The basketball world has known for a week that Darvin Ham is the next head coach of the Lakers.

Now the franchise is ready to make its own introduction.

The Lakers officially acknowledged Friday morning they had hired the 48-year-old Michigan native, the 28th head coach in franchise history. Ham is scheduled for a Monday press conference, where he’ll formally start his first NBA head coaching job.

“Our players and fans will immediately identify with Darvin’s no-nonsense and hard-working approach, which we feel will bring toughness and a competitive edge to all we do,” general manager Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “When you add that to Darvin’s sophisticated grasp of in-game strategy and deep knowledge of the game of basketball, we have the ideal coach for this next chapter in Lakers history.”

By now the broad strokes of Ham’s career are familiar to most Lakers fans: Ham was a journeyman player who won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, followed by a long tenure as an assistant with the Lakers, Atlanta and Milwaukee. He’s coming from the Bucks, with whom he won a championship in 2021 under Mike Budenholzer.

Ham’s previous experience with the Lakers – a two-year stint under Mike Brown – mattered in the hiring process. On Friday morning as they officially acknowledged the hire, the Lakers re-shared a 10-year-old Twitter post of Ham working out with Kobe Bryant.

10 years later… Welcome back, Coach. https://t.co/mQ2c4z2pwP

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) June 3, 2022

But what remains for Ham is laying out his vision for a superstar-driven roster that wound up far short of expectations last year. While LeBron James expressed his excitement last week about Ham’s hire when it was widely reported, and Russell Westbrook shared a post on Instagram about the announcement, Ham’s approach to coaching L.A.’s stars has yet to be defined in his own words.

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Ham has a reputation as a relationship builder and a no-nonsense coach, but the Lakers are widely considered one of the league’s most pressurized franchises with James, Westbrook and Anthony Davis expected to be under contract for next season. The trio was announced with great fanfare last summer, but failed to make the playoffs this season due to injuries and on-court fit – resulting in the dismissal of Ham’s predecessor Frank Vogel (who won a championship in 2020).

Ham has worked with stars as a player (Ray Allen, Chauncey Billups) and as a coach (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday, Bryant). While his basketball responsibilities in his coaching career have largely landed on the defensive side of the ball, he is also credited with helping Budenholzer modernize Milwaukee’s offense starting in 2018.