Dennis Schroeder: In my second year, I was close to going into the GM’s office and telling them they should trade me, because I wasn’t satisfied with my playing time and with the fact that they had me sitting on the bench. The year before that—or rather, the summer before that—I really wasn’t in Germany at all and had only been grinding, to show people that I really wanted to play and was ready to play. And then I got angry. Darvin Ham took me into his office. He had actually ordered soup for himself, then split the soup, put it down, and then sat down and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on with you, actually?’ And then he gave me a quote—and we’d probably have to bleep it, because I don’t want kids seeing that I’m cursing and using swear words—but he said, ‘You have to go through the shit to get to the good.’

YouTube

Dennis Schroeder: And for me, no matter what—highs, lows, whatever—you go through things, then you get back up, and afterward you learn from those things, and then something good comes at the end of the tunnel. And that’s how I live my whole life. No matter what happens, I always stay level. Whether the whole world is talking about me and saying, ‘Ah, you should have done this or that,’ I just keep my head down and keep doing my thing, working, working, and then eventually success comes. Things like the bronze medal, then the World Championship, the European Championship, 13 years in the NBA—those are all things I took with me from him in that second year. And every time I see him, he reminds me. He says, ‘You know what I told you, right?’ And then I know exactly what he means, and of course I smile. And yeah, I definitely owe him that, and I would recommend that approach to every single person, even if it’s not basketball—whether it’s soccer or your regular job—that’s the way you should approach it.”

YouTube

Milwaukee Bucks: Doc Rivers is attending a funeral and will not be in Oklahoma City for tonight's game. Darvin Ham will serve as head coach vs. the Thunder.

x.com

Gee’s Clippers and Darvin Ham team up to provide 500 turkeys to families

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham, I'm told, is a name to watch in the Pelicans' search. My former ESPN teammate Ian Begley reported this week that former UConn coach and Nets interim coach Kevin Ollie — long admired by Dumars' top aide Troy Weaver — is another potential candidate.

marcstein.substack.com

Darvin Ham: I'm forever grateful and thankful for, you know, the Buss family and even Rob Pelinka, man, just just choosing me to to try to navigate through that tough stretch that they were going to. That said, you know, like again, I'm in the facts, man, not feelings. And my time there, we did a lot of cleaning up. You know, the roster was imbalanced. It was a lot that was going on with our between our star players and just trying to figure weed through that, figure all that out. And we got to a place where we were able to make a deal, you know, that that that really spearheaded our run to the Western Conference Finals that year. And I thank all of those guys for playing hard, putting it on the line for me. Um, you know, again, that's the brightest light on on stage in in all of sports, let alone just the NBA. And so, uh, I thought I navigated it well. I had a principle where I would I never [ __ ] on my players, you know. I always try to protect my players in the media, you know.

YouTube

What have you learned about the way the NBA is now that you now bring will bring to your next head coaching job? Darvin Ham: I just think the time and the patience um just keeping everybody on the same same page and like the togetherness forcing that will. You know, I inherited some players that had become accustomed to doing things the way they were used to doing them individually and but really making the team being really dead set on making the team understand the importance of togetherness. Um you know it's a lot of stuff we do once you you know this coach you you get started with this NBA season. We see each other more than we see our own families. And so, um, the more you can do inside the box and also outside the box, you know, it may be a day where guys thinking you're about to have a kick-ass practice and you take them to go play golf or go to Top Golf or go go play flag football. And we used to do that a lot.

YouTube

"What was it like having Russ in that locker room with that group? And is it true what ESPN and those guys were saying, or can we clear the air here?" Darvin Ham: “Nah, Russ is one of the most professional guys I’ve ever been around. He keeps himself in shape — that’s why he’s still playing. I think this is his 18th season at the position he plays. He stays at a very high level in terms of conditioning and constantly works on his craft. All of his teammates — wherever he's played — always have nothing but the utmost respect and love for him. As a coach, we’re constantly trying to figure out how to extract the best possible results from our group. But once you walk out of that locker room, you no longer control how those individual players mesh.

YouTube

Darvin Ham: But in terms of Russ, man, you know, it was a difficult situation. Cause to get a player like that, you pretty much have to gut your team. And that's essentially what happened. In order to get Russ on the Lakers, they had to part ways with Alex Caruso. They had to part ways with KCP, Kyle Kuzma, a lot of other players they weren't able to get because the money wasn't there because now you have three essentially supermax players, right, on your roster. And you know, and and and then now you got to go after lower level players who, God bless, they can they're they're capable players, but to be elite to win a championship in our league, you have to be elite and have an elite group. And a lot of times the financial constrictions won't allow you to do so.

YouTube

Darvin Ham: So you know I have no ill will with Rush. you know, I wish him nothing but the best. Um, I spent time with him once I got that job. He was at my press conference. Um, and you know, I love him what he stands for. Great family. Uh, and hopefully one day we'll be able to sit down again and just really chop it up man to man.

YouTube

Darvin Ham: And the day we live in now, you know, everyone is not so much trying to, we used to say they're just trying to sell newspapers. Well, now everybody's trying to get clicks and views and unfortunately they don't have to wait till the next morning to see what was said. They can get right on their phone, their device and send out whatever be it credible or not. And so again, as we mentioned earlier in this interview, like that's that's a difficult thing to manage the whole social media aspect. So something someone can just pull something, you know, out of the air and throw it out there to the world and it gains steam because everyone sees it, they don't know if it's true, where it's coming from.

YouTube

Dan Woike: Sad news: Wilmer Jones-Ham, the mother of former Lakers coach Darvin Ham and the first female mayor of their hometown, Saginaw, Mich., died last week. Services will be later this week and a scholarship fund has been started in her remembrance.

Twitter

Asked if the game played a role in the signing, Thanasis admitted that it did: “For sure. They were here after the first game against Italy, and they were excited because I was playing defense. I was doing my job, that’s my role. The important thing is that everyone who returns (after such an injury) with a team, or in a tournament like this, has to prove themselves again. That’s basketball. Whatever you have done so far counts; it’s your resume, but you have to prove it every day. That’s professional sports”.

EuroHoops.net

Tas Melas: NBA front office executives or coaches I’ve seen at #EuroBasket: Bucks: Jon Horst, Doc Rivers, Darvin Ham. Lakers: Rob Pelinka, Jeanie Buss, Kurt Rambis. Trail Blazers: Chauncey Billups. Kings: BJ Armstrong, Doug Christie. Nuggets: Josh Kroenke.

bsky.app