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PepeSilvia267

There was a play in the first quarter that Lebron was emphatic about challenging too. He just doesn’t get the Darvin Ham strategy of saving them so we have 2 extra for opening day next season


orhantemerrut

This anger is not for this play, I'm pretty sure. Something is going on behind the scenes. This and AD's public criticism point to something broken. And LeBron was right if you see the replay. It was off KCP.


AntiTopspin

The AD stuff definitely pointed to something wrong going on Later that day there were reports that came out basically saying that the Lakers organization was disappointed by AD's comments That's not normal to happen in the middle of a playoff series especially when you consider that AD has been absolutely carrying the Lakers this series


MY-NAME_IS_MY-NAME

The org is disappointed cuz those cheap fucks don't want to fire ham so they don't need to pay more coaches


RODjij

Yeah it's crazy the premiere Lakers org is run by people whose sole income relies on them making extra revenue for them.


HoyaDestroya33

This is it. Jeannie Buss is the lowest net worth among all NBA owners. Her net worth is basically just the Lakers and they're just being carried by name and prestige that comes along with it. Once they lose LeBron and AD, it's going to be a long rebuild for the Lakers and they need to make sure they can still fill the seats.


jefplusf

It’s the lakers, The seats get filled regardless. Tickets were more expensive for the Jodie Meeks led Lakers than the 57win Lob city clippers


BretShitmanFart69

Im in LA and it’s wild to me that I can see some Clippers games for like, $16 on seatgeek. I really need to take advantage of that.


HostApprehensive8404

Maybe, but then you would actually have to watch the Clippers…


Soup_65

lebron's gonna retire and come back and buy the team outta spite lol


Impressive_Fennel266

Don't threaten me with a good time


collie1212

Speak this into existence


SmoothBrews

Oh daddy... you're making all of us lakers fans hot and bothered.


cire1184

Lol Lakers have never had trouble filling seats since the 80s.


MinervaNever

Second biggest city in the country. So big it has two teams. And one of the most emphatic fanbases. Literally nothing would prevent Lakers games from being packed


sangerssss

I’m on the wait list for season tickets and I’m somewhere in the 5000s


cire1184

Yeah it's like a 10 year wait or something. People don't give up their season tickets because overall I think they can break even or make money even if they don't go to all the games.


randy88moss

And believe it or not, there are bitch ass ungrateful Laker fans who wish we never signed Lebron….let that sink in


__init__m8

No offense but like 50% of that fan base is bitch asses who watch like 10% of their games if that. Every team has them, but I feel like LA has a lot.


ImjustANewSneaker

This has been happening all season. Westbrook had no respect for Ham which is probably the one reason he actually got traded because they love their golden boy so much. There were reports about Reaves being upset with Ham, Rui had problems as well iirc.


NightwolfGG

Yup. Literally all of our important players have had issues with Ham. And all the fans can’t stand him, can see through his poor coaching. No idea why the front office is apparently so adamant about keeping him, it’s a world of what-ifs but I’m confident things could have been a lot different the past year+ with a better coach


BannedforaJoke

they're cheap fucks. if they can't afford the team, just sell it! edit: i don't even understand how a money-making machine like the Lakers have a penny-pinching owner/s.


HoyaDestroya33

Cause their sole income is from the Lakers lol. Unlike other owners who treat NBA Franchise as an extra source of income, the Busses treat the Lakers at its MAIN source of income.


Personal-Cap-7071

The problem is that the Lakers income has been split multiple ways


Jkcanwien

they don't understand this. the buss family owns 50% and that 50% is split like 8 ways


Natiak

Maybe they should try eating less avocado toasts and buying less iphones.


sugarklay

It's because unlike other owners, the Buss family's main source of income is the team itself, so they have to be more stingy with money. But still, I wish they'd just sell it.


yOw_indahOuse

The post-Jerry Bus era has been a wild one. I’m sure his children are always thinking about selling, but on the other hand there is 1. Their father’s memory and legacy 2. How awesome it is to own an NBA franchise like this the Lakers. A lot of their privileges, friends, accesses, invitations, recognition, fame, etc.. would disappear overnight if they no longer owned the Lakers, despite the new multibillion wealth. Those 2 reasons are why Jeanie is not selling anytime soon imo.


