The Los Angeles Lakers are without a head coach or even a coaching staff after the team cleaned out house and fired Darvin Ham and his staff following a first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Playoffs. While resentment had seemingly been growing in the Lakers locker room in regards to Ham, Anthony Davis’ reported discontent with the coach may have played a big part in Ham’s ousting.
NBA insider Sam Amick of The Athletic said on “The Rich Eisen Show” that the Lakers came to the decision to fire Ham, at least in part, due to Davis no longer being in support of the coach.
“AD is the future of the Lakers, and I think we are guilty of sometimes of — yeah again, because LeBron [James]’s the free agent this summer — of focusing too much on LeBron and not enough on AD,” Amick said. “When they chose to fire Darvin Ham, I was told that one of the many, many considerations was that it was pretty evident that AD was not on board anymore with Darvin, and they know, like everybody else, that AD has a history of having asked for trades in the past.
“That’s how he got to the Lakers from New Orleans. Last thing they wanted was for AD to be frustrated with the situation and maybe have those types of thoughts cross his mind. That’s what, to me, is unique about this offseason for the Lakers is that even within Klutch, you might have some different opinions about coach and players when it comes to LeBron and AD.”
