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A couple of unidentified Los Angeles Lakers spoke up to Darvin Ham during a bull session following their 110-96 loss to the Miami Heat on January 3.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, it was Ham who arranged the unfiltered film session after a report of a disconnect in the Lakers’ locker room came out.
“Hell yeah, I open the floor,” Ham told The Athletic. “Give me some feedback. I don’t have pride. My pride is not crazy. My ego — all that. We had a couple (players) speak up. I’ll just leave it there, but we had a few guys speak up. And right or wrong, I love it. I agreed with most of it, and I disagreed with some.”
After pent-up frustrations were let out, the Lakers went on to split their next two games — a 14-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies and a nail-biting 106-103 win over intra-city rival Los Angeles Clippers.
Ham hopes the opening of communication lines will help the right the ship that had been sinking since they won the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament title in Las Vegas in early December.
LeBron James Hypes up Ty Lue Amid Darvin Ham Rumors
Lakers superstar LeBron James made out of his way to make sure his longtime friend and former coach Ty Lue gets the recognition for turning the Clippers fortunes around after the James Harden trade.
“Nah, it’s the T-Lue Clippers,” James said after a reporter called their Crypto.com arena co-tenants as the James Harden Clippers. “I know T-Lue very well. It doesn’t take T-Lue long to make sure sh*t gets right. It took him five games, and they’ve been cooking since.”
James’ comment came with intrigue as Ham continually espoused that the Lakers have to figure things out amid their struggles after winning the In-Season Tournament.
Before Frank Vogel led the Lakers to the 2020 NBA championship, Lue turned down a three-year offer from the Lakers, which he felt was an insult to him as a champion coach.
Ham replaced Vogel last season and led the Lakers to the Western Conference finals after overcoming early-season struggles.
Darvin Ham Fires Back at Critics
After Ham said he’s aligned with the Lakers ownership and front office, he fired back at his critics.
“It’s the NBA man! This is a marathon and you have to look at the totality of the picture,” Ham told reporters after their loss to the Grizzlies. “I’m tired of people living and dying with every single game we play like it’s ludicrous actually. It’s like, come on man! This is a marathon and we hit a tough stretch. It’s the same team that played some high-level games a little while ago and we just got to get back to that. We got to keep the fight though. We cannot lose our fight.”
D’Angelo Russell’s return from a three-game absence due to a tailbone contusion helped Ham stabilize his rotation which led to the Lakers’ streak-busting win over the Clippers.
Russell, whom Ham demoted to the second unit, had 13 points and six assists off the bench. The Lakers reserves outscored the Clippers bench, 31-23.
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