Darvin Ham of something from his Lakers days”/>
Scotty Pippen Jr. spoke in the press room after his strong performance in the Grizzlies’ 122-99 upset win over the Bucks. He noted that his defensive effort on the hardwood was motivated by an unnamed Bucks coach who had doubted his defensive abilities and wanted to prove them wrong. Everyone thought Pippen Jr. was targeting Darvin Ham, who was Pippen Jr.’s head coach on the Lakers just two seasons ago: “I definitely took that match personally. I grew up watching a lot of Dame [Lillard]. And one of the coaches over there [Bucks] He didn’t believe in me, so I had to show him that I could play defense…”
Scotty Pippen Jr. was a two-way player for the Lakers during the 2022-23 NBA season. But he didn’t impress Darvin Ham to secure more minutes with the main team. Pippen mostly played with the Lakers’ G-League unit and said goodbye at the end of the season. One can imagine that Ham’s criticism of Pippen Jr. was the cause. Pippen Jr. was able to bounce back, signing a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies in January of this year.
After impressing team officials, his performances in the NBA Summer League were really interesting and may have earned him a standard 4-year contract with the Grizzlies in the future. It’s great to see that Scotty Pippen Jr. didn’t let a negative experience with an NBA coach derail his game and how hard he worked to get a guaranteed spot on a roster.