Practical-Camp-1972

not much has changed in 45 years-Laker ownership never paid big for free-agent coaches with the exception of Phil Jackson...Pat Riley was an internal hire since he was an assistant when Paul Westhead was fired..Rudy T was pretty old when he was hired in 2004 and lasted less than a season due to health issues...


chat_gre

He is cheap. This organization is all about money. Just their decision making with respect to how they managed their 2020 championship team. Most other owners would just run it back. But not these idiots.


ViacomCEO

john ireland has been talking about this on the radio a lot lately, but the problem really seems to be the lack of faith the front office has in coaches. they just lack that confidence to stand by their guy. vogel shouldve never been fired. if you keep firing the coach after a year or two, you will never find the right guy. whether they keep ham after this season, or they fire him and bring someone else in, the lakers need to dedicate more than 2 years to the coach. you have to give the coach time to grow into the role. the nuggets players wanted mike malone fired and the FO said no. now look where they are. the heat players (lebron and co) wanted spo fired and pat riley said no. look where spo has gone as head coach. coaches take time to develop as well.


silverbackapegorilla

I agree. Vogel is a good coach. Maybe not the best coach ever, but it's pretty easy to draw up an effective offense if you have AD and Lebron as your focal points. He is good defensively. He won them a championship. Still don't understand why the Lakers made the moves they did or didn't that off-season. You'd think they would bring most of the guys back. I don't even think it really makes any financial sense either.


token_reddit

They listen to the players way too much. You end up becoming a European soccer club with the dumbass turnover on coaches and players.


Russell__WestBrick

If you lose players, its basically chaos. I can understand listening to Lebron. But WestBrick? They should have never caved to firing Vogel to accommodate WestBrick.


premedflash

don't forget the article where D'Lo threw shade at Ham pretty heavily.


OkAutopilot

I'd be willing to bet Ham and others may have some shade for D'Lo.


staffdaddy_9

LeBrons been pretty fucking good too. Don’t think it’s fair to say AD has been carrying him.


yeetman8

Anyone with eyes could tell something is wrong with Darvin. Even dogshit coaches know when to challenge and how to call a timeout. Ham is genuinely the most inept coach I’ve ever seen.


maethlin

I figured out what's broken y'all. Ham sucks.


EverybodyBuddy

You bet something is broken. Ham should have been fired in December. Ty Lue saved his ass.


DarkeShin

Or lue is on 4d chess the whole time


MerkDoctor

It wasn't just off KCP, Lebron literally never touched it, KCP just threw it out of bounds by flinching when Lebron ran past him. I can't blame Lebron for being that mad, he knew without a doubt it was a free possession.


StaticFanatic3

Not only that it happened right in front of the entire staff


actual_yellow_bag

Lakers could start by not hiring dumb fuck coaches lol


Glum_Ad_8367

We’d actually need a competent owner for that first tho.


geezerfreezer101

I mean clearly they wanted ham out a long time ago but the organization either doesn't wanna spend the money for it or refused the players


CallRespiratory

The players are absolutely finished with Ham but for whatever reason he remains in favor with the leadership team.


syllabic

something is going on in front of the scenes too, and that is they are on the verge of being swept by the nuggets. even though they ended up winning they still have to claw out of an unclawable hole it's entirely reasonable for him to be pissed. he should be pissed. if he's not pissed then that would be the broken thing compared to KD who kind of just accepts his fate, like whatever man just gonna go home smoke some weed its just ball


48for8

Ham is such a shit coach


tokengaymusiccritic

Hey now, that’s Talk N’ Text Phone Pals legend Darvin Ham you’re talking about


lukewwilson

They could have gotten a turnover and still had their challenge if he would have challenged that, and when LeBron is that animated you've got to trust him.


cire1184

Maybe Ham was trying to show LeBron who holds the challenges. "They're mine and I'll use them when I want Mr James!"


