thelesterlee
We always want what we can’t have. JJ Redick didn’t need to be the Los Angeles Lakers head coach. His life was fulfilled.
JJ is one of the best college basketball players ever.
15 NBA seasons, playing in massive games for the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers and establishing himself as one of the greatest shooters in the history of the sport.
He built a media company where he engaged in the types of NBA conversations he believed were absent from television broadcasts.
His media company got so big he was able to create a podcast with LeBron James where they nerded out about the X’s and O’s of the game.
Shit, JJ Redick was hired by ESPN to FIX THEIR NBA BROADCASTS.
All while maintaining his normal life in Brooklyn with his family. His schedule allowed him to coach his son’s basketball team. Truly living the dream.
Probably should also mention his $115 NBA career earnings.
But ambition broke this man.
JJ Redick just wants to pod
This year, a bunch of dorks realized they could get engagement on decaying social media sites by pretending to be hysterical about the NBA TV ratings, creating an avalanche of everyone and their mothers lining up to list off their highly specific complaints about the league.
Since the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers was literally a podcaster this time last year, it’s not surprising he had thoughts on the NBA TV ratings discourse.
JJ Redick: “We don’t have anybody that’s willing to step up to the fact that this is an awesome game and we should talk about and celebrate it…I would argue as well that everyone in our ecosystem pays too much attention to what is said on Twitter.” pic.twitter.com/Amcb4vPwBI
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) December 20, 2024
“I don’t think we … have done a good job of storytelling, of celebrating the game. If I’m a casual fan and you tell me every time I turn on the television that the product sucks, well, I’m not going to watch the product. And that’s really what has happened over the last 10 to 15 years. I don’t know why. It’s not funny to me.”
4 minutes of yapping.
JJ had the perfect life.
He just wanted to pod and get his takes off.
Now he has to run film sessions trying to hold Max Christie for defensive lapses while ignoring LeBron James spending entire defensive possessions standing in the paint rubbing his palms on his jersey over and over, barking at everyone else to rotate to open shooters for him while he catches his breath.
Charles Barkley shoots back
Safe to assume, when JJ rants about the NBA’s overly negative coverage, he’s talking about the NBA and TNT broadcasts.
Charles Barkley hears everything and although it was a few weeks later, Chuck had some words for JJ.
Full rant pic.twitter.com/RnRjgCHJl5
— David Astramskas (@redapples) January 3, 2025
“[Redick] said something about we’re the reason people ain’t watching this crappy product we got … yeah, us, like we’re out there jacking up 100 threes a night. JJ, you come for the king, you better not miss. Because I can get you, brother. Remember, I got your Lakers games. You can’t hide them flaws they got. You’re just a dead man walking. They got rid of Frank Vogel who did a good job, they got rid of Darvin Ham who did a good job. But you came out there thinking you were gonna change things with that same ugly girl you went on a date with.”
Personally, I think ratings are down because streaming allows people to watch literally anything they want at any time on any device in their house with a wifi connection but this isn’t about what I think—even if it’s the obvious correct answer.
This is about JJ Redick going from being his own boss and making his own work schedule and working with whomever he personally wanted—to now working for a strange old lady and Kobe’s agent, traveling across the country without his family just sitting in empty hotel rooms praying Anthony Davis doesn’t turn an ankle walking off the bus.
How did JJ Redick respond to Charles Barkley?
The next day, JJ was asked about Chuck.
“I didn’t make it through the whole clip,” JJ Redick says on Charles Barkley criticism pic.twitter.com/SX72J59LIf
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) January 4, 2025
“I got a random text from somebody after the game. I went to look at my phone and it says something about Charles Barkley. I’m like, ‘Huh?’ But [Lakers assistant coaches Greg St. Jean and Beau Levesque] showed me. I didn’t make it all the way through the clip, I gotta be honest with you. My resting heart rate is 64. I watched the clip, it was 64. Literally don’t care. I have other thoughts, but don’t care.”
Minus the resting heartbeat part, I believe JJ here.
He probably didn’t make it through Barkley’s 3-minute rant the same way Barkley 1000% didn’t make it through JJ Redick’s 4-minute post-game answer.
This is the type of media ecosystem he was actively thwarting and now TNT spends full segments specifically dunking on him and he can’t even find the energy to respond because he has to hop on a flight to Houston and hope Amen Thompson doesn’t put Austin Reeves in the Crippler Crossface.
His son’s team is getting their ass beat up and down the court without their former NBA player teaching them how to dribble without looking at the ball but JJ can’t even answer his Facetime calls because he’s busy teaching Cam Reddish how to dribble without looking at the ball.
Can the JJ Redick-led Lakers win a championship?
The Los Angeles Lakers are 20-14.
Having won 8 of their last 11 games, they now sit in the 4th seed in the West.
If the playoffs started today, I’d be so confused, but also the Lakers would have homecourt advantage.
I imagine the vibes are cumulonimbus with D’Angelo Russell’s locker empty.
But the Lakers are just 4 games away from the 11th seed and missing the play-in entirely.
This team is one bad week of basketball away from Cooper Flagg.
The seas parted, creating the perfect opportunity for JJ Redick to become an NBA coach.
A 40-year-old legend started a podcast with him like, 3 months before Darvin Ham was fired.
It’s the Los Angeles Lakers, where Pat Riley went from a broadcaster to the head coach of the Showtime Lakers.
The stars aligned.
But a humble man would’ve looked around at his rising media empire, his wife and children getting special treatment at school because they’re famous, all of those dinners with his “co-host” Tommy Alter and the random celebrities Alter has in his phone contacts—and said “You know what? I like my life. I don’t need to coach Rui Hachimura and LeBron’s lame ass son. No thanks”.
It’ll all work out though.
The Lakers will miss the playoffs because of course they will.
LeBron will retire.
JJ will be fired.
And Charles Barkley will make fun of Redick for the rest of his life.
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