Earning It.
 
We have heard all of the sayings:
 
"Practice makes perfect."
"If you do the work, you get rewarded."
"Hard work pays off."
"Success is not an accident."
 
No player in recent memory has lived those expressions as much as Dominic Ham the past few years. He's the guy running wind sprints and getting shots up before shootaround even starts. He's the guy doing push-ups on the sidelines during breaks in the action. He's the guy shooting on the court after the game is over and the lights are getting turned off practicing his craft.
 
For Ham, his hard work and persistence paid off in his final season with the Panthers.
 
It reached an initial high point February 14, 2024. That was the night that Ham made his first start at the NCAA Division I level.
 
He didn't leave the starting lineup the rest of the way, which is quite the path for the former Panther walk-on who started his time with the program as a team manager.
 
Most fans of the program are quickly familiar with the last name. Dominic is the son of Darvin Ham, the current head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Darvin first made his name nationally known in college, when he famously shattered a backboard on a slam dunk against North Carolina during the 1996 NCAA Tournament as a member of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. He went on to spend nearly a decade in the National Basketball Association, including three seasons locally with the Milwaukee Bucks.
 
"I still remember a lot of it – he didn't finish playing until I was eight or nine years old," Dominic recalls of his dad's playing career. "And after that he transitioned into coaching. We went to New Mexico when he was with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds in what was then the 'D-League' and is now the 'G-League'. That's when he started his coaching career – he went there as a player and then made the move into coaching, starting as an assistant."
 
Growing up with a famous dad had its perks. Dominic got to know many of the NBA players that he grew up idolizing.
 
"All the way up – I still get to (meeting NBA players)," he said. "We were always in the mix growing up, whether my dad was playing or coaching. I always felt like we were meeting all kinds of the guys (NBA stars). I was able to meet pretty much everyone on the list. My favorite was Kobe Bryant. It was amazing. There was like an aura around him."
 
Darvin played for the Bucks, as well as time with five other teams – winning an NBA title in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons.
 
"It was so great being around the 2004 Pistons team," Dominic said. "It was cool being around them – they treated us like family so it was nice."
 
You would think that growing up in the Ham household, a basketball would automatically be a part of the process. Not so, Dominic stated.
 
"I was a big football guy in high school and actually signed to play out of high school," he said. "It wasn't until right around August of my senior year that I transitioned over to basketball to go to junior college. I was going to go to NCAA Division II Shorter University and ended up going to junior college at Georgia Highlands, which was in the same city in Rome, Georgia."
 
That was where he spent the 2020-21 season, making appearances in 18 games while averaging 3.8 points and 2.4 rebounds a game.
 
"I think it was everything I needed at the time," Ham said. "Junior college isn't anything like we have in DI, it's a rigorous road for sure. That coaching staff there – Coach Gaffney, JJ Merritt, Ray Savage – that whole group was very helpful to me, honestly."
 
But the path was not an easy one.
 
"I took my first major injury my freshman year at JUCO," Ham said. "But we were short on guys so they were rushing us to come back. So at the time, we only had seven guys suited up out of 15 on the roster. Short in numbers, I ended up playing through and had some academic issues … that set me back."
 
At that same point in time, his father was making his mark in the coaching world and was on the staff of the Milwaukee Bucks.
 
"I ended up coming to Milwaukee and staying with my parents for a bit after my dad was coaching with the Bucks," Ham said.
 
That was where the connection between Ham and the Panthers was born. Enter Vin Baker, Jr., who also was the son of an NBA dad (Vin Baker, Sr.) who was playing for the Panthers at the time.
 
"I got in contact with Vin," Dominic said. "So me and Vin got closer – his dad was working with mine at the Bucks at the same time. That's how I found out about UWM in the first place. So I started coming to the games and watching Vin and the team play and that's when I fell in love with it."
 
He started to get the itch to get back on the court immediately.
 
"Honestly, as soon as I stepped into Panther Arena I knew I was going to play here," he said.
 
The timing lined up for Dominic – the Bucks and his dad went on to win the NBA title in 2021.
 
"The championship was beautiful to see – I think we saw the city at its highest," he recalls. "It was just cool to have that experience and that's what motivates me now – in your own basketball career trying to bring a championship to a city that has done so much for you."
 
Next came the first step in getting back on the court. For Dominic, that meant doing whatever he had to do to be involved. So he started his Panther career during the 2021-22 campaign – but not as a player … as one of the team managers.
 
