The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a four-year contract with JJ Redick to make him the team’s next coach, ESPN reported on Thursday.
The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a four-year contract with JJ Redick to make him the team’s next coach, ESPN reported on Thursday.
Redick, an ESPN basketball analyst who played 15 years in the NBA, met with Lakers vice-president and general manager Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss over the weekend and was offered the job on Thursday morning, according to the network.
The 39-year-old became the Lakers’ prime target after their pursuit of University of Connecticut coach Dan Hurley was ultimately rebuffed.
Redick, who has no formal coaching experience, has been a rising star as a broadcaster since joining ESPN in 2021, having first honed his s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s in the podcasting space, where he first launched a popular podcast while he was still an active player.
One of Redick’s podcasts, Mind the Game, is co-hosted by LeBron James, who he will now coach at the Lakers.
That partnership led to a spot of controversy last week as NBA pundit Stephen A Smith questioned the timing of the podcast’s launch during the season while outgoing Lakers coach Darvin Ham was on the hot seat.
Smith went on to say that he’d been contacted by numerous Black coaches who took issue with a star player launching a podcast alongside his current coach’s potential successor, even if Redick had not publicly emerged as a coaching candidate at the time.
The First Take host’s implication was that Black NBA coaches felt LeBron was undermining the man currently in the job. Not long ago, less than 10% of NBA head coaches were Black, though last season marked the first in league history in which Black head coaches comprised the majority.
“You take all those things into account, this does not look good,” Smith said. “And what I was saying on the air last week was, you couldn’t have started it in the playoffs? You couldn’t have started it after Darvin Ham lost the job? Did you have to start it in the middle of the damn season when he’s on the hot seat? Because why? That’s what some of the coaches were saying.”
"Numerous coaches, Black coaches called me expressing how they took issue with that podcast taking place." – Stephen A. Smith on the timing of LeBron James-JJ Redick podcast. pic.twitter.com/XrLHO44mYn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 17, 2024
Redick began recording the regular podcast with James two months ago and their collaboration is already wildly popular, with listeners often emerging impressed by the duo’s basketball acumen and high-level discussion of tactics and motivation.
Now these two minds will be working together for the Lakers, with Redick leading a roster headlined by James, who is six months younger than Redick.
Everything is contingent on James deciding to return to play with Anthony Davis and the Lakers, of course. James, who will enter his 22nd NBA season this fall, could decline his $51.4m contract option this month to become a free agent.
But hiring Redick seems to be another calculated move by the Lakers to maximize their chances of keeping the 20-time All-Star and the driving force behind their 2020 championship team.
Redick’s coaching experience is limited to his 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren’s youth teams, but he has been around the game his entire life. He is the leading scorer in the history of Duke, where he played four seasons under Mike Krzyzewski.
And though Redick is an unorthodox choice, his unlikely ascent is not without some precedent in Lakers lore and recent NBA history.
