Before he became the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, JJ Redick plied his trade as an NBA talking head on podcasts and ESPN. The former NBA player was never shy about speaking his mind, especially when it came to calling out coaches.
However, some of those comments might come back to haunt him.
Redick’s Lakers dropped to 19-10 on the season following a 119-96 blowout loss to the Houston Rockets on Christmas. Afterward, the second-year head coach took his players to task over their lack of effort.
“We don’t care enough right now,” Redick said. “And that’s the part that bothers you a lot. We don’t care enough to do the things that are necessary. We don’t care enough to be a professional.
“The two words of the day were effort and execution. And I feel like when we’ve done both of those things at a high level, we’ve been a good basketball team. When we haven’t, we’re a terrible basketball team. And tonight we were a terrible basketball team. And that started legitimately right away.”
Many critics have taken Redick to task for what they see as throwing his players under the bus. As part of that, they’ve cited an infamous rant by the former First Take panelist about Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers in 2024.
“I’ve seen the trend for years. The trend is always making excuses,” said Redick about Rivers, who has recently left ESPN to return to coaching. “Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of a season is hard… it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus… there’s never accountability with that guy.”
Redick later said that while he didn’t regret the comments, he regretted how he delivered them.
“Don’t regret what I said,” Redick explained on The Old Man and the Three. “It’s truthful to me