Anthony Davis gushes over Darvin Ham: ‘He is one of those coaches you would run through a brick wall for’

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis offered a ringing endorsement of Lakers head coach Darvin Ham, saying that he loves his new coach.

“I love him and his system,” Anthony Davis Davis told Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “He is one of those coaches you would run through a brick wall for. He got your back to make you work hard for him. He’s definitely a player’s coach. He’s been great for all of us. He lets us play freely offensively and keeps a defensive edge.

“We will go back and look at [the loss] and learn. He calls it wins and lessons. There are lessons with our loss. We will go back, look at film and get better for Thursday [against the LA Clippers].”

The Lakers have only played one regular season game under Ham, but it’s clear Davis is enjoying playing for his new coach.

Los Angeles hired Ham this offseason after it parted ways with Frank Vogel, who had led the team to an NBA title in the 2019-20 season.

Prior to joining the Lakers, Ham had been an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks for the last four seasons. He also played in the NBA for eight seasons on several different teams from the 1996-97 season through the 2004-05 season.

Ham broke into coaching the NBA in the 2011-12 season as an assistant coach for the Lakers, so he has come full circle by returning as the team’s head coach in the 2022-23 season.

Davis had a huge performance in his first regular season game under Ham, scoring 27 points and grabbing six rebounds while shooting 10-for-22 from the field.

The Lakers did lose their season opener to the Golden State Warriors, but Davis looked like his normal self in the game, a huge positive after his injury-riddled 2021-22 season.

Various injuries limited Davis to just 40 games in the 2021-22 campaign, but he played well when he was on the floor, averaging 23.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game while shooting 53.2 percent from the field and 18.6 percent from beyond the arc.

Ham is hoping to get the most out of Davis and this Lakers roster as the team eyes a playoff berth in the 2022-23 season. Los Angeles missed the playoffs entirely last season, and that is part of the reason that Vogel was dismissed as the team’s head coach.

Davis and Ham have a tough test on Thursday night, as the Lakers take on the Los Angeles Clippers. With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George both healthy for the Clippers, the Lakers will need to play some of their best basketball to leave Thursday’s game with a win.