TWO WEEKS BEFORE the beginning of coaching camp, JJ Redick sat in a workroom on the Los Angeles Lakers apply facility along with his legs crossed, a team-issued quarter-zip up prime and Nike Kobe sneakers down under. (“I by no means wore them once I performed,” Redick advised ESPN, “however now that I am right here, [Lakers GM] Rob [Pelinka] has the hookup.”) Redick had simply completed working a large portion of the Lakers roster by way of a voluntary offseason apply, cognizant of what little time remained earlier than the curtain opens on his first season as an NBA coach.
“Put 45 [minutes] on the clock, bought proper by way of it,” Redick mentioned of his method to apply that day. “All the pieces you do is, like, very considerate.”
Redick, 40, already seems to be the half, along with his black, coiffed hair and put-together look drawing comparisons inside the group to former “Showtime” coach Pat Riley. And he sounds the half, too. As a transparent and assured communicator, Redick navigates the interview with ease till the newly minted coach is requested a easy but important query:
Why did you’re taking this job?
“Um,” Redick, after pausing a beat, responds. “That is in all probability the very best query.”
Three years into retiring from a 15-season taking part in profession, Redick detoured from burgeoning media stardom to shoot his shot with the Lakers. He has but to teach knowledgeable basketball sport in any capability. Not as a head coach. Not as an assistant. Not even roaming the sidelines for a summer time league sport.
However the self-described “basketball sicko,” regardless of the challenges forward for a franchise seemingly in flux because it makes an attempt to navigate the top of LeBron James‘ profession, the start of Bronny’s and holding Laker Nation happy by competing within the current with out forsaking the long run, feels as if he’s constructed for this.
“[With] my understanding of the trendy sport, my relationships with gamers, it felt like the proper time for me personally to enter teaching,” Redick mentioned.
“After which clearly I needed to teach the Lakers.”
AFTER JAMES DOMINATED the New Orleans Pelicans on Dec. 7, with 30 factors and eight assists in 22 minutes to earn a berth within the inaugural in-season event championship sport in Las Vegas, the star turned a postgame dinner right into a enterprise assembly.
Maverick Carter, James’ longtime confidant and co-founder of his “Uninterrupted” manufacturing firm, invited Redick to affix them on the Michelin-starred Wing Lei, situated off the gaming ground by the doorway to the tower suites within the Wynn On line casino. Inside the intense eating room adorned with flowers and gold-leaf dragons, the 3-point specialist and the all-time nice realized how a lot they’ve in widespread on the subject of how they see the sport.
“We mentioned form of the preliminary ideas round some place for him to speak about basketball,” Redick mentioned.
The taking part in careers of the 2 basketball lifers overlapped however by no means fairly intersected. Redick was a DNP in 5 of the six video games they shared when the Orlando Magic upset the Cleveland Cavaliers within the 2009 Japanese Convention finals. He performed simply 17 minutes per sport when the Milwaukee Bucks have been swept by James’ Miami Warmth within the 2013 first spherical. Early in James’ L.A. tenure, the Lakers inquired about buying and selling with New Orleans for Redick however nothing developed, sources advised ESPN.
That dinner dialog might have very nicely stayed in Vegas.
“I heard [of the dinner] and was like, ‘Positive, yeah, no matter,” Jason Gallagher, who produced Redick’s different podcast, “The Outdated Man and The Three,” advised ESPN. “On this trade, you hear stuff on a regular basis. You are like, ‘Yeah, undoubtedly.’ Like, that will be sick, however in all probability not. … After which it shortly grew to become very actual.”
Redick, who grew to become the primary energetic participant with a weekly podcast in 2016 whereas taking part in for the LA Clippers, bought James on board. They filmed their first two episodes this previous March and launched a few weeks later.
“It was actually identical to, ‘Hey, this man needs to do it. I need to do it. It is about basketball. It is the factor we love probably the most, so like, let’s simply put it on the market,'” Redick mentioned.
The leap of religion paid off. “Thoughts the Sport” averaged 1.5 million views per episode and shortly amassed greater than 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.
“After the preliminary sit down, I form of pushed,” Redick mentioned. “I mentioned, ‘We won’t have this be the rest than what it’s. That is as pure because it will get for this area. I do not need to water it down with the rest. That is actually good.'”
“We had enjoyable throughout our podcast,” James advised ESPN. “It’s totally simple to speak to JJ. … He is sensible as hell, if anyone watched the podcast.”
However whereas their product was geared toward celebrating the purity of the game — the journeyman function participant and the all-time nice filming segments wherein X’s and O’s have been usually drawn with a Sharpie on a pile of paper in episodes for viewers accustomed to basketball content material predicated on opinion — the launch got here with a stark reminder of the politics concerned within the professional sport.
