The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Darvin Ham to a multi-year contract as head coach, it was announced today by Vice President, Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka.
“When someone begins his NBA coaching career at the G League level and goes all the way through playing an integral role on the front bench of an NBA Championship team, it really speaks to a certain strength of character. Our players and fans will immediately identify with Darvin’s no-nonsense and hard-working approach, which we feel will bring toughness and a competitive edge to all we do,” said Pelinka. “When you add that to Darvin’s sophisticated grasp of in-game strategy and deep knowledge of the game of basketball, we have the ideal coach for this next chapter in Lakers history. We could not be more honored and proud to name Darvin Ham as our new head coach.”
Ham, 48, will be the 28th head coach in franchise history and the 24th of the Los Angeles era.
Ham enjoyed an eight-year NBA playing career (1996-98, 1999-2005), suiting up with Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Washington, Indiana and Denver. He was a member of the 2004 championship team with the Pistons.
Per the Orange County Register, “by now the broad strokes of Ham’s career are familiar to most Lakers fans: Ham was a journeyman player who won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, followed by a long tenure as an assistant with the Lakers, Atlanta and Milwaukee. He’s coming from the Bucks, with whom he won a championship in 2021 under Mike Budenholzer. Ham’s previous experience with the Lakers – a two-year stint under Mike Brown – mattered in the hiring process. On Friday morning as they officially acknowledged the hire, the Lakers re-shared a 10-year-old Twitter post of Ham working out with Kobe Bryant.”
Per ESPN.com, “Ham will be tasked with turning around a Lakers team that went 33-49 this season and missed the playoffs, leading to Frank Vogel’s firing… The Lakers also interviewed Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, Toronto Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, former Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts and former Warriors coach and current ESPN broadcaster Mark Jackson, sources told ESPN.”
After his successful playing career, Ham began coaching in 2008 as an assistant coach with the New Mexico Thunderbirds of the NBA Developmental League before taking over as general manager and head coach of the team in 2010. In 2011, Ham joined the Lakers as an assistant coach, spending two seasons with Los Angeles. He would then spend five seasons as an assistant with the Atlanta Hawks (2013-18) and joined the Milwaukee Bucks as an assistant coach in 2018, helping the Bucks to the 2021 NBA Championship.
A native of Saginaw, Michigan, Ham graduated from Texas Tech and played internationally in Spain, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.