"It was just one of those things," Ham said. "God brought me to that option and you can just take this opportunity and be a part of the program or choose to be a regular student and I chose to fight for what I truly believed in – that I had the capability to play on the team but first you have to pay your dues. My guys like Billy and Coop (other team managers) taking me in, Mike (Winans), J-New (Jason Newkirk), and everybody showing me the ropes and treating me as one of the guys and I just grew from there."
 
One of the bonuses of being a manager at the NCAA Division I level are "manager games". For those that do not know, managers across the country play in loosely organized games against managers from other programs. This 'underground' league gives managers the opportunity to show off their skills and … for Ham … to continue to improve.
 
"Those manager games are some hard games," he said. "That's what you sign up for because there are so many hidden resources and opportunities you have even as a manager that can put you in the right spot to get to where I am today."
 
His hard work and work ethic got noticed and paid off, eventually turning into a walk-on spot with the team during the 2022-23 season.
 
"I think it comes from everyone I have crossed paths within life," Ham said of his work ethic. "I draw from everybody. We all have a job to do in life and you want to do that to the best of your ability."
 
He was rewarded with appearances in 11 games, scoring eight points and recording 15 rebounds. He didn't miss a shot from the free throw line (4-for-4) and scored his first MKE points against Cardinal Stritch. It gave him that much hope for the future.
 
"It's just the consistency," he said of his career path. "Sometimes it's God telling you to be patient. That's just waiting your turn and being a good teammate. That is kind of rare to see nowadays but you still have to keep that good energy because it's all a full circle in life. You get back what you put out. So it's a stay-ready, be-ready mentality, as soon as Coach calls my name, I need to be ready."
 
With a taste of success behind him, Ham was ready for more. He kept working in the off-season. Individual workouts, summer leagues … all in anticipation of his senior year on the court in 2023-24.
 
He scored five points in the season opener against Stout and made a couple more appearances before an injury reared its ugly head. It kept Ham off the court. Which eventually led to a longer and longer absence while he was trying to figure out what the problem was.
 
"It was tough," Ham said. "Because this year I really sacrificed a lot of things and was all-in this season. To go down with what turned out to be a broken rib was tough, but I knew I had to be there for my team when it was time. And now we're seeing that and it's time to make a run."
 
He was out from December 3^rd to January 26^th, missing 12 games before getting back on the court against Oakland January 27^th.
 
He kept working hard and three games later broke through with what at the time was his best outing to date – playing 16 minutes at Robert Morris Feb. 10, scoring an NCAA-high eight points while making 3-of-4 shots, adding three rebounds.
 
Little did he know, bigger things were just around the corner.
 
It happened his next outing, earning the start against Cleveland State Feb. 14, playing 21 minutes.
 
"It was a situation where Coach Lundy sat me down and talked to me," Ham said. "But he knew what he was getting when he made that call and I just knew I needed to be ready and do what needs to be done for the team – whatever that is."
 
Fans see Ham flying all over the court – diving for loose balls, hustling on defense – giving it his all. That is by design.
 
"I want them to see what Milwaukee really is all about – that hard-working blue-collar mentality ... just doing whatever needs to be done to get by," he said. "That's what I want them to see – just that energy and passion for the game and for the city."
 
His entrance into the starting lineup coincided with something bigger – a 5-1 finish to the regular season that put the Panthers on the right path heading into the postseason.
 
"I just feel like now we need to finish the job," he said of the close to the regular season. "Just coming together as a team. I feel like now we are starting to mesh and we owe each other this opportunity."
 
The Panthers came oh-so-close to finishing the job, posting back-to-back upsets as the No. 6 seed against both third-seeded Green Bay and fifth-seeded Northern Kentucky before falling to top-seeded Oakland in the championship by a final score of 83-76.
 
"It's going to happen and I truly believe that," Ham said right before the postseason started – a prediction that nearly came to fruition. "It's going to take consistency and comradery and coming out here and being that team I know that we can be. Outworking everybody and that's why I do what I do – you have to lead by example. You can't ask out of anybody what you won't do yourself."
 
Soft-spoken and grounded, Ham has become a fan favorite in his time in Milwaukee. Despite coming from a family with a famous parent – not too many people get to say that their dad coaches LeBron James – he says it's his mom and dad that he has to thank for how he goes about things in his life.
 
"I will give credit to my family for that," he said. "That is just something that they instilled in us from the jump. Just never feel like you are better than anyone else. We are all human beings – no one is greater than the other – we all look up to God or whoever it may be for that person and we are all equal. You should never feel like you are better, or less than, anyone else."