When the primary episode launched March 19, James’ Lakers have been coming off a stretch in after they’d gone 6-7 after the All-Star break and coach Darvin Ham’s job was being referred to as into query. Some considered the podcast as unfair to Ham — although Redick and James touched on Lakers subjects solely evenly.
The heightened consideration James and the Lakers’ model brings is extraordinarily useful for getting a brand new podcast off the bottom. However is it an enviable atmosphere for a coach? In spite of everything, even Redick’s school coach and mentor, Mike Krzyzewski, mentioned no to the Lakers after they got here calling.
TWENTY YEARS BEFORE Redick grew to become the twenty ninth coach in Lakers historical past, Krzyzewski turned down the possibility to be the twentieth — and to interchange Phil Jackson — in the summertime of 2004.
Pelinka, working as Kobe Bryant’s agent on the time, remembers the dialog at late proprietor Dr. Jerry Buss’ home. Weeks earlier than Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami Warmth, the group gorged on slices from California Pizza Kitchen and contemplated the crew’s future when Coach Ok’s identify was cooked up.
“It was like, ‘Hey, what are you on the lookout for Kobe? And he simply began speaking about self-discipline and militaristic and inspirational and hard-nosed and Coach’s identify simply got here to gentle,” Pelinka advised ESPN. “After which earlier than, you realize it, the Lakers made an try to rent him.”
Krzyzewski, 57 on the time, heard L.A.’s pitch and took the Fourth of July weekend to mull it over, calling Redick, who had simply completed his sophomore season with the Blue Devils, to inform him he can be radio silent for a few days.
“Coach was the first cause that I went to Duke — to play for him,” Redick mentioned. “So I undoubtedly referred to as some pals at totally different colleges. I used to be like, ‘Hey, uh, do you guys have a spot? I may be transferring.'”
Krzyzewski — who to at the present time says “the concept of teaching Kobe was big” and in addition was tempted by the “generational wealth” included within the reported five-year, $40 million deal — turned down the supply. He coached at Duke for 18 extra seasons, profitable two extra NCAA nationwide titles — and ended up teaching Bryant to 2 Olympic gold medals.
“I believe if I used to be 57 now and it was provided, I’d go,” Krzyzewski, 77, advised ESPN. “I nonetheless love Duke. Faculty basketball is terrific — the product. All of the stuff you must do for it, it is not as gratifying because it was 20 years in the past. No less than for me.”
When he noticed a report this spring that Redick was considering leaving his podcast, broadcast and analyst work behind to teach within the NBA, he referred to as to check his mentee.
“Simply to search out out, is that this a lark or is it, you realize, an ego journey?” Krzyzewski mentioned of his speak with Redick. “As a result of, not that I am saying he is on the lookout for that, however it may be intoxicating to get consideration and another way. Like, he already proved himself within the media world, bought to the very best rung instantly on TV.
“It was mainly to search out out, are you severe? … And he mentioned, ‘I’m severe.’ He mentioned, ‘I need to be an NBA coach. I believe I is usually a actually good NBA coach.'”
Stated Redick: “Plenty of that preliminary cellphone name was simply explaining to him what was on my coronary heart and my thoughts and form of what I needed to do, which was coach. And I believe that that bought him extra excited, to be sincere with you. …That was not a ploy for media consideration, consider me.”
Redick first caught the teaching bug within the spring of 2023 when he interviewed with the Toronto Raptors, he mentioned. It bought stronger when, that summer time, he labored with former New York Knicks guard Quentin Grimes and different younger NBA prospects within the Hamptons, placing them by way of particular person exercises the best way Hakeem Olajuwon was well-known for nicely into retirement — with one distinction between him and The Dream. “That was a volunteer state of affairs. I am not charging folks $50,000,” Redick mentioned with a smirk.
By the point the Charlotte Hornets and Lakers expressed curiosity of their teaching vacancies, he was satisfied it was his calling. He simply wanted some convincing that the Lakers have been the proper match for him.
From when Redick first talked concerning the place with Pelinka throughout the NBA draft mix in Could, to formally turning into a Lakers candidate together with New Orleans assistant James Borrego and UConn coach Dan Hurley, a number of folks near Redick advised him it will be a foul thought to take it, sources advised ESPN.
You are already doing so nicely in media, they mentioned. Simply wait and different alternatives will come up, he heard. Hey, somebody goes to have to interchange Gregg Popovich in San Antonio in some unspecified time in the future, you might be the man to teach Victor Wembanyama, they reasoned. Have you ever paid consideration to the Lakers these days? They are a circus, was the chorus.