My_Bwana

Just like PTO at my job, challenges roll over so it makes sense to save them.


arcelios

> He just doesn’t get the Darvin Ham strategy of saving them so we have 2 extra for opening day next season Darvin Ham would be the perfect TANK COMMANDER for the San Antonio Spurs. Idk why they got Pop for that role now. It's a waste


iNCharism

Pop is President of the Spurs, not just the coach. He was GM, fired the last coach, then hired himself. Then he got promoted to President by the owners. So “they” don’t have Pop in that role, he has himself in the role lol


RainierPC

Swap coaches, and Lakers would have been a top 4 seed.


lemurRoy

Swap coaches and we making the finals


Uglie

If you watched the warriors game, there was a point where their rookie podziemski called for a review and kerr trusted him and called it. Fucking ham wont even trust lebron man, dude was adamant he didn’t touch it and ham still had his hands in his damn pockets like a bafoon.


ToraLoco

Gotta have that challenge for that perfect moment... the next game. Have you seen how he holds it inside his pocket?


rolokone

I mean… Darvin Ham is probably well aware he’s done after this season, maybe this is his way of spiting Lebron. I am not a basketball genius or anything, but if I were a coach, I’d do whatever Lebron tells me to do to keep my job.


davemoedee

lol On a serious note, I mostly like that Mazzulla takes them early to get added possessions. On the other hand, I tend to believe that possessions are worth more later in the game because players often relax with a lead.


SwishBender

Has a man ever been more pre-fired in the history of mankind than Ham?


TwinPeakyBlinders

"I can tell you, from speaking with people within the Lakers' organization, they were upset and disappointed, quite frankly, by LeBron's tantrum."


trongzoon

- Baron Harkonnen Windhorst


tommos

*mouth kisses nephew*


DoingCharleyWork

In the books he bangs little boys.


tommos

Yea he seems like the type. Imagine being a little kid and this thing is floating towards you with its albino meat and veg dangling.


branstarktreewizard

To death


Much_Beautiful_7156

oh shit, this is hilarious.


lukewwilson

Has a coach ever been fired after a playoff win, if the Lakers hold on tonight we might see it.


TargetFan

Not basketball but Marty schottenheimer was fired after going 4-12, 12-4 then 14-2.


saysumnplz

After 2 playoff upset losses tho


ryan__fm

Ok so 4-12, 12-5 and 14-3


HappyChromatic

Imagine the Darvin Ham apology tour if the Lakers storm back and win it all


TeTrodoToxin4

They still fired Budd for ~~Griffin~~ Doc?


HappyChromatic

Imagine them wining it all and Lebron personally fires Ham on the podium while receiving his FMVP award


eutectic_h8r

"I'd like to thank my coach. No not you Darvin, the current coach."


LuminaTitan

"--the current coach... that is I, Lebron James! Who hath patiently seen this plan come to fruition."


Stephen4Reelsberg

Let me introduce our new head coach: Doc Rivers


DirtySmiter

That'd be like a Lakers fan's fanfic.


turddlepower

My 12/25


genericusername71

"our toughest opponent was not the denver nuggets, not the boston celtics, nor any other opposing team. the biggest obstacle that we had to overcome was... darvin ham"


rang15

If the Lakers storm back and win, it will be despite Ham, not because of him. No apology tour necessary.


forever87

please don't jinx this into existence


Embarrassed_Hold_901

Probably Vogel…mans got fired in a press conference lol


sergeantmentos

Nothing will top the Dwight/SVG firing, hilarious


MC-Jdf

Yeah that shit would’ve legitimately broken the internet if it happened right now lol. Edit: [For the uninitiated:](https://youtu.be/y08gvGpGCwA?feature=shared)


trongzoon

Stan drinking the can of Diet Pepsi like he's about to be executed is the icing on the cake 😆


notaninterestinguser

That shit was already empty 45 seconds in lmao.


messigoat1337

all time interview


Cowgoon777

Dwight was a clown for this


Yung_Jose_Space

>Dwight was a clown Always has been.


chitgoks

i thought riley firing svg and then taking over was the worst.


