Report: Rasheed Wallace joining Lakers coaching staff alongside Darvin Ham
Rasheed Wallace is back in the NBA.
The four-time All-Star who won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 has agreed to join Darvin Ham's coaching staff as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, The Athletic's Shams Charania reports. The report confirms speculation from University of Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway, who told reporters earlier Monday that Wallace "might" join the Lakers.
Wallace spent the 2020-21 season as an assistant on Hardaway's staff in Memphis.
“I think Rasheed might be going to L.A. with Darvin Ham," Hardaway said, per the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. "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.”
During his introductory news conference, Ham said that Wallace is a candidate for the staff, but the deal is not yet completed.
Darvin Ham said Rasheed Wallace is definitely a candidate to join his staff but that it's a "fluid situation" and that he and Rob Pelinka are still working through all of that.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) June 6, 2022
Per Charania, Wallace has agreed to join the team, but "the two sides have not yet reached a formal contract stage." Assuming they out the details, Wallace will begin his second stint as an NBA assistant. Wallace worked on the Pistons coaching staff in 2013-14 after retiring as a player.
Wallace, 47, played 16 NBA seasons after starring at North Carolina. He joined the Pistons from the Atlanta Hawks via a 2004 trade-deadline deal and helped anchor the team that upset the Los Angeles Lakers in that season's NBA Finals.
Ham also played on that Pistons championship team and alongside Wallace through the 2004-05 season. After 11 seasons as an NBA assistant, Ham agreed to join the Lakers as head coach last month. He and his staff will be tasked with a turnaround from the disappointment of last season's team that missed the playoffs amid championship expectations for LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
