Their podcast is over. New Lakers coach JJ Redick still hopes to create great content with LeBron

EL SEGUNDO, California – JJ Redick says his extraordinary hire as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers means the end of his podcast with LeBron James.

Redick hopes they will be able to produce much more compelling content next season in a new incarnation of their partnership, in pursuit of a championship together with the Lakers.

The Lakers formally introduced Redick as their coach on Monday, which also happened to be the 15-year NBA veteran’s 40th birthday.

In a news conference with general manager Rob Pelinka at the Lakers’ training complex, Redick humorously embraced the unlikelihood of his extraordinary signing as he looked out over a gym full of team personnel, members of the media and some of his new players.

“I’ve never coached in the NBA before,” Redick said with a straight face. “I don’t know if you’ve heard that.”

Redick’s coaching experience is limited to volunteering with his children’s youth teams, but he plans to bridge that gap with encyclopedic basketball knowledge, personal charisma, a coaching staff full of experience and a willingness to innovate.

“This process has been surreal, to say the least,” Redick said. “I take this responsibility very seriously… The Lakers have some of the most passionate fans in the world, and the expectation is a championship, so it’s my job to deliver a championship-caliber team. That’s what I signed up for.”

Redick also said he was given this opportunity without help or advice from James, who is expected to decide this week whether he will exercise his player option to return to the Lakers next season or become a free agent.

While Redick didn’t share any news, he spoke extensively about how he hopes to deploy James next season with the Lakers — including shooting more 3-pointers to capitalize on his high percentage.

Redick said he didn’t talk to James about the lengthy coaching search in Los Angeles until a 15-minute conversation after the Lakers offered him the job last Thursday. But Redick spoke extensively with fellow Lakers star Anthony Davis, who was more involved than James in the team’s hiring process.

Redick and James won’t be speaking on the microphone together anytime soon: Redick acknowledges that he will have to stop recording the podcast.

“For now — and I hope this is for a long, long time — I am excommunicated from the content space,” Redick said. “There will be no podcasts. We’ll do something when I get a break from what’s coming up. I’ll be drinking from a firehose next month.”

The Lakers reached an agreement with Redick last week, about two weeks after UConn coach Dan Hurley turned down a lucrative offer to jump to the NBA from the defending national champion Huskies. Neither Redick nor Hurley ever coached in the NBA.

Redick said he met with Pelinka before the Lakers’ pursuit of Hurley, and that he was on the ESPN broadcast service as the saga unfolded.

“At no point were my ego or feelings hurt or hurt in any way,” Redick said. “Dan Hurley is a two-time national champion at UConn. I am twice champion of the 55 Swish League in the third and fourth divisions. I understand, you know?

Redick played 15 NBA seasons for six teams as a productive point guard following a four-year career at Duke. He became the Blue Devils’ career scoring leader under Mike Krzyzewski.

After retiring in 2021, Redick embarked on a career in media. In recent months, he started the “Mind the Game” podcast with James, while also rising to the ESPN commentary team, working the NBA Finals this month. Still, Redick realized last year that he wanted to coach in the NBA after interviewing for the job in Toronto, and has since spoken at length with top coaches about all aspects of their jobs.

Redick’s insightful podcast with James opened many eyes about Redick’s understanding of the game, and his name has emerged as a viable – if unorthodox – candidate to replace Darvin Ham, who was fired on May 3.

Ham was fired by Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss despite leading the Lakers to two winning seasons, the 2023 Western Conference Finals and a victory in the season’s inaugural tournament. The Lakers lost to defending champion Denver in the first round of the postseason and have won just one game in two playoff series against the Nuggets over the past two years.

“I think in the industry in general and sports in specific, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in patterns of being in a sea of ​​sameness and doing the same things that everyone else is doing,” Pelinka said. “When we embarked on this quest, it was really important to us to see if we could do something a little different.”

Lakers players, including Spencer Dinwiddie, Christian Wood and Gabe Vincent, attended the press conference.

Redick spoke optimistically about the Lakers roster, saying championship expectations are “reasonable. I don’t see the current roster being that far from being a championship-caliber team.”

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AP NBA: