The Los Angeles Lakers are adding another NBA Champion to their coaching staff.
Former NBA All-Star Rasheed Wallace has been hired as an assistant coach on Darvin Ham’s staff, Shams Charania reports. The pair helped lead the Detroit Pistons to a championship in 2004.
Back in May, the Lakers signed Ham to replace head coach Frank Vogel, who was fired after a disappointing season. Ham, who will be a first-time head coach, agreed to a four-year contract with the team.
Wallace, a four-time All-Star who played for six teams over his 16-year NBA career (Bullets, Blazers, Hawks, Pistons, Celtics, Knicks), retired in 2013. Since then, the 47-year-old spent one year as an assistant coach with the Pistons during the 2013-14 season, before joining Penny Hardaway’s staff at the University of Memphis last year.
The news arrives just a day after Hardaway told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that he expected Wallace to join forces with Ham in Los Angeles.
“I think Rasheed might be going to LA with Darvin Ham,” Penny revealed. “That was the deal from the beginning. If Darvin had gotten a job last year, Rasheed had already promised him that he was going to go with him. So, I’m thinking this year, with him getting the Lakers job, (Wallace) might still be going along with that process.”
