LAS VEGAS – With another NBA Cup championship necklace hanging from his neck, smiling and triumphant Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham turned to his wife on the T-Mobile Center floor and said, “Here is the lady I was talking about. She was mad as hell when I said I was going to work.”
Deneitra Ham quickly responded by saying, “I wasn’t not happy. I was like, ‘What are we talking about?’ ”
What the Hams are talking about now is the Bucks winning the 2024 NBA Cup with a resounding 97-81 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. On Dec. 9, 2023, Ham was the Los Angeles Lakers’ coach when they won the inaugural 2023 NBA Cup. Ham is now a combined 14-0 in NBA Cup contests. Bucks coach Doc Rivers has called Ham the NBA Cup “good luck charm.”
Before winning this NBA Cup, Ham told to Andscape he was extremely disappointed and perplexed when the Lakers fired him as coach after compiling a 90-74 record over two seasons, advancing to the 2022 Western Conference finals and winning the inaugural NBA Cup. But after winning the NBA Cup with Milwaukee on Tuesday, Ham relished in the success and not the past for the moment.
“It’s great for the league and me personally,” Ham said. “I’ve been super-duper excited to be a part of both. The inaugural and now this one. Two generational talents in both Bron [LeBron James] and Giannis [Antetokounmpo]. Lead one and ride shotgun for the other.”
“We’re so blessed and thankful,” Deneitra Ham said.
Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham (left) congratulates forward LeBron James (right) during the NBA in-season tournament championship game against the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 9, 2023, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images
On May 27, 2022, the Lakers hired Ham for his first coaching job after the firing of Frank Vogel. ESPN reported at that time that Lakers were sold by Ham’s “stature and toughness, his history of coaching star players and championship pedigree as an assistant and player.” The former NBA journeyman forward spent nine seasons under Mike Budenholzer as an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee, including winning the 2021 NBA championship with the Bucks.
The Lakers were Ham’s first NBA coaching job after being passed over in nine interviews. Upon Ham’s hiring with Los Angeles, James tweeted: “”So damn EXCITED!!!!!!!! Congrats and welcome Coach DHam!!”
Ham coached James, forward Anthony Davis and the Lakers to a 43-39 record during the 2022-23 season. The Lakers went from a play-in tournament team to the 2023 Western Conference finals. The 2023 NBA champion Denver Nuggets swept the Lakers in those conference finals, but making it there added optimism for the future. Under Ham, the Lakers also won the first NBA Cup championship.
The Lakers finished the 2023-24 regular season 47-35 and defeated the New Orleans Pelicans in the play-in tournament to land the Western Conference’s seventh spot. The Nuggets, however, foiled the Lakers again, defeating them in the first round of the playoffs in five games.
On May 3, 2024, a stunned Ham was fired by the Lakers. Ham said he was “disappointed” and that it was “crazy” that he didn’t get an opportunity to grow in the seat.
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“To do as well as I did, I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension with what I did,” Ham said. “I’m not talking about feelings. I’m talking actual facts. They go from not making it to the playoffs to the final four in the NBA, the conference finals. And then you win the in-season tournament, navigate through all the injuries and win both of your play-in games to get to the playoffs.
“People always talk about us losing to Denver, but they never talk about how we got to Denver. We beat a kick-ass young squad in Memphis and we beat Golden State.”
“I’m not going through the whole Lakers thing. I thought he got a tough deal there,” Rivers said pregame.
There were questions on social media and from NBA journalists about Ham’s X’s and O’s, lineups and rotations. Davis questioned Ham’s coaching on both ends during the Nuggets series. ESPN senior writer Ramona Shelburne also previously reported that James lost faith in Ham over the course of last season.
“I’m not a mudslinger and I’m not going to wait until I’m 51 to become one,” Ham said. “You feel like you did enough to sustain in one spot. I felt like I did that. I get it. The franchise I’m working for, the expectations can be unrealistic at certain points in time. To be 33-49 when I was hired, with an unbalanced roster, turn that around, make it to the Western Conference finals. The very next year we were a plus-10 in wins, going from 33-49 to 43-39. And guys got paid on my watch. It went from a lot of unknown scenarios to I think we have a little bit of a core. And then we got hit with the injury bug like crazy last [season]. We might have been Top 5 in games lost to injury.
“It’s being reported like I’m just throwing some lineups up against the wall to see what sticks. No man, we were really navigating a lot from guys being hurt to having the oldest player in the league [James] to navigating A.D.’s injury history. It was a lot.
“Some of the s— that was coming out? Wow, bro I don’t know X’s and O’s? I was winging it. Dude, that was the most disappointing stuff, how mean and so much stuff people are saying online. The best thing I could do was block out the outside noise,” Ham said.
Milwaukee Bucks guard Andre Jackson Jr. (left) and assistant coach Darvin Ham (right) look on during the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the Emirates NBA Cup final on Dec. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Logan Riely/NBAE via Getty Images
On May 11, the Phoenix Suns hired Budenholzer as their coach. Ham said Budenholzer offered him an assistant coach position on his staff. Ham was intrigued about the possibility of working with “my brother” with a “great city and roster in Phoenix,” but Ham quickly declined, stating that he needed a mental break and told his wife he wanted to take a season off. Ham said that he received other calls about other “great, intriguing situations” that he declined as well.
