Of all the Laker revelations, don't forget the coach

Darvin Ham got through the turbulence, and he and the Lakers are in the NBA's final four.

Darvin Ham

Nick Nurse, Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer coached their teams to NBA championships in 2019, 2020 and 2021. All have been fired.

It almost makes you think that NBA coaches are non-essential personnel, until you check out their salaries. Four of them make over $8 million per year, up to Gregg Popovich’s $11.5M, which, lately, has been a lot of money per win.

The problem is that the students are pulling down bigger checks than the teachers. The average NBA salary is $9.67 million. Twenty-five players are making more than $35 million. That turns the coach into a servant. Ask Nate McMillan what happened when the Atlanta Hawks got tired of listening to him, or ask David Blatt what happened when he and LeBron James ran into a fork in the road. Or, for that matter, when Paul Westhead didn’t make the game fun for Magic Johnson. Such an imbalance of power gave birth to this odious phrase, when a coach praises a superstar who actually follows the program: “He lets me coach him.”

Combine that upward pressure with the downward unpredictability of an owner who thinks his software riches have imbued him with basketball knowledge. That’s why coaches never lose touch with their real estate agents. They know they’ll be on the move. Yet they still covet NBA jobs for the lifelong financial security. Mike Montgomery was a fabulously successful coach at Stanford – talk about looking better with age – and yet took the Golden State job when it was a tunnel heading toward the light of an onrushing train. He got fired and took the Cal coaching job, with a bulked-up portfolio. At that point someone asked Montgomery what he had missed about college hoops. “Eye contact,” he said.

This is a roundabout way of addressing the rebirth of the Los Angeles Lakers, who trounced Golden State Friday night and wrapped up their Western Conference semifinal series in six games.

They became the first team in 28 series to deny the Warriors a victory in any road game, and the first Western team to eliminate the Warriors since Steve Kerr took the Golden State job in 2014-15.

Not so long ago the Lakers were as damaged as Putin’s army. They began the season with a lopsided, nonsensical roster and a five-game losing streak, including a 14-point loss to Golden State in the opener. On Nov. 11 they were 2-10. On Feb. 9 they had stabilized to 25-31, but that was still 13th in the 15-team conference, two-and-a-half games out of Adam Silver’s all-is-forgiven playoff innovation that involves Teams 7 through 10 in a play-in tournament.

The Lakers did win their next game, against the Warriors, and that was the debut for newcomers Jarred Vanderbilt and D’Angelo Russell. General manager Rob Pelinka had already picked up Rui Hachimura. This was right after James had broken Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s alltime scoring record, and the perpetual optimists in Lakerland were both entertained and hopeful. That dissipated when James was injured and missed the next 13 games. But the Lakers managed to win eight of those. When James returned, he was greeted by a well-rounded, defense-oriented team that had adjusted to the audacious offense of Austin Reaves, and Vanderbilt’s tireless, bruising ethos that Minnesota had traded to Utah, much to its regret. The Lakers finished 43-39, won six of eight with James back, and then rallied to win their first play-in game against those Timberwolves.

That was just the drumroll. The Lakers ousted Memphis in six games, with wins of 16 and 40 points. They did the same to the Warriors, with wins of 30 and 21 points. While commentators have spewed kneejerk criticism of Anthony Davis and his fragility, his own knees have held up fine. After Stephen A. Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal debased themselves by ridiculing the way the Lakers gave Davis concussion precautions, Orange County Register columnist Mirjam Swanson pointed out that Davis had matched Steph Curry in games played. And while the newcomers have played with the calm urgency that the playoffs require, James and Davis have reminded us how they were celestial partners who won the 2020 NBA championship in a land far, far away. This championship, if it happens, will have real witnesses, and a parade.

At the front of the line will be Darvin Ham, a substantial, 6-foot-7 fellow who speaks unvarnished truth to the powers in uniform. He had been an NBA assistant coach for 11 years, with the Lakers and Atlanta and Milwaukee. He is a limb, once removed, from the Popovich Tree, having worked with Budenholzer in Atlanta and Milwaukee, but he is also a demonstration of why GMs should occasionally consider hiring coaches who didn’t grow up in the video room, who actually played in the league and felt what players feel. Ham was a 14-year-old gunshot victim in Saginaw, Mich., and had to attend a Colorado junior college just to break into the business. He was a spectacular dunker at Texas Tech and a useful sub on six NBA teams.

Ham knew he had nothing to lose when he first occupied the seat held by Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. He persuaded Russell Westbrook to come off the bench. He kept James and Davis on his side and he kept advocating defense. He showed his belief in Reaves, an Ozark version of Jimmy Chitwood, from a crossroads in Arkansas.

Once Pelinka beefed up the roster, Ham’s consistency was rewarded. The Lakers had the league’s second-best record after the trade deadline. For the season they led the league in free throw attempts and allowed opponents the fewest.

Most notably, Ham has defied the new wisdom and has convinced the Lakers that a made shot inside the 3-point circle actually counts for two points, not minus-one. This is a hackneyed concept that seems to work well. The Lakers shot only 31.2 three-points per game. Only four teams shot fewer, and one team shot exactly as many. That team was Denver, the Lakers’ opponent in the Western finals.

The Lakers shot 8.6 fewer 3-pointers per game than did the Warriors in the Western semis, but they doubled up the Warriors in free throw attempts, 160 to 80. James and Davis shot 71 by themselves. Curry only shot 17 in the six games. Add that to the miserable shooting of Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole, and the Warriors were fortunate to dodge a sweep.

This is not the end of the Warriors as we knew them, through four NBA titles and six Finals appearances. That had already happened. The Warriors finished only one game ahead of the Lakers and were dreadful on the road, and Kerr admitted that he knew they were no longer qualified for the throne room, despite their heroic Game 7 win at Sacramento in the first round. They reached for more and found nothing, especially when the Lakers forced Curry to play stressful defense. Curry is 34, Thompson and Draymond Green 32.

Meanwhile, Davis has temporarily quieted the rebellion that his body parts often stage, and James becomes more of a transformer with each season. He wants to play pro basketball with Bronny, who will be a USC freshman, but, realistically, his career might outlast his son’s.

And Ham inches closer to a possible championship, although Denver, the next opponent, is healthy and thriving. Beyond that comes his eventual dismissal, at some point. He, of all people, knows how the game works, and also knows that the Lakers are just coming out of a coaching desert. Mike Brown was fired after he began the 2012-13 season by losing four of five. Mike D’Antoni and Byron Scott were saddled with unprepared youth. Luke Walton had three losing seasons. Vogel arrived when Davis did, and a title ensued, but the injuries and the pressures claimed him, too.

There are coaches who matter, like Kerr and Miami’s Eric Spoelstra, but they’re the ones who are supported from on high. One has no idea whether Darvin Ham will last longer than a Broadway musical hit. But there’s no doubt he aced the audition.