Lakers News: Darvin Ham Talks LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo Comps

LeBron's new head coach commented on both MVP forwards.

Former Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham recently spoke about his new gig, as the head coach of your Los Angeles Lakers, in an extensive conversation with Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints at a gala event in L.A.

Ham also touched on the shared drive he's noticed between All-NBA Bucks great Giannis Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP, and now James, a four-time MVP holding up remarkably well ahead of his 20th season, all things considered.

“There is no difference [between James and Antetokounmpo]. They’re both hungry, they’re both great, and they’re both generational type players.”

If he doesn't want to make comparisons, I will. 

The Greek Freak is entering his tenth NBA season. He's a six-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA player, five-time All-Defensive Team selection, two-time MVP, the 2019-20 Defensive Player of the Year, and of course a one-time champion and Finals MVP (so far). The 6'11" power forward has become the league's most unstoppable athletic force, practically able to leap to the rim from the free throw in a single bound. 

Last year, Antetokounmpo averaged 29.9 points on 55.3% shooting as the focal point of Milwaukee's offense, plus 11.6 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.1 steals a night on a 51-31 Bucks club that may have only lost to the Boston Celtics in a seven-game Eastern Conference Semifinals series due to the injury absence of the team's second All-Star, wing Khris Middleton. He has scored 14,321 career regular season points.

Through King James's ninth season (his inaugural 2010-11 run with the Miami Heat), the 6'9" small forward was an eight-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, three-time All-Defensive Teamer, two-time MVP, and had lost his lone two Finals appearances. The kid from Akron averaged 26.7 points on 51% shooting as one of two focal points in Miami alongside Dwyane Wade, along with 7.5 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.6 blocks on a 58-24 Heat team that marched all the way to the 2011 Finals, losing to the Dallas Mavericks in six games. 

Though James was clearly the best player in the league by this point (just as Giannis is now), he had opted to be somewhat deferential to Wade while in Miami, so the duo often took turns on offense in what some of us called a "dueling banjos" my turn/your turn approach. By the end of the 2011 regular season, the Chosen One had scored 17,362 career regular season points. Keep in mind, Giannis emerged as a more raw prospect than James when he was first drafted in 2013, and would not emerge as a full-time starter until his second season.

Point being -- though Antetokounmpo is a year older than James was at the same point in his NBA career, they had both reached and maintained Hall of Fame-level league dominance at similar junctures.

But I digress. Another fun Ham anecdote from the ClutchPoints interview was the former NBA pro's reaction to being shown a 2004 image of him guarding a Cleveland Cavaliers-era James, while a reserve on the Pistons. Ham, a 6'7" small forward out of Texas Tech, played for eight years in the league, winning it all in 2004 with Detroit against... some team, I don't know. Who can remember? Let's not talk about it.

LeBron James being guarded by now-Lakers head coach Darvin Ham 18 years ago.

James dropped 43 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals on 68% FG in a win vs. Ham and the Pistons. pic.twitter.com/TczqdjJKgL

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 28, 2022

Ham served up this measured response, when asked what he saw in the picture: 

“Growth. For both of us. This was probably 2003-04 season. It could’ve been ’04-05. I played against him his first two years in the league. So growth.”

That's the perfect answer. This guy's going to be an awesome coach. Here's hoping Rob Pelinka can get him the players he needs to do that this season.

If you're curious, the Saginaw, Michigan native posted modest career averages of 2.7 points, 2.3 assists and 1.2 rebounds while enjoying something of a journeyman NBA life, playing a total of 417 games (including 45 starts) for the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards, Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, and Pistons.

Following a three-season run with a D League (the former moniker for the G League) club alternately called both the Albuquerque Thunderbirds and the New Mexico Thunderbirds, Ham plied his trade as an assistant at the NBA level. He has exclusively worked the benches of guys named Mike. Ham first served under Mike Brown and Mike D'Antoni with the Lakers from 2011-13 (teams loaded with Hall of Fame players that underwhelmed in the postseason), followed by stints on Mike Budenholzer's staff with the Hawks and Bucks. This Lakers opportunity marks the highly-touted former assistant's first NBA head coaching stint.