Darvin Ham’s head coaching stint with the Lakers ended abruptly after the veteran coach was fired in May 2024 following an early playoff exit. Gilbert Arenas believes that Ham wasn’t the right fit as LeBron James’ coach from the jump and they were always destined to fail.
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According to Arenas, LeBron is superior to Ham in terms of IQ and basketball knowledge. The 39-year-old is also very technical and particular about how he wants to play the game. This made the job even more difficult for Ham, who had to cater to LBJ’s ego in order to get everyone on the same page and also hold his own to garner respect.
Arenas said on Gil’s Arena, “The fact that your star player is smarter than you, that’s a hard job to have. Like, you literally have to talk to LeBron’s ego. I got to talk to his basketball, for him to accept you.”
Impressing LeBron while talking basketball isn’t an easy task, but the podcast’s panel believes that that’s how JJ Redick was able to get the job in LA.
Arenas said that when LBJ and Redick started doing a podcast together, LeBron saw that the latter was at his level and was better than Ham in a lot of ways. The three-time All-Star added, “Something that JJ was saying resonated with [LeBron].”
JJ and LeBron’s Mind the Game podcast was very well received by the people as well.
LeBron and Darvin Ham were destined to fail 📉 pic.twitter.com/YDje0EhPfX
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) December 22, 2024
Arenas used the example of Michael Jordan and the late, great Kobe Bryant, who were both coached by Phil Jackson, to illustrate his point. The 42-year-old believes that MJ and Kobe had issues with other coaches because they didn’t respect them like they respected the Zen Master.
After the sudden exit, Ham went on to join the Bucks, but he hasn’t forgiven the Lakers it seems.
Darvin Ham talked about the Lakers exit after winning the NBA Cup
Ham recently talked about his exit from LA with Andscape. He said that he did the best he could with that team. Ham also said that he believes that if he did the same for any other team, he’d have received a contract extension. Instead, he was fired. The veteran coach boasted about pulling the team out of a slump and taking them to the Conference Finals.
He said, “They go from not making the playoffs to the Conference Finals, and we won the in-season tournament… people always talk about us losing to Denver, but they don’t talk about how we got to Denver. We beat a kick-a** young squad in Memphis, and we beat Stephen Curry and Golden State.”
Ham had a difficult start with the Bucks as well. They were losing games terribly and didn’t seem to click as a team. However, it didn’t take him long to take control of their season with Doc Rivers. Ham’s team recently won the NBA Cup, making it his back-to-back NBA Cup win.
