While JJ Redick may eventually become a head coach in the NBA, he remains the slayer of bad basketball takes on ESPN and Mike Greenberg was his latest target.
Tuesday morning on ESPN’s Get Up, Greenberg looked at the Los Angeles Lakers, who were up 3-1 in their second-round NBA Playoff series with the Golden State Warriors, and surmised that now would be a good time to rest LeBron James.
“I’m going down with the ship on this theory,” Greenberg said. “The Lakers have no chance of winning Game 5 of this series. The Warriors are going to be playing for their dynasty, at home, with the crowd; they’re going to win. Don’t waste any of LeBron and [Anthony Davis’] energy on this game.”
The concept of throwing a game away in the playoffs as if it’s a random Wednesday night in January is just a mind-boggling take from Greeny. And Wednesday morning, given the opportunity to rant about what he’s mad at on First Take, JJ Redick responded to Greenberg’s ridiculous take with the same vitriol that all Lakers fans must have felt when they heard it.
“On Greeny’s show, they’re talking about resting the Lakers’ starters in a 3-1 series?” Redick ranted. “Are you crazy?! Are you crazy?! I lost a series to the Houston Rockets up 3-1. You gotta put them away! You gotta put them away!
“We’re talking about playoff workload, minutes in the playoffs. What are we doing here?!” Redick continued. “You complain all season long about load management, and we get to the playoffs and guys play 40 minutes, and you get mad! What?! You can’t have it both ways!”
Greenberg load manages his own schedule as well as anyone in sports media. But imploring the Lakers to implement load management practices into the playoffs by resting LeBron and Anthony Davis, who are not injured, is an absolutely awful take, as highlighted by JJ Redick’s performative rant.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com