JJ Redick lastly made his method into the NBA teaching world as he was formally launched by the Lakers on Monday. Nonetheless, the brand new purple and gold tactician wasn’t going to get via this press convention with out addressing the massive elephant within the room: his inexperience as a head coach.
Nonetheless, it was the league’s tv analyst who was fast to say this basic omission on his résumé. “I’ve by no means coached within the NBA earlier than,” Redick acknowledged the plain to get it out of the best way. “I don’t know should you guys have heard that.”
JJ, who occurred to show 40 years of age proper on his first day on the job, retired from his 15-year profession again in 2021. His time as a basketball participant actually took off when he grew to become a star at Duke College and finally was drafted by the Orlando Magic in 2006. He went onto rating the Twentieth-most three-pointers in NBA historical past.
“This job was in regards to the Lakers… and it was about LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two of the best gamers ever… I’ve gotten to do some superb stuff in my life… this is perhaps the very best.”
JJ Redick on taking the Lakers job 🙌 pic.twitter.com/4WdfDoLmt0
— NBA (@NBA) June 24, 2024
By way of the years, he remained related to basketball via a number of media retailers like ESPN and ABC, and even his personal podcast referred to as Thoughts the Sport co-hosting alongside LeBron James, who’s now his pupil.
Alongside him was the workforce’s vp of basketball operations and common supervisor Rob Pelinka, who supported Redick by explaining that “NBA head-coaching expertise and NBA expertise aren’t mutually unique issues.” In response to the VP, the previous taking pictures guard will probably be given the shot to be a really revolutionary chief.
“I feel in business on the whole and in sports activities in particular, generally it’s simple to get caught up in patterns of being in a sea of sameness and doing the identical factor that everyone else is doing,” Pelinka mentioned in the course of the introduction. “However after we launched into this search, it was actually essential for us to see if we might do one thing somewhat bit completely different. And shortly in our conversations with JJ, it was very evident that he had a novel perspective and philosophy on basketball and the way it’s to be taught.”
In response to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Redick agreed to a four-year deal final week, after UConn males’s basketball coach Dan Hurley turned down a six-year, $70 million provide from the Lakers. “Throughout that complete [courtship of Hurley], at no level was my ego or emotions harm or bruised in any method,” JJ mentioned. “Dan Hurley is a two-time nationwide champion at UConn. I’m a two-time 55 Swish League champion within the third- and fourth-grade division. Like, I understood, you already know? I understood.”
Redick revealed that it was Rick Carlisle who “planted the seed” in him to think about teaching after which once more throughout a Raptors interview
In response to the 15-year NBA profession participant, he by no means actually thought of being a coach till Rick Carlisle, who educated him in Dallas, “planted the seed” for him to think about this line of labor. Nonetheless, it wasn’t till the Toronto franchise referred to as him up for an interview for a training place final yr, that he actually opened as much as the concept.
“It was actually after I interviewed for the Toronto job final yr that I knew that I wished to be a head coach within the NBA,” Redick shared. “And so the final yr, I spent lots of time speaking to coaches, speaking with GMs, selecting their brains. … I simply felt like that is what I’m alleged to be doing.”
As for his podcast with LeBron, which simply made its debut three months in the past, should be suspended. The oldest participant within the NBA, who has referred to JJ as his “good friend,” determined to take care of his distance throughout his interview course of.
“In the meanwhile, and hopefully it’s a really, very very long time, I’m excommunicated from the content material area,” Redick assured, clear that his solely goals are to win titles in Los Angeles. “So there will probably be no podcast. … I’m finished with podcasting for now.”