Los Angeles just hired a head coach with no experience, and the player-turned-podcaster might be taking more of a risk by accepting the job.
Who will be the breakout star of the 2023-24 NBA season? What is the red chisel tip whiteboard marker used by JJ Redick? Beware of games The podcast, which he and co-host LeBron James use to celebrate NBA tactics, features the first four to nine minutes of each episode as a condensed lecture in which Redick presents basketball terms and diagrams on a whiteboard and dissects concepts and actions mentioned in conversations with arguably the greatest player of all time.
The opening prologue to the podcast is a meditation. At least, it seems that way to Reddick, who explains things as succinctly as possible. There's no music, no special effects, just Reddick's voice and stationary camera shots of a marker held in Reddick's hand scribbling. The tip of a chisel is a versatile tool. Unlike a fine-tipped marker, which has a fixed point of contact, the design of a chisel allows for varying line thickness depending on which part of the tip graces the surface. When drawing a figure, Reddick defaults to the sharp blade of a chisel, trained to precision. But when trying to convey a lot of action in a small space, the occasional Varejan He flips the tip of the marker over to the wider side so he can draw a thicker line. But judging by his hand movements, it's usually not intentional; he's just excited. (For those of you wondering about Redick's Xs and Os, he first draws an X with a downward line going from northwest to southeast, then crosses it with an upward line going from southwest to northeast. Ironically, this shows an unconventional motion for a right-handed writer with the best shooting form in NBA history. He draws an O counterclockwise. Very typical.)
it's clear this For Redick, his happy place is a space that's separate from watering hole debate shows decrying the vulgarity of a short-tempered culture and allows him more than a few seconds to voice his opinion on a game broadcast before being handed over to Mike Breen. Beware of gamesThe interlude is like a left-brain analogue. of The joy of drawing A blurb appears on the screen, listing all the different colors of paint you'll need to make the show happen. Mike Fratello may forever be the Telestrator Emperor, but Redick has become the Bob Ross of the terminally ill basketball addict. But Redick's days as podcaster magnate may be coming to an end. At least, I hope so for the sake of his sleep schedule.
Just three days after Redick coached the Boston Celtics in their championship-clinching Game 5 win over the Dallas Mavericks, the news we've all been hoping for is official: Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Redick signed a four-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday morning to become the team's new head coach. Beware of games Maybe it was just a fever dream. This is a turning point. Away The video points us towards one of the sloppiest, most unspectacular NBA coaching setups in recent history, which is already serving as the backdrop for a petty proxy war between the league's two biggest rumormongers. and It reveals how backroom deals by newsmen and unnamed agents can shape public opinion and influence in negotiations.
As is often the case in the Bus Pelinka era, it's been a long and winding journey to get to this point. It began on May 18, when Lakers insider Anthony Irwin told a source that the Lakers were “targeting” Redick to be their new head coach. Then, in early June, AthleticShams Charania of the Dallas Mavericks said Redick was the overwhelming favorite heading into the NBA Finals. Then we got caught up in the Dan Hurley news cycle and we were back where it all began: Irwin declared the deal a done deal less than 24 hours after Game 5. Two days of silence brought us back to what we had already accepted in our minds. Nothing is easyA prophet once said:
Redick, a 15-year NBA veteran, ESPN commentator and analyst and sports pioneer, is a rookie head coach with no coaching experience beyond serving as volunteer head coach of the fourth-grade boys team at Brooklyn Basketball Academy, where his 9-year-old son Knox plays. Redick has previously interviewed for head coaching jobs with the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors and as an assistant coach for Joe Mazzulla's Boston Celtics, but those are the only teams that have publicly expressed interest. Redick said during his appearance on the show that six to eight teams have contacted him with interest in joining their coaching staff. Discovered by Pablo Torre The podcast was released in January.
Redick feels like he's chasing a familiar immersion that's now out of reach. He's a media sensation solely through the breadth and relentlessness of his presence, talking about the NBA from every angle across multiple platforms and speaking a basketball language that many of his fans aren't fluent in. What makes Redick most promising as a future coach is his rare gift as a communicator: He can speak the basketball language of players, coaches, media and analytics. And he's spent the past eight years flexing the muscles necessary to bridge those gaps through his ESPN presence and long-running podcast. Yahoo!uninterruptedThe Ringer, Redick owns two companies, Wonderly and his own production company, Three for Two. Educating the masses is a noble endeavor, but it can also be tough, especially when you know you have a platform where you are fully understood. “When you're in the locker room, when you're in the coaches' meetings, when you're talking to the front office people, there's a different basketball knowledge. These are people who have been through it. Certainly, part of me is nostalgic because I've been through it for 15 years,” Redick told Torre. “I really love what I do. There are parts of my job that I like. I thought my favorite part was the 15 minutes I had before the game to meet with each coach.”
Many people are joking Beware of games Even if James hadn't intervened in the Lakers' head coaching search, this podcast would have read like a lengthy interview with LeBron, and maybe that's true. From a front-office perspective, the podcast offers a visual guarantee rare in LeBron's six seasons with the team. It remains to be seen how Redick will handle the pressure of a playoff series decider, but it will be revelatory for Lakers brass to see LeBron acknowledge his ability to analyze someone's game down to the atomic level., It's fascinating to watch him consistently nod in agreement and play the supporting role to back up the insights of other authority figures. Perhaps the relationship will change when LeBron has to live with the reality of actually taking direction from someone six months older than him, when the relationship is no longer peer-based, but there is a level of respect there that feels like an important first step. The Lakers, subtly and not, lamented Darvin Ham's lack of preparation and commitment last season. Given Redick's approach at every stage of his basketball career, Excessive preparation, A lack of flexibility in play design and inexperience in sensing the flow of play will cause doubt and uncertainty.
And yet, my initial reaction to this news was: why? Not for the Lakers, but for the burgeoning media mogul. Redick has excelled in almost every way in his post-playing career. He has completely changed public perception by being precise, prepared and focused in every endeavor he has undertaken. like Redick is now JJ, a miracle in itself. He could be a beloved media personality for the next 20 years and inspire the next generation of basketball media to further his vision of basketball literacy. Or he could choose a new venture that will almost certainly invite the same harsh criticism and censure that dogged his time at Duke. why? Because Redick is a psycho. (Those are his words, I swear, not mine.) The length of his career and his occasional condescending attitude on TV and podcasts explains it. The amount of work he puts in gives him that right. “I think it's good to be a little crazy,” Redick told Torre in January.. “It's this balance of being calm and being a psychopath that has helped me in life. Sometimes I've been out of balance and I've had to deal with some consequences because of it.”
The same charm that made Redick one of the most hated college basketball players of all time also makes him the quintessential Lakers head coach, projecting both glory and downfall. That charisma inspires ludicrously hasty comparisons to Pat Riley, who led the Lakers to a championship as a 36-year-old rookie head coach and to four Finals appearances before turning 40. (Riley also had the luxury of fine-tuning the process over three years as an NBA assistant, something Redick clearly did not have.)
The Lakers have had seven head coaches since Phil Jackson finally left the team in 2011, with an average tenure of 147 games and less than two seasons. No coach has lasted more than three seasons in that time. This is a job that subjugates the unremarkable and humbles the overconfident. You have to be a bit of a psychopath to take this job. Ready or not, Redick was born for this job, and all the expectations and hype that come with it. The Lakers are betting on unproven talent (with both sharp edges and huge potential) in hopes of finding a long-term leader. The Celtics had Red Auerbach. The Lakers are betting their future on Red Expos.
