The Los Angeles Lakers have sacked Coach Darvin Ham after just two seasons in charge.
The Lakers announced on social media that they were dismissing Ham four days after their season ended with a first-round playoff loss to Denver in five games.
Ham led Los Angeles to the Western Conference finals less than a year ago in his first season as an NBA head coach.
He had replaced Frank Vogel, who was fired by the Lakers exactly 18 months after winning the franchise’s 17th championship in 2020.
Ham presided over a disappointing year for the Lakers, who went 47-35 in the regular season and won the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament.
The Lakers then beat New Orleans in a play-in game to move up to the seventh seed in the highly competitive Western Conference — but that meant they had to face Denver, which swept them out of the playoffs last season.
Ham had two years left on his contract with the Lakers, who will be hiring their fourth head coach since James arrived in 2018.
The new coach will be the Lakers’ eighth in 14 seasons since Hall of Famer Phil Jackson’s departure in 2011.
Ham had an eight-year playing career in the NBA as an athletic forward, winning a championship with Detroit in 2004.
He got his first NBA assistant coaching job with the Lakers in 2011, and he was Mike Budenholzer’s assistant in Atlanta and Milwaukee for nine seasons winning a second championship ring with the Bucks in 2021 before returning to the Lakers as their head coach.
