(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets for the second consecutive year and it resulted in former head coach Darvin Ham’s dismissal.
Ham’s firing was written on the walls as there were rumblings throughout the 2023-24 NBA season that he had begun to lose the locker room due to his lineup choices and poor in-game management.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis didn’t seem to offer much support for Ham as both of them had their public frustrations with how he ran the team.
James threw a fit on the court when Ham didn’t challenge a clear missed call, while Davis bluntly said that he felt like the team didn’t know what it was doing in stretches after a Game 2 meltdown against the Nuggets.
With Ham gone, the Lakers have been busy with their search for a new head coach and one of the traits they’ll look for is the ability to control the locker room.
It appears that players like Austin Reaves also took exception with Ham as the guard liked a post showing one of Ham’s clipboard messages to the team via Lakers All Day Everyday.
“Austin Reaves liked this post on Instagram.”
Austin Reaves liked this post on Instagram pic.twitter.com/waj8t5YixX
— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) May 19, 2024
Instead of drawing up a play Darvin Ham wrote “contest without fouling” and wasted a whole timeout.
I just know this was the moment AD had enough of him
— Lakers Vino (@VinoUncorked) May 18, 2024
In the original video, Ham can be heard telling the players to contest without fouling with the message written on the clipboard.
This seems like a silly thing to waste a timeout on and it speaks to the frustration the players had over the course of the season.
Whoever the next head coach is will need to find ways to get buy-in from the locker room or else they won’t last very long either.
The post Austin Reaves Appears To Jab At Darvin Ham On Social Media appeared first on The Cold Wire.