First modification: 03/06/2022 – 19:52Last modification: 03/06/2022 – 19:50
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Los Angeles (AFP) – The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers announced Friday the hiring of Darvin Ham, until now an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, as the 28th head coach in franchise history.
“We couldn’t be more honored and proud to name Darvin Ham as our new head coach,” general manager Rob Pelinka said in a statement.
American media had advanced a week ago that Ham, who has no experience as a head coach in the NBA, was chosen to revive LeBron James’ Lakers after their catastrophic last season.
Ham, 48, has served since 2013 as an assistant to Mike Budenholzer both in the Milwaukee Bucks, where they won the title in 2021, and before in the Atlanta Hawks.
He was also an assistant for the Lakers between 2011 and 2013 and as a player he played for six teams and won the 2004 title with the Detroit Pistons.
The Los Angeles bench was vacant since the sudden firing on April 11 of Frank Vogel, who led the Lakers the past three seasons.
After a successful 2020, in which they regained the ring after a 10-year drought, the Lakers suffered a game crisis and injuries that led them to miss out on the last playoffs despite having stars like LeBron, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook .
“Our players and fans will immediately identify with Darvin’s hard-working, hands-on approach, which we believe will bring toughness and competitiveness to everything we do,” Pelinka said.
“When you add that to Darvin’s sophisticated understanding of strategy and deep knowledge of the game of basketball, we have the ideal coach for this next chapter in Lakers history.”
The Lakers did not detail the length of Ham’s contract, who will be introduced Monday. The ESPN chain had advanced that the coach will be linked for four years with the Los Angeles franchise.
Pelinka began the process of replacing Vogel days after the end of the season, in which they finished in eleventh place in the Western Conference without even qualifying for the playoff playoffs (‘play in’), with a balance of 33 wins and 49 losses.
© 2022 AFP
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