LOS ANGELES — Darvin Ham was still new to the coaching business in 2011, working his third professional job and first with an NBA team. Then-Lakers coach Mike Brown had hired him to be a player development coach, an out-of-the-spotlight role that proved more important to shaping Ham than he thought possible.
Ham spent hours on the practice court and in the film room with Lakers players, none more intense than when he was with Kobe Bryant. They'd push each other, test each other's limits. Ham marveled at how Bryant saw the game so well on so many levels.
"If I was going back and forth with him and have him disagree with me and then double back and tell me I was right, we all know how stubborn he was, man, it just gave me a wealth of confidence in myself as a coach," Ham said the other day.
