the postseason solely after a hyped offseason, Pelinka believes the roster wants an infusion of Ham’s model of grit.
“I feel one of many issues we lacked final yr was an id of toughness,” Pelinka mentioned. “We're excited to see (how) a coach along with his management type will carry these attributes to our workforce subsequent yr.”
One in all Monday’s speaking factors that can drive league chatter for the approaching weeks: The Lakers appeared very positive Russell Westbrook is coming again.
Westbrook himself stood to the aspect of the fitness center throughout the press convention, simply two months faraway from blowing the lid off of the strained relationship with earlier head coach Frank Vogel. Whereas rumors have flown that the Lakers want to transfer on from the polarizing Westbrook – who can signal a $47.1 million contract choice later this month – Ham couldn't have painted a extra completely different analysis of what the 33-year-old former MVP may carry to the workforce subsequent yr.
“Don’t get it tousled: Russell is likely one of the greatest gamers our league has ever seen, and there may be nonetheless a ton left in that tank,” he mentioned. “I don’t know why individuals proceed to attempt to write him off. I’m gonna method him like I've each participant I’ve ever encountered.”
If the Lakers proceed with their famous person alignment of Westbrook, LeBron James and Anthony Davis subsequent season, Ham promised higher offensive spacing with a four-out, one-in alignment (implying Davis’ transfer to full-time heart). Ham additionally has a powerful defensive background, plying his information as a member of Detroit’s 2004 championship workforce and rising it all through bench stints in Atlanta and Milwaukee below Mike Budenholzer.
Essentially the most sentimental moments of Ham’s press convention got here when he talked about Budenholzer, who he mentioned set him as much as succeed by entrusting him with duties on either side of the ball, in addition to scouting and filling in as head coach when Budenholzer was out with COVID-19 final season. As he talked in regards to the coach with whom he spent 9 years, Ham’s deep baritone cracked.
“The emotion comes from whenever you’ve been with a particular individual on this enterprise for the final 9 years in Coach Bud,” mentioned Ham, the twenty eighth coach in Lakers historical past. “I thanked him. I mentioned, ‘Effectively, no less than you dropped me off the place you picked me up at.’ As a result of he picked me up from right here in L.A. So the truth that I’m coming again to L.A., he was thrilled, tremendous thrilled.”
Coming again to L.A. stirred recollections for Ham, too, together with working with Kobe Bryant as a younger assistant. He spoke glowingly of the movie work, courtroom drills and dinners they shared. However what may need made him develop probably the most was after they sparred.
“If I may travel with him and have him disagree with me and double again and inform me I used to be proper – everyone knows how cussed he was, man,” Ham chuckled. “It simply gave me a wealth of confidence in myself as a coach.”
Ham brings gravitas as a former participant, however one who needed to battle his means into the NBA. A late-comer to basketball, he grew to become generally known as a backboard-shattering, dunking wunderkind at Texas Tech. He needed to grind by way of worldwide play earlier than discovering his footing as a role-playing swingman in Milwaukee, Atlanta and Detroit: “I feel it prepares you and it creates a sure sort of mentality to the place you don’t wish to lower any corners.”
There are not any obvious shortcuts for the Lakers, who face a frightening offseason with next-to-no wage cap house, few draft belongings and the uncertainty of Westbrook’s future with the franchise after a rocky debut season. Ham nonetheless has to assemble a training workers: He shot down a report that Rasheed Wallace, a former teammate of his, had clinched a spot on his bench however acknowledged he's into account.
Ham is aware of the which means of persistence in addition to anybody: He’s been thought-about one of the vital eligible head teaching candidates for years, going by way of a number of interviews to make the leap. Whereas many observers would name the Lakers’ job a troublesome first gig, Ham thinks the timing labored out completely.
“I simply wish to take this time to thank all these groups that handed on me so I may get again with Rob and the Buss household,” he laughed, slapping Pelinka on the again. “It’s all good. I’m good, belief me.”
He’s not one to be intimidated.
"I used to be shot within the face accidentally April fifth 1988, you undergo one thing like that it will do one in all two issues. It may make you fearful or fearless.. It made me fearless. I do not really feel no stress." Darvin Ham on feeling the stress of teaching the #Lakers. pic.twitter.com/MjfXHr2vDt
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) June 6, 2022
"Ham was the unanimous selection." Rob Pelinka spoke with @Mike_Bresnahan in regards to the entrance workplace's choice to rent Darvin Ham as the top coach. pic.twitter.com/DeVNzu575z
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) June 6, 2022