One of the biggest stories around the NBA is the recent indefinite suspension of Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green. The league sent down the ruling following Green’s latest questionable incident on the court, but Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham has a unique connection to the Warriors star.
Both Ham and Green are from Saginaw, Michigan and players and coaches from that area tend to stick together and be relatively close. For the Lakers coach, that means being concerned about and checking on Green the person and not just the player.
Ham recently spoke about this, noting that he plans to reach out to Green and believing that it’s important to have that competitive edge that Green possesses, but also playing the right way, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s an unfortunate situation. I hope that he can learn from it, gain some wisdom from it. If he reaches out, and I’ll definitely reach out to him just to make sure he’s OK. The human being. A lot of times, we get caught up in what happened or what didn’t happen and we forget to check on the human being. So that will definitely happen.
“I just think it’s a competitive edge, a winning spirit that you play with but it involves playing the right way as well. But good, hard, winning competition, when you’ve had that taste of winning the ultimate prize, you can submerge yourself in it and you go out, no matter what the circumstances are surrounding the game, you go out and try to present yourself in that manner each and every time you step on the floor. We got guys like that too. You just need to have the totality of it each and every time we prepare to come together and try to get better at this thing we’re doing.”
Ham is right in that for athletes, there is often so much focus on the player and what it means for their career or the team that it can be forgotten that these are still humans. The Lakers coach making note of that and planning to check on Green as a person shows where his character lies and what is important to him.
There is a thin line between being competitive and having an ‘edge’ and being a dirty player. Green’s latest incident in which he turned around and struck Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face undoubtedly crossed that line. It coming so soon after Green’s return from a suspension for choking Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, not to mention his history of questionable moments, played into the NBA’s decision.
Green needs to change something, but he clearly has people like Ham and others around the league who are in his corner.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham responds to LeBron James-Ime Udoka incident
Ham being from Saginaw is something the Lakers coach holds in high regard and it apparently came out during a recent incident between Lakers star LeBron James and Rockets coach Ime Udoka.
Of course Udoka was ejected from a recent game between the two teams and audio seemed to catch Udoka using a specific expletive towards LeBron which didn’t sit well with him or Ham.
Ham would reportedly tell a Lakers reporter that “Saginaw said” there is no one like Udoka described on this Lakers team.
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