Lakers: Russell Westbrook 'Enthusiastic' About Darvin Ham Hire Says NBA Reporter

Russell Westbrook is pleased with the Lakers decision to hire Darvin Ham...for now.

Of the Lakers three stars, Russell Westbrook was the only one who attended new head coach Darvin Ham's first press conference in El Segundo on Monday. In 2019, LeBron James made a point to attend Frank Vogel's introductory presser as a show of support for a franchise that was clearly not hiring its first choice. But of the three, Westbrook has the most to lose, or gain, with the Darvin Ham hire.

We'll spare you the rehash of Westbrook's troubling stats from last season (at least this time), and keep it short - Russ didn't play well last year. By any stretch of the imagination. The Lakers aren't likely to trade him this summer and now, the onus is on Westbrook to adapt his game next season to aide LA in their quest for relevancy. 

Vogel and Russ never saw eye-to-eye, but it sounds like Westbrook is at least giving Ham a chance.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported during Game 3 of the NBA Finals that Westbrook is all aboard the Ham train, at least for now.

"Russell Westbrook expressed tremendous enthusiasm for the Darvin Ham hire. Really has started to connect with him on a human level. He said he really admires his path to becoming a head coach. His no-nonsense approach, results oriented - those are all things Russell Westbrook said he really identified with. One thing he really loved hearing from Darvin Ham so far is not only is he going to hold Russell Westbrook accountable, as they move forward, but he's going to hold the entire team accountable and that, in his mind, is a step for this organization."

The accountability piece points to Westbrook's belief that he was held to a different standard than LeBron James and Anthony Davis last season. Russ stated in his exit interview in April that LeBron and AD didn't truly support the "let Russ be Russ" movement.

Woj continued to affirm that Westbrook is looking forward to working with Ham. Last time we checked, Russ was far from "enthusiastic" about playing for Frank Vogel.

But Russell Westbrook, really enthusiastic in getting to know Darvin Ham so far and expects to talk a lot more with him about his role, how he fits into it, as they move into the summer and towards training camp."

It's June. Those are easy things to say about a new coach when the season is more than four months away. Westbrook will need to do something he's never done in his career to help the Lakers next season, change his game.