The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 97-81 on Tuesday night to win the second ever Emirates NBA Cup. Of course, last season the Los Angeles Lakers won the initial iteration of the In-Season Tournament under head coach Darvin Ham behind massive performances from LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The Lakers would do a bit of a champagne celebration in the locker room following the victory, but the Bucks chose not to do so after their win this season. And Ham, now an assistant with the Bucks under Doc Rivers, apparently played a role in their decision not to do so.
According to NBA Insider Chris Haynes, Rivers had a conversation with Ham about his experience of winning the NBA Cup with the Lakers leading to the decision not to celebrate with champagne:
Bucks coach Doc Rivers told me after talking with Darvin Ham and his experience with Lakers last season, they chose not to celebrate The Cup championship with dousing and drinking of champagne. Want to focus on the remainder of the season. pic.twitter.com/CQ0J0aoeWz
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) December 18, 2024
Of course after winning the NBA Cup last season, the Lakers went on a slide, going just 3-10 in their next 13 games, which is probably what Rivers means when he says the Bucks want to focus on the remainder of the season. But the idea that a little champagne celebration led to the Lakers’ issues is pretty comical.
First and foremost, the Lakers’ locker room celebration was a brief one lasting just a few minutes so it isn’t as if the team spent hours drinking and spraying champagne. That definitely wasn’t the case for LeBron James, who was back in L.A. for Bronny James’ USC debut the following morning so he certainly wasn’t out partying all night.
The Bucks making the decision to go the mellow route is perfectly fine, and actually in-line with stories about how they celebrated their 2021 NBA Championship. But Ham using what the Lakers did last year as a reason for it just feels unnecessary.
Darvin Ham speaks on Lakers firing
The Lakers let Darvin Ham go after just two seasons, even though on the surface he was pretty successful, making the playoffs both years, albeit through the Play-In Tournament both seasons, and making a run to the Western Conference Finals.
Even still, a lot of negative things have been said about Ham since his dismissal and the former Lakers coach didn’t care for some of them, in particular his lineups and rotations while dealing with injuries, and his knowledge of Xs and Os.
But in the end, Ham said that it was best for him to block all of that out and insisted that he has no ill will towards the Lakers organization.
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