Lakers: Darvin Ham Advocates For Therapy In Underserved Communities

The Lakers head coach took a tough road to the NBA.

During an exclusive recent conversation with Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times, first-year Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham spoke at length about how he survived a difficult childhood to carve out an eight-year playing career in the NBA for himself, and eventually to rise through the assistant coaching ranks until he got the lead gig in L.A. Ham himself is doing a pretty good job with a lackluster Lakers roster. After all, he didn't tell anyone to trade for Russell Westbrook last summer!

Woike writes that, as a 14-year-old in Saginaw, Michigan in 1988, Ham was shot in the back of the neck, spent 11 days recovering in the hospital, and apparently almost died.

“’Walk it off,’ that’s what they’re telling me,” Ham said, his eyes tearing and reddening. “Walk it off. No, ‘How you feeling? Are you OK? Are you scared it could happen to you?’ … I got to give something back, man.” 

"I have PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] to this day off them shots ringing out, getting shot, the s--- going on in my neighborhood," Ham revealed. "And we don’t … we think it’s cowardice or we’re weak if we go get help... And we need so much help, bro.” 

“One fell swoop, I saw it [Saginaw] go from being a tight-knit community, a neighborhood, and then the neighbors disappeared and now, it’s just a hood,” Ham reflected. “You saw things change, man... I’m talking about kids coming to high school, thousand dollars in their pocket, big gold ropes, big-ass triple-fat goose coats, fur coats. It was real man, real... Thank God. I was around it, but I never got submerged in it if that makes sense.” The lure, though, was real. “Being in the midst, seeing things turn for the worst and kids I’m going to school with, going to church with, dibbling and dabbling in this life to the point where I dibbled and dabbled,” he said. “I jumped off the porch.” 

After an Otero Junior College coach made a late pitch to Ham as a high school senior. He played there for a season, before transferring to Texas Tech in his second year.