Darvin Ham, the head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, recently revealed that he was accidentally shot in the face as a teenager in 1988 and that the incident made him “fearless.”

“I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. I was shot in the face by accident, April 5, 1988. You go through something like that, it’s going to make you one of two things: It’s going to make you fearful or fearless,” the 48-year-old said during a press conference on Monday. 

“It made me fearless. I don’t feel no pressure. It’s basketball.”

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Ham was the assistant coach for the Lakers from 2011 to 2013. He then joined the Atlanta Hawks and worked under Mike Budenholzer before the Lakers hired him as head coach earlier this month. 

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While talking about the shooting incident in 2011, he said that he was in the passenger seat of a car with his brother when he was shot by accident. 

“I saw a guy just running towards me while three other guys in the parking lot were shooting at him. As we’re getting ready to turn, the guy who is running is shooting backwards behind him, and one of the bullets that missed him hit me. I was one of four or five people who got shot that day,” he told NBA.com in 2011.

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He said the incident was a “life-changing experience” that “set a foundation in me to never take anything for granted.”

“I’m not afraid of failure, or success. I’m only afraid of not being authentic, or sticking to my principles,” he added.