Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham has collected many accolades and memories during his years as an NBA player and coach. His greatest achievement during his eight seasons as a player was winning the 2003-04 NBA championship as a member of the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons were one of the most fascinating champions of the modern era, as they won without a superstar thanks to the strength of their team’s defense.
Ham didn’t play any significant minutes for this Pistons team, but given the style they played with, there’s no denying that every member of this team played an important role in this title effort. And that effort was recognized during a 20th anniversary ceremony on March 17, when the Pistons faced the Miami Heat. Members of the 2003-04 championship team were honored, and Ham flew between Lakers games to be in attendance.
Upon his return, Ham spoke about how empowering it was to relive the memories of that season and spend time with his former teammates.
“It was amazing,” Ham said before Monday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. “Just to get back and zigzag across the country in 24 hours, I left after the game Saturday night and landed around 5:50 p.m., got to the hotel and immediately fell asleep after a four hour trip and 50 minutes, I woke up and went to the arena, I got to see all my guys…
“All these years later, it’s like we’ve never missed a beat. It was a serious brotherhood and remains so today, for all of us. The winning culture of the franchise, well, was the winning culture and hopefully they’ll get back to that eventually. This place still has a special place in my heart and just being with my guys, we all stay in touch, so it wasn’t like what’s going on, what’s going on with this.
“But just seeing what everyone has done in the basketball world since we were all part of that special group in 2004, it definitely filled my cup beyond the brim. Just like a refill. Everyone wishes me good luck, gives their opinion on what they saw, everyone is watching us closely obviously, especially these guys. Just the assurance to continue to do and be yourself, to continue to fight and we love you, we have you back. All that. So it was just what the doctor ordered.
The Lakers need all the energy they can get to prepare for a home stretch that could require them to win two Play-In Tournament games before attempting to topple the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed as seeded No. 8.
Ham’s success as a player and coach shows he can easily contribute to winning basketball, and now it’s time to prove it as the Lakers’ primary signal-caller at a pivotal moment.
Darvin Ham received advice from Quin Snyder after being hired by the Lakers
Before the Lakers and Atlanta Hawks face off on Monday, Hawks head coach Quin Synder revealed his message to Ham when he mentored him early last season during Los Angeles’ struggles.
“The conversations we had were like: It’s the NBA and there’s adversity and you continue to do what you think is right and you persevere. Our dialogue together was more along those lines than anything else thing. Obviously I think everyone who coaches in this league knows how hard it is and sometimes more than anything you need a little bit of support to see the big picture because you can really focus on one result during a given evening or match. time.”
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