Patrick Beverley revealed that former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham later admitted that Beverley and Russell Westbrook had been right about the team’s leadership during the 2022-23 season.
Beverley, who signed with French club Boulazac this offseason, discussed his Lakers experience on the Out The Mud podcast and recalled a conversation with Ham after the coach had been fired.
Beverley said he warned Ham when he first took the Lakers job that he needed to coach every player equally and understand the differences between the Western and Eastern Conferences.
“Mind you, Darvin Ham my man. Love him to death. He’ll tell you this face to face,” Beverley said. “I told him from the beginning when he first got the job, I said, ‘You gotta coach. I know you’re used to the East, this the West. Y’all West babies.’”
Beverley said he also told Ham that he could not give certain players special treatment.
“Coach Ham, you gotta coach, and you gotta coach everybody. You can’t get nobody no slack,” Beverley recalled telling him.
Ham’s first season in Los Angeles ended with the Lakers winning the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament, while the coach was dismissed following the 2023-24 season.
Beverley said he later encountered Ham in Las Vegas, where the former coach approached him and acknowledged that his earlier advice had been correct.
“He said, ‘You was right.’ I said, ‘What?’ ‘Yeah, I just wanna tell you, you was right. You and Russ was right. Y’all was the leaders of my team. You was right,’” Beverley recalled.
According to Beverley, Ham then asked him for Westbrook’s phone number because he wanted to apologize to the former Lakers guard.
The comments were particularly significant because Westbrook’s tenure in Los Angeles was heavily criticized. Beverley argued that the public narrative surrounding Westbrook overlooked the qualities he brought to the team as a veteran and professional.
“He was straight professional,” Beverley said. “Your leaders was different.”
Beverley distinguished between the team’s established stars and the players who provided what he described as the “heart and soul” of a team.
“It wasn’t your time to say LeBron James my leader. We know LeBron James is your leader. We know Anthony Davis is your leader,” Beverley said. “But it’s different leaders. It’s the people that got the heart and soul of the team. The team that you need the engine to go for your car to get from point A to point B.”
Beverley and Westbrook were both part of the Lakers during the 2022-23 season. Beverley said that, by the time Ham acknowledged their role, the public perception of both players had already changed.
“We look like we were the cancers of the team, you feel me? It’s too late then,” Beverley said.
Despite his criticism of how the situation unfolded, Beverley emphasized that he respected Ham for eventually acknowledging his mistake.
“A lot of coaches wouldn’t even do that,” Beverley said. “So I respect Coach Ham.”