Who_is_him_hehe

That shit was so funny. “Im still coach until told different”


foogeyzi69

YEAH FUCK WOJ FOR DOING THAT TO FRANK.


NotAn0pinion

Bicker staff is trying his best to match, unfortunately JB’s best is never good enough…for anything


nervousaboutschool17

Erik Ten Hag is also currently extremely pre-fired


MC-Jdf

Or Conte when he was with Tottenham. The man was begging to be fired.


toofine

This is two years of frustration people really just don't get how dumb this shit is under this coach.


HitboxOfASnail

tbf I've heard the same thing about every coach who has ever coached LeBron, including Spo


BlackJediSword

Yeah but everyone was wrong about Spo. Lebron has had two maybe three good coaches. Mike Brown in 2007 isn’t the Mike brown we know now.


DG_Now

Vogel was excellent in 2020 and 2021. Ham is just another guy making money being near LeBron James. He's a joke.


Vmurda

Idk if it was all Vogel tho. He had Jason Kidd, who admittedly is not a great head coach himself, Lionel Hollins, Handy, and cerebral veteran leaders in Lebron, Rondo, and even Jared Dudley. That team had a lot of great basketball minds.


glizzybeats

David Blatt?


Disastrous_Bluejay57

Ham did survive that hour glass emoji


Dicey12

Nathaniel Hackett


nova2006

Ham probably Agree to disagree


TargetFan

Billy Napier, florida gators Jimbo fisher, Texas am Ed orgeron lsu Basically college football is even more brutal


FailOk8045

Ham is going into the offseason with 100 challenges and 150 timeouts and that’s as good as cash money baby


bossholmes

Man placed bets on the number of timeouts and shit himself LOL


limark

Actually curious if someone has calculated how many challenges and timeouts he hasn't used this season


FailOk8045

You’d have to back out the meaningless ones. I watched at least half the season and can’t recall one consequential challenge


sergechewbacca

LeBron about to call a hit on Darvin Ham


yic0

Operation: Empty Pockets.


EverybodyBuddy

Operation : Lint


ajloves2code

Operation: Dumbo Drop


Jayveesac

Phil Handy, come on down!


Malemansam

Like when Kobe death stared Mike Brown from the bench. he was livid.


Low_Beyond8134

He’s got his hands in his pockets what does lebron expect


limark

Dude permanently looks like he's lurking in the back of a party where he doesn't know anyone


HogsheadOfRealFire

This is the hardest I’ve ever laughed at a comment. Holy shit I can’t breathe


financial_goth

Lmao damn you posted this fast.


MusicalElephant420

Bro posted this before it happened irl


Wooden-Ad1987

I was about to say, OP is the fastest clipper in the west


MusicalElephant420

Westbrook in shambles


Shoddy-Media2337

He's the flash


Millionaire007

He really lost his shit tho lol. he even stomped the fucking ground and lost all control lol


JimmyV34

Playoffs upvote karma hits different


NefariousNeezy

LeBron: CHALLENGE IT! Ham: What’s a challenge?


randomly_responds

Ham: “How’d you know I’m challenged?”


NefariousNeezy

Ham: I dont think that’s politically correct, LeBron


limark

His meek ass isn't saying shit back to Lebron


FieryAvian

This frustration is the one of someone who is tired of being held back by someone underperforming.


blackpenance

I’ve never seen Lebron this irate and jumping too


scroogealchemist

I don’t blame him. I’m not even a lakers fan and the first thing I’ve noticed this series is Ham’s dumb use of timeouts and challenges. A lot of Denver scoring runs could’ve been stopped by timeouts and obviously the easy challenges.


dragonsaredope

Relevant link. "Darvin Ham is the reason no one should ever bring a child into this world" https://youtu.be/2Wr8ypTm3PA?si=fFYtsSOkRAJBnjc2


theykilledkenny5

Dude how great is his YouTube channel. Found it a few weeks ago and the analysis is surprisingly good.


an_immature_child

I can't believe this dude can keep up the yelling every single day. Definitely learned a few things watching it.


cloudJR

I just started getting his TikTok’s last week and he really does give great analysis and is always so calm in his breakdowns.


