Former Lakers Coach Darvin Ham Slams Team For Unfair Firing, High Expectations

Former Lakers head coach Darvin Ham spoke out about his time with his old team, arguing that he was treated unfairly for the amount of success he attained. 

Now an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, Ham just earned his second in-season tournament title, having won the inaugural event with the Lakers last year. He believes that that achievement is one of many that went unappreciated by the front office in his two seasons with the team.

“To do as well as I did, I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension with what I did,” Ham said in an interview with Andscape‘s Marc Spears. “I’m not talking about feelings. I’m talking actual facts. They go from not making it to the playoffs to the final four in the NBA, the conference finals. And then you win the in-season tournament, navigate through all the injuries and win both of your play-in games to get to the playoffs.”

In the 2022-23 season, his first as head coach, the Lakers made a surprise run in the NBA Playoffs, knocking off the Grizzlies and Warriors before getting swept by the Denver Nuggets. Denver went on to win the NBA Championship.

“People always talk about us losing to Denver, but they never talk about how we got to Denver,” Ham said. “We beat a kick-ass young squad in Memphis and we beat Golden State.”

The following year, as Ham said, the Lakers won the In-Season Tournament and qualified for the playoffs through the Play-In Tournament but lost to Denver again in the first round. It was the end of the road for Ham, who guided the team to the playoffs twice but often took criticism for poor decision-making and a struggle with excessive media attention. There were also claims that merely making the postseason should never have been the goal for a Los Angeles team led by future Hall-of-Famers LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

In any case, the Lakers wanted new leadership, and originally considered UConn coach Dan Hurley as Ham’s replacement before landing on retired NBA player and analyst J.J. Redick, who entered the 2024-25 season with no coaching experience. Through his first 26 games, Los Angeles is 10th in the Western Conference with a 14-12 record. The season’s far from over, but to this point, replacing Ham has done almost nothing to improve a talented but fundamentally undisciplined Lakers roster.