Lakers News: Stephen A. Smith Reacts to Darvin Ham's Friday Firing

The long-time sports TV personality feels like Ham didn't deserve to get fired.

Apr 27, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham during warms up / Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers will search for yet another head coach after parting ways with former head coach Darvin Ham. The team decided to move in another direction, and the extensive head coaching search will begin this week.

Although all the blame doesn't deserve to be thrown in Ham's way, he deserves a good chunk of it. Anyone who follows the team closely knows Ham played a part in the Lakers' failures this season, excluding their postseason loss to the Denver Nuggets.

The Lakers will look for another head coach after two seasons. Many media pundits, including long-time sports TV personality Stephen A. Smith of ESPN, don't think Ham deserved to be let go. 

Smith went on a rant on Monday's episode of ESPN's "First Take." 

"He got screwed," Smith said. "It was the wrong decision."

.@stephenasmith doesn't believe Darvin Ham should've been fired as Lakers' HC.

"He got screwed. It was the wrong decision." pic.twitter.com/lcjX2Ocv2a

— First Take (@FirstTake) May 6, 2024

Smith believed the roster was problematic, including "shooters who couldn't defend and defenders who couldn't shoot." 

While he has a point, and no one thing is to blame, at the end of the day, Ham played a role in the team's struggles this past season. He failed to play the five best guys on the court for multiple stretches, even months. Ham benched two of the top four players on the team for wing players like Cam Reddish and Taurean Prince. On top of that, Prince and Reddish played extensive minutes, more than they should have. 

Lastly, he lost the locker room, including the final nail in the coffin of Anthony Davis' comments that, at stretches, the team doesn't know what they're doing on either end after the team's Game 2 loss to the Nuggets. That comment, plus Ham's lack of adjustments and not calling timeouts in Game 2, which saw a 20-point lead displaced and ultimately lost the game, was the apparent "final straw." 

The front office and its signings were a miss, but Davis' comments and the other comments players made throughout the season were directed at Ham and the coaching staff. There's no way you could bring back a coach when players are badmouthing their coaching methods and strategies. 

Smith is on the outside looking in. 

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