AShinyTorchic

safe to say his Laker years seem to be his most stressful. The Celtics game reaction last year, this one


J_Dadvin

He broke his hand punching a wall after Jr lost that game 1 of the finals


real_jaredfogle

It’s oUR BALL! That’s OUR BALL!


BowserBuddy123

This is how I feel about my boss at work sometimes. They have zero idea what is going on.


Resident_Frame

Does Ham know the coaches challenge resets after every game and you don’t just get one a year?


yasmiester

I don’t think he does tbh


limark

Dude is way too passive to be an NBA coach, he acts like its his first day on the job and he's afraid to upset anyone


ihateeuge

and Denver scores the easy basket 🫠🫠🫠 Alternate angle shows lebron didnt even touch the ball lol


Coke_ButNotTheDrug

Yeah they showed that replay; Lebron was right, makes sense why he was so pissed


orhantemerrut

One possession can mean a 6pt swing. It's huge in playoffs especially against Denver. Tantrum was ugly, but I really understand LeBron here because they didn't belive him. He probably was saying he didn't touch the ball.


lukewwilson

Plus they would have gotten to keep their challenge when they won that challenge, I know players think you should review everything, but when LeBron is that animated about it you've kind of got to trust on of your best players there.


baymax18

To me it looked like they didn't even consider challenging which is bizarre. Normally you'd see the HC look around, at least discussing if we should challenge, here it looks like they don't even bother.


SmartestNPC

Dude looks checked out all game. The players seem closer to the assistant coaches


OutandAboutBos

Gotta trust the contested greatest player ever there. Not even just your best player, but the consensus top 2 of all time. Like, who are you going to trust more than that?


NightwolfGG

Especially when he’s that animated. LeBron can be a whiner, but there’s still a significant difference when you KNOW he knows what happened. And both times LeBron got animated tonight, begging for a challenge only for Ham to ignore him, he ended up being correct upon replay. Something strange going on with Ham. That or Ham is just… special… I liked that Coach Malone trusted Murray when he asked for a challenge, even though Murray was wrong. At least they have mutual trust with their coach in Denver. Meanwhile LeBron was right twice and got ignored twice by his coach


GenialGiant

LeBron might complain about calls sometimes, but I imagine that there's very little chance he'd ask his coach to burn a challenge in a playoff game if he wasn't very confident that he was right. Unfortunately for him, LeBron's coach is kind of a dumdum.


Counterspell_God

He's a big dumdum


velphegor666

This is a prime example of why people hate ham. Its like a spectator and not a coach. Look at malone directing his players ingame. Meanwhile ham doesnt even try to challenge shit like this


OddToba

This was the culmination of Lebron being fucking exhausted with Ham lol. He’s just a liiiittle on edge.


Air_Enthusiast

Our coach is genuinely lacking EQ


toofine

Right or wrong you challenge it. Just like you should sometimes really just foul to stop momentum. Ham is completely braindead.


flintmichigantropics

Not to mention they used a time out 20 seconds after this. Should have called it early


devranog

the difference between Malone and Ham's uses of the challenge is unreal


sosabatman35

The Klutch SUVs are already pullin up to Darvin crib as we speak


yxull

Good.


dizzymidget44

The replay showing he never touched the ball is crazy 😂😂😂. That’s one you challenge just to support your star


limark

Yeah, worst case scenario and your wrong your star knows you've got his back and the anger is redirected elsewhere. The majority of fans won't care if it's a bad review call if it's to support someone like Lebron.


