Last season, Frank Vogel and Russell Westbrook butted heads from the very start, and it bubbled up to become a real problem for the Purple and Gold.
Now that Frank is out the door, new coach Darvin Ham is determined not to make the same mistake as his predecessor. Instead of throwing Russ under the bus, he is defending him as much as he possibly can.
In a recent chat with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, the coach made sure to throw Russ his roses again.
“I’m thrilled to coach Russ. They try to dump on Russ, I’m like that was one of the things that got me excited about this job. He and I have had a great rapport since I’ve taken over the job man. Just text messages, phone calls, dinners. I locked in, I cornered his ass outside the elevator over at the Encore. He and I had a great conversation then. We all know what comes along with this businessman. People throwing your name in trade rumors. I’ve been in the league since 96 man I don’t know anybody that’s been on any team that hasn’t had their name thrown in a trade rumor or been traded. As a coach, they’ll be saying they ready to fire me, the media be saying they ready to fire me in a year, year and a half. Well, you can’t help but hear the noise sometimes. You just got to stay solid, do what you do and you’ll win in the end every time. I witnessed it with him.”
Darvin Ham has high expectations for his big 3 next season 😤 All new episode with Coach Ham DROPS THURSDAY only on the ShoBasketball YouTube 💨 pic.twitter.com/hVEEcRyT58
— All the Smoke (@allthesmokeprod) July 19, 2022
There is no denying how much Russ struggled this past season. He was inefficient, unproductive, and even careless at times — and that’s just on the court. In the locker room, Westbrook’s refusal to take personal accountability for his play tore the team apart from the inside out.
No doubt, Ham has his work cut out for him. With a Kyrie Irving trade looking increasingly unlikely, the ‘big three” have reportedly vowed to make it work, but they really don’t have any other choice.
If Ham really makes that much of a difference, he deserves all the praise in the world.