“I believe in response to the individuals who say, ‘You had such a superb factor happening,’ they have been right. I loved three years of retirement. I actually did. The issues that I used to be in a position to do in media haven’t been misplaced on me … and all of the stuff that we did within the podcast area. I am very happy with it.
“There is a aggressive itch that I’ve each single day of my life. And regardless of what number of swings I took, that was not getting happy. And so, I felt an actual calling by way of the aggressive facet.”
Redick did have one main concern he wanted answered: Did L.A. simply need him due to his relationship with LeBron?
Pelinka was cognizant of the inflection level wherein his crew discovered itself. James’ profession was nearing the top. L.A. had plans to draft James’ son, Bronny, making a roster dynamic unprecedented in league historical past. Anthony Davis was nonetheless in his prime, however the Lakers did not capitalize final season when Davis was wholesome sufficient to play 76 video games. The remainder of the roster was largely unproven and the league’s new wage cap system makes finishing trades as tough because it has ever been. To not point out that Hurley, identical to Krzyzewski from the school ranks earlier than him, mentioned thanks however no thanks.
So Pelinka made an enchantment to Redick.
“It was very clear to us,” Pelinka mentioned. “We weren’t making an attempt to exit and rent a coach to teach LeBron’s remaining chapter. We weren’t. This was, might we discover somebody that will be actually good at that? And I’d assume LeBron can be very proud that somebody like that can be serving to his son study the sport. Somebody that cerebral and that aggressive and that motivated.
“But it surely’s organising for the opposite facet of that. And that type of goes again into how are we going to arrange … in order that when LeBron does step away, there’s not the cliff that possibly another franchises have skilled.”
REDICK WAS EATING lunch along with his dad when he fielded maybe a very powerful cellphone name of his life. Plucked from the tv and podcast studios with no earlier teaching expertise, he was provided an opportunity to name the photographs for probably the most glamourous franchises on this planet — and had somebody he wanted to speak to earlier than he might settle for.
“‘Dad, I bought to go make one name,'” Redick mentioned, recalling how he pushed his chair again from his desk on the stately Washington Duke Inn on Duke’s golf course on June 20.
“So, that is once I first referred to as LeBron. First time we had talked about me teaching. And I got here again. I sat again down. I mentioned, ‘All proper, I am in.'”
Redick’s prioritization was telling. Pelinka and crew governor Jeanie Buss provided him the gig and can ostensibly be his bosses. However Redick’s success, or lack thereof, will largely rely upon getting probably the most out of a man who’s simply six months his junior suiting up for his twenty second season.
After forging a reference to James over their shared love of the game, Redick being “in” as the following coach of the Lakers will check if that sense of purity can stay.
And if it wasn’t difficult sufficient already to be the coach accountable for managing James at this stage of his profession, he has to do it whereas additionally combating a notion he was hand-picked by James for the half. “It is a juicy-ass story, however it’s not true,” Gallagher mentioned.
What’s true is there shall be much more scrutiny on Redick for a way he handles teaching LeBron’s 19-year-old son Bronny than there was teaching his sons, 10-year-old Knox and 8-year-old Kai.
Fairly than understand teaching LeBron and Bronny as a no-win state of affairs, Redick has compartmentalized. Teaching LeBron, he says, is an opportunity to strategize with one other savant of the game. Teaching Bronny is an opportunity to pour right into a younger participant decided to make it, one thing he can relate to because the man accumulating DNPs in his early days in Orlando. And Redick concurrently possesses the audacity to suppose he can construct a profession with the purple and gold whereas realizing that not one of the previous six coaches since Jackson have lasted greater than three seasons.
“There isn’t any assurances on this trade,” Redick mentioned. “I acknowledge that at any time limit, I might be let go. That is a actuality.”
And James, whose remaining seasons will coincide with Redick’s first as a coach and Bronny’s first as a participant, needs to make it work to arrange his son, his co-host turned coach and the Lakers franchise past his taking part in days.
“I needed the Lakers, as a participant and as a fan of the franchise, to have the ability to rent the coach that needs to be there,” James mentioned. “Not solely as I am ending my profession, however lengthy after I am gone as a result of there’s been so many guys in that seat over the previous couple of years. And to have the ability to discover somebody that might be secure in that place could be very key for any franchise.
“And for me to be part of a legacy franchise, I really feel like that was vital.”
And Redick is simply sufficient of a basketball sicko to suppose he’s the man meant to tug it off.
“It is type of nuts,” Krzyzewski mentioned. “However good nuts.”