Being a head coach in professional sports isn’t for the faint of heart, especially for popular franchises like the Los Angeles Lakers.
Darvin Ham lost a lot of good will early in his first season as head coach after the Lakers got off to a 2-10 start, though he still managed to maintain positive energy. Now, the opinion of Ham has changed to many with him leading the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals.
Unlike Ham, though, several other head coaches weren’t so lucky as they were let go after underperforming throughout the year. Multiple coaches with playoff and even championship experience have recently been fired, including Mike Budenholzer of the Milwaukee Bucks, Doc Rivers of the Philadelphia 76ers, Nick Nurse of the Toronto Raptors and Monty Williams and the Phoenix Suns.
Ham has a personal relationship with most of those coaches and spoke on how unfortunate it was to see them let go despite all they did for their respective organizations.
“Each individual, like we have a saying, each game is its own entity. I think that the same goes for NBA franchises. I’m not there every day; I’m submerged in Laker business and how we’re progressing and trying to accomplish the goals that we’ve set out for ourselves. But just the whole theory in whole, I think it’s different now, man. I think the pressure from public outcry, be it television or social media, fans in market, I don’t know, I mean, it’s unfortunate because you’re looking at some of those guys that got let go, highly, highly, highly capable, competent and winning coaches.
“It’s just a different day. I think we’ve come into a society where it’s microwave, it’s knee-jerk, and then the players. The players, if they really want a guy, they have to step up. If there’s any inkling of “I don’t know, I’m 50/50,” then that gets the trigger pulled that much quicker.I wish those guys nothing but the best. I’ve interacted obviously with all of them, and nothing but positive feedback, and my exploration of what it’s like to be in this seat for the first time, and I wish them nothing but the best, but it’s unfortunate that it ends like that, like after having success and just the lack of patience sometimes is overwhelming. It is what it is.
“Obviously it was great to see the hiring process benefit people of color, but outside of that, it’s a volatile, volatile — I think it’s the most volatile aspect of employment within the NBA is being an NBA coach, hands down.”
While it’s hard to disagree with Ham, at the end of the day, results are what drive decisions in the NBA. Winning is king, so any head coach will feel pressure in their position if they can’t deliver when it matters most.
Ham reflects on emotions of first season as head coach
Now that his first season as an NBA head coach has come to an end, Ham reflected on all the emotions he felt through a tumultuous Lakers season.
“I just think it’s great. It was nothing but growth, nothing but an education, and you know, staying with it, trying to remain consistent,” Ham said. “I told those guys their consistency of coming to the gym from the time when we had pieces, talented pieces on the roster, but still some that did not necessarily fit perfectly together to the point where we did find the right pieces and they fit smoothly; the culture that was set, reset, in terms of competitiveness, togetherness, accountability. You know, us coming to the gym each and every day trying to get better at something and being focused on getting better at something, was nothing short of amazing.
“It’s just been a hell of a year. The support I got, myself, personally, my staff, from Jeanie, Rob. To go through some of those tough times early, you know, we don’t get that support, we probably don’t make it to this point. But again, everybody pulling the rope in the same direction. It was a very, very special year.”
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