BONUS POD: Darvin Ham Sharply Criticizes the Lakers for Firing Him During ESPN Interview.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

When Darvin Ham was fired after last season—something most of us saw coming—we didn't hear much from the man himself. It's not surprising. Ripping the team that let you go is not a great way to set yourself up for the next job.

On the show, we guessed (again, no big leap) that Ham felt he was treated unfairly, and was being scapegoated for issues that were out of his control. And to some degree, he had a point.

But in a new interview with ESPN's Marc Spears, he removed any doubt about his feelings. Some excerpts:

“To do as well as I did, I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension with what I did,” Ham said. “I’m not talking about feelings. I’m talking actual facts. They go from not making it to the playoffs to the final four in the NBA, the conference finals. And then you win the in-season tournament, navigate through all the injuries and win both of your play-in games to get to the playoffs.

“People always talk about us losing to Denver, but they never talk about how we got to Denver. We beat a kick-ass young squad in Memphis and we beat Golden State..."

"...“I’m not a mudslinger and I’m not going to wait until I’m 51 to become one,” Ham said. “You feel like you did enough to sustain in one spot. I felt like I did that. I get it. The franchise I’m working for, the expectations can be unrealistic at certain points in time. To be 33-49 when I was hired, with an unbalanced roster, turn that around, make it to the Western Conference finals. The very next year we were a plus-10 in wins, going from 33-49 to 43-39. And guys got paid on my watch. It went from a lot of unknown scenarios to I think we have a little bit of a core. And then we got hit with the injury bug like crazy last [season]. We might have been Top 5 in games lost to injury.

“It’s being reported like I’m just throwing some lineups up against the wall to see what sticks. No man, we were really navigating a lot from guys being hurt to having the oldest player in the league [James] to navigating A.D.’s injury history. It was a lot.

“Some of the s— that was coming out? Wow, bro I don’t know X’s and O’s? I was winging it. Dude, that was the most disappointing stuff, how mean and so much stuff people are saying online. The best thing I could do was block out the outside noise,” Ham said.

So is he right?

With the Lakers still struggling to make headway in the West, does it put Ham's tenure in a different (and perhaps more favorable) light?

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

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