J.J. Redick enjoyed a successful, 15-year NBA run with six different teams before retiring in 2021 to launch what quickly became a skyrocketing media career. He not only hosted several high-profile podcasts, his career as an ESPN basketball analyst had taken him, in just two seasons, to the network’s basketball “A-team” announcing trio, alongside veteran play-by-play man Mike Breen and analyst Doris Burke.
But then in June of this year just days after the conclusion of the 2024 NBA Finals, Redick announced that he was tossing his newfound media stardom aside, trading it in for what is arguably — or maybe not even arguably but definitely — the highest profile, highest pressure coaching job in the NBA, the spot on the bench with the Los Angeles Lakers. All without a single game of coaching experience at any level.
Why did he do it?
“That’s probably the best question,” Redick told ESPN in September, coming up with no better answer than, “my understanding of the modern game, my relationships with players, it felt like the right time for me personally to go into coaching.”
Redick’s Initial Coaching Job Has Not Gone All That Well
But Redick probably did not expect that his rookie foray into coaching would go as unsteadily as his first few months with the Lakers have gone. The team that won the NBA championship in 2020 and got as far as the Western Conference Finals just two years ago, now languishes at a mediocre 13-12, in the 10th and final West seed. Friday’s loss to Minnesota was the Lakers’ fourth defeat in the last five games, and eighth in the last 11.
As if that wasn’t enough to handle, Redick over the past week has been put in the uncomfortable position of answering for the Lakers iconic, 39-year-old certain Hall of Famer LeBron James.
James has been absent from the team since Wednesday without explanation. Redick has called it an “excused absence,” but offered no details other than that James is feeling “gassed.”
James was absent again on Friday when the Lakers traveled to Minnesota where they fell to the Timberwolves by 10 points. James did not travel with the team, which scored a season-low 87 points in his absence. It was the second straight game James had missed. He previously stated that he intended to play all 82 games this season after playing just 183 of the Lakers’ 246 regular season games over the last three campaigns. The stated reason for missing the games was a “foot injury.”
Asked prior to the Friday game in Minnesota whether he knew when James was planning on rejoining the team that is paying him $47.8 million to play for them this season, Redick delivered a blunt message in a single word.
“No,” he said. The embattled coach offered no further details.
James Remains Silent, Leaving Redick to Speak For Him
Prior to taking the Lakers job, following the team’s firing of Darvin Ham after just two seasons at the helm of the legendary franchise, Redick and Lebron had a close relationship, co-hosting a weekly podcast titled Mind the Game.
But the relationship has likely been strained with James’ apparently abandoning the team as it struggles to get back to the playoffs this season. James has not made any public comments since leaving the team during the week, and has also been silent on his social media accounts. He announced on November 20 that he would be “getting off social media for the time being.”
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