“It was really fresh when I got fired and those offers were coming,” Ham said. “My mind wasn’t really into it. I was processing it for the most part. My mind wasn’t there …
“I needed some weeks to let everything calm down, settle down and get some clarity on what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. And plus, [Budenholzer] was on a time crunch to put his staff together. The timing was off.”
When asked the key to helping her husband during his firing, Deneitra Ham simply said, “Prayer. Prayers and family.” Darvin Ham responded by saying, “Thank you, Jesus. Won’t he do it.”
The Hams next went to Montego Bay, Jamaica, for sunshine, rice and peas, rum punch, the beach, relaxation, reggae music and mental escape.
“I got fired on a Friday and I was in Montego Bay the following Sunday,” Ham said. “I stayed over there for 10 days. I took some time for my wife and I. Then I slowly worked my way to LA, went to Atlanta and saw some friends and went to Michigan to see my mom, went to my son’s graduation. There was a lot going on.”
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The Hams attended the college graduation of their son, Dominic, from the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin. While there, Ham visited with his former boss, Bucks general manager Jon Horst. Horst mentioned to Ham that Rivers had an opening on his staff as an assistant coach.
Initially, Ham wasn’t interested but Rivers didn’t take no for an answer. They ended up talking about the job over dinner in Los Angeles. Rivers was attracted to Ham being a “high character guy” who could be honest in a non-threatening way to the players. Rivers also believed that Ham shouldn’t take a break after his first coaching job ended.
“He was going to not coach, obviously,” Rivers said Tuesday. “He has never known me well enough to know that no means nothing to me, and I told him that when I called him. He said, ‘I’m not coaching this year.’ I said, ‘That is not true. You’re going to coach. You’re going to coach for me.’ He said, ‘No, I already had a couple offers.’ I went through the whole thing and just stayed on him.
“I really felt like, not that he had to go with me. But I really felt strongly he needed to stay active in the game. I thought that was very important to him. [I said] ‘At the end of the day, I know Bud wants you as well and you have to go with one of us.’ I believe he feels know that we were both right, Bud and I. And so, it’s great to have him.”
“I had a really good dinner and really good talk,” Ham said. “During that process I was thinking, ‘My wife is going to be pissed with me.’ I was looking forward to that [season] off. But knowing how I am, I need something to do. Sitting around, going on vacations every week and spending money, it’s cool. It sounds good. But just like anything else, it gets old after a while.”
Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez (left) talks with assistant coach Darvin Ham (right) during a break in the third quarter of the championship game of the Emirates NBA Cup against the Oklahoma City Thunder at T-Mobile Arena on Dec. 17 in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
On July 8, the Bucks announced that Ham was returning as an assistant coach under Rivers. Rivers had been the coach with the Bucks since being hired midseason Jan. 26. Ham’s first call was to Budenholzer out of respect before the news came out. And his wife ultimately gave her blessing.
“She rode with me on it, but she wasn’t too happy,” Darvin Ham said. “But at the end of the day, her knowing me and then coming back to this environment where we’ve had a ton of success as a player as an assistant coach before … I thought just the familiarity with the situation with the guys and the family and knowing everyone from ownership on down, they welcomed me back with open arms.”
Ham said he was attracted to learning something new under Rivers, who is eighth in NBA history with 1,129 wins. Rivers also won an NBA title as coach of the Boston Celtics in 2008.
“It made all the sense in the world,” Ham said on taking the Bucks job. “I was hell-bent on taking a year off. I had a lot of people reach out to me.”
Meanwhile, the Lakers are off to a 14-12 record under first-year coach J.J. Redick. Ham said that while he has kept in touch with several of his former players, he has not had a conversation of note with James and Davis since he left.
Even so, Ham says he wishes the Lakers the best and has “no ill will.” The Bucks host the Lakers on March 13, 2025, and visit Los Angeles on March 18, 2025.
“I haven’t talked to anybody,” Ham said. “When we played them in the preseason, I said hello to a couple of guys. Jaxson [Hayes], Cam [Reddish], DLo [D’Angelo Russell], Gabe [Vincent]. But not really, man. LeBron ran past the bench and we had a little bit of small talk.
“There is no ill will for me. Their situation is what it is.”
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Ham says he is learning a lot under Rivers this season and is in a supreme place on and off the court now. He also aspires to return to an NBA bench as a coach. If the Bucks play the rest of the season like they did in the NBA Cup, perhaps Ham will get his chance sooner rather than later.
“I’d be a lot wiser,” Ham said. “Skin is a lot thicker. Then again, I’m learning from one of the greats, Doc. I’ve been around one of the greats in Bud. Bud is a Hall of Fame coach. Mike Brown, Mike D’Antoni and now Doc, I’ve been able to pull from all those guys with my own personal knowledge of things. I’m in a great place. I’m in a great space. I have fun going to work every day.
“My family is healthy. My boy is out here coaching with me, [Bucks player development coach] Donovan [Ham]. My oldest son, D.J., is coaching in Cleveland with Kenny [Atkinson]. Dominic just graduated from college and my wife is doing really well running our nonprofit, Urban Youth Development, helping all mankind. We’re doing a lot of stuff with the homeless. We’re blessed, man. No complaints whatsoever.”
Marc J. Spears is the senior NBA writer for Andscape. He used to be able to dunk on you, but he hasn’t been able to in years and his knees still hurt.