After hinting at the news on Monday morning, Shams Charania of The Athletic has confirmed that former Memphis assistant coach Rasheed Wallace will join Darvin Ham’s staff on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Wallace spent the previous year as an assistant coach under Penny Hardaway at the University of Memphis. Before that, he was the head coach at Charles E. Jordan High School in North Carolina from 2019-21. He also had a stop as an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons from 2013-14.
Wallace played 16 seasons in the NBA, where he was a four-time All-Star and a member of the Detroit Pistons championship squad that defeated the Shaq and Kobe Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals.
Hardaway told The Commercial Appeal that he knew Wallace would leave if Ham had gotten a head coaching position in the NBA.
“I think Rasheed might be going to LA with Darvin Ham. 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,” said Hardaway.
Wallace is the first known name to join Ham’s staff in LA. Ham and Wallace were teammates on the 2004 Detroit Pistons championship team.
