Darvin Ham, a highly regarded assistant under Mike Budenholzer for the Milwaukee Bucks, is reportedly someone the Los Angeles Lakers are considering as a candidate to become their next head coach.
L.A.’s coaching search will be complicated by the fact that anyone it is considering will have to get the buy-in of LeBron James and his agency, Klutch Sports.
In 2019, the last time the Lakers went coach-hunting, they interviewed Ham, and back then he reportedly got the seal of approval from the four-time MVP.
“Back then, the dynamic between the Lakers and Klutch was a bit different, but Ham still reportedly was Klutch Approved™, according to Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN, who dropped the nugget during his recent appearance on the Locked on Lakers podcast:
“’I know as a source that he was on the OK list of the LeBron James/Rich Paul (group) last time, that cohort… He is tough, and he is also really smart, and I will tell you this: Mike Budenholzer suffers no fools. He is the pickiest. There are people who find it obnoxious, like either “you’re one of my kind of people, or you’re not, either you get it or you don’t.” He (Ham) gets it! And there is something to be said for that, because look who the graduates are. I think history is treating Kenny Atkinson really well. Quin Snyder. Taylor Jenkins. Need I go on?’
“’And Darvin is a guy who could both mediate, and by the way do some cool things to help shepherd in a new era, because LeBron is not going to be around much longer. And by the way, somebody who will have difficult conversations with [Anthony] Davis.’”
Ham seems like an attractive candidate if the Lakers opt for youth over experience in a coach.
He helped the Bucks win the NBA championship last summer, and in his four years with the team, it has finished with the league’s best record twice.
Ham is a former NBA player who won a ring with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, and he started his coaching career as an assistant with the Lakers in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.
