LAKERS BASKETBALL UPDATE

Lakers coach Mike Brown, hired Darvin Ham
as an assistant Monday.
Ham, who played for six NBA teams during
an 8 season career, served as the coach of
the New Mexico Thunderbirds of the NBA's
developmental league last season.
Ham joins a crowded bench with Brown
having already hired John Kuester, Ettore
Messina, Chuck Person and Quin Snyder as
assistants. Brown said last week he would
very likely be hiring two or three more
assistants. Ham is the first of the new
hires.
Brown worked in the Denver basketball
operations department when Ham signed
with the Nuggets as a free agent in 1996.
Ham also played for the Indiana Pacers,
Washington Wizards, Milwaukee Bucks,
Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons.
Coach Mike Brown always tells people
that ask him, that yes, he does go into
his office most every day even though
there is still NBA lockout.
He goes over plays and plays of different
versions tried and of terminology of
practice plans, with hand-written notes
on what worked and what did not.
Over the past few months, he and his assistants
have compiled new offensive and defensive
schemes for the Lakers, ones they will use
when the labor impasse ends and the players
and coaches get back to the work of preparing
for and playing games. With help from game
films and the aid of assistant Chuck Person,
the one holdover from Phil Jackson's staff,
Brown gauged the strengths and weaknesses of
each player on the roster. The coach says that
it is time consuming work and granted, some days
are far busier than others, but for the most part,
Brown has been preparing for the next season.
Yes, it is any body's guess just when that may be.
November the 1st., we understand is pay day..
Looks as if the Lakers coach is doing his job
so the rest seems up to everyone else!
Babs Wells