During his first press conference as the Los Angeles Lakers’ new head coach, Darvin Ham began his remarks by praising God.
“First of all, I want to thank God. Coming from where I come from, I was raised in a household with strong, spiritual faith, belief in God and His Son Jesus Christ, so I want to start with that,” Ham,48, said after general manager Rob Pelinka introduced him.
“Everything I’ve been able to overcome in my life, along with the people around me, it’s been that spirit that was instilled in me as a youngster.”
He also shared that he believes in the power of God’s timing and that the Lord has him exactly where he needs to be, Faithwire reports.
“Timing is everything. Like I said, I put my faith in God. He’s the master of all plans, and I just want to take this time to thank all of those teams that passed on me so I could end up right back where I need to be,” he said jokingly. “It’s all good. I’m good — trust me.”
“You live, you learn, you seek out an opportunity, and if you don’t get it, you just keep getting better and keep trying to add more things to your repertoire,” the head coach continued.
Ham played in the NBA for eight seasons from 1996 to 2005. He later served as an assistant coach with the Lakers from 2011 to 2013. He also served as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks for five seasons until 2018 and then as an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2020-21 season.
According to Sports Spectrum, Pelinka described Ham’s addition to the team as an “incredibly bright and promising day in Laker history.”