Even though he is no longer a head coach, Darvin Ham is still catching heat.
The Memphis Grizzlies, playing without Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane, GG Jackson, Luke Kennard, and more, upset the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday, winning in a 122-99 blowout. Damian Lillard was particularly horrific for Milwaukee, managing just four points on a disastrous 1/12 from the field.
After the game, Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. spoke out. Pippen played a very key role in his 27 minutes off the bench, finishing with 16 points on 5/8 shooting. With Memphis shorthanded, he also spent a lot of time defensively on Lillard, helping force Lillard’s terrible shooting night.
Watch Scotty Pippen Jr on defense pic.twitter.com/9dbUHkbUwt
— eric (@EricTweetsNBA) November 1, 2024
“One of the coaches over there didn’t believe in me,” said Pippen after the game. “So I definitely wanted to show that I can play some defense.”
Here is the full clip.
“one of the coaches over there didn’t believe in me, so i definitely wanted to show that i can play some defense”
hear from Scotty Pippen Jr. after tonight’s dub @MyMikeCheck pic.twitter.com/x5QtY15VwL
— Grind City Media (@grindcitymedia) November 1, 2024
It is easy to piece together that Pippen was talking about Ham, who is now a Bucks assistant. After going undrafted in 2022, Pippen began his career with the L.A. Lakers but only made six total garbage-time appearances for them. Pippen was mainly stashed away in the G League before getting waived by the Lakers. He then went on to sign with the Grizzlies in Jan. 2024 and has since become a viable rotation piece for them, averaging 12.4 points and 5.0 assists per game over the last two NBA seasons.
Of course, the Lakers head coach throughout Pippen’s tenure with the team was none other than Ham. While it is true that Pippen, 23, is undersized at 6-foot-1, he has clearly worked very hard on his defense ever since entering the league in order to prove his doubters wrong. Pippen is also far from the only one of Ham’s former Lakers players to have since taken shots at him.