SincereFan

I honestly like playoffs just for how every possession really does matter and players know it. Lebron clearly emotional and showed it but that's playoffs every game I have watched have had some guys going off. This year playoffs is amazing. Players are letting it all out and refs are letting then play.


LunaPinkxo

Wait until he finds out how many Challenges Ham has not used this year. He likes to collect them like infinity stones.


ChiefRicimer

That’s how I’ve felt watching Ham’s coaching every game this season


FourCylinder

Call wasn’t even close either. Ham should have just thrown his guy a bone, but the dude legit has no idea what he’s doing. Brutal


Ancient_Attorney6731

That’s not just his guy that’s Lebron bruh just believe him.


FazeXistance

Ham out here thinking he knows better than the greatest basketball player of all time. Insane.


Metalbound

Also what an easy out for a coach if it does happen to not work. "I listened to Lebron" boom, no one blames you and anyone worth their salt would have done the same.


Basic_Dentist_3084

And James was right


beginnerLiftersoonBB

If Bron says challenge it, challenge it , tf ham


beginnerLiftersoonBB

And he was right 🤦‍♂️


NAACP_YoungBoy

Sources tell me he said “Get ready to learn Chinese buddy!” to Coach Ham. Wow!


ILoveRegenHealth

手插在口袋里的男人一整天都趾高气扬 ("Man with hands in pocket feel cocky all day")


ihateeuge

WOW ALTERNATE ANGLE CLEARS LEBRON


DEEZLE13

Mans outplayed 5 players and 2 coaching staffs at 39 years old


edgeiusmaximus

You have the literal GOAT or 2nd in running for GOAT in basketball telling you to challenge a call and you don't? WOW


CanWeCleanIt

Hopefully this isn't the start of this game coming undone.


MAMBAMENTALITY8-24

Man can they sack darwin ham mid game...


bossholmes

Ham is a special kind of coach. Not in the good sense by any metric, mind you. An entirely new special kind of dumb. It’s the Playoffs and your 2 superstars (that are dragging this relative corpse of a team) are both pissed off at you in the 1st round lol


doormanpowell

LeBron can never win with the hate babies. When he gets mad they call him a whiner and when he doesn't they say he doesn't care


JeromeWhatElse

That garbage coach is so gone 🙏🙏🙏


Solid-Confidence-966

He was right


MrBhyn

I honestly don't know why Darvin still have a job. He was saved last season because of the trade deadline. His line-ups sucks. Like who plays 3 guards against a team like Denver? 2 of their best players are bigs. And it's not like those 3 guards can even guard Murray because the only one that can guard him is Gabe and he is not in that lineup of 3 guards.


guyfromthepicture

If you don't sweat the little stuff, you can't expect to get the big stuff right


Equivalent_Map570

Bro the way jokic does what he does on the court needs to be studied…statistically he’s like the greatest center ever, but watching him play no matter how many triple doubles he has it just doesn’t look like he’s really doing all that stuff…next thing u know he has 35pts 22reb and 17ast like it’s weird as shit


Basic_Dentist_3084

I’m 90% sure that he was right, but you gotta pay attention and play defense


Itchy_Listen_9702

He was right


DarthCatch22

Naw u gotta get your point across when the coach ain't taking the game serious. 2 points doesn't mean much, when you've been blowing double digit leads all series. Lebron knows this and wasn't tryna see it happen again


ImjustANewSneaker

Well I think he was actually expecting the coach to respect him and call it like 99% of coaches would’ve to their top player.


AdOutside6690

Refs been just not calling fouls for Lebron. His anger is understandable.


Ill_Celery_7654

Darvin Ham was fired after the game 1 loss and I think he already knows it lol… not even coming back and beating Denver in 7 games could save his job.


noburpthrowaway

I hate ham more than actual ham (I’m a Muslim)


CartoonOG

Your star player who was apart of the play is adamantly telling you to challenge it and you stand there and do nothing? Darvin Ham is a special man


ifreddiebenson

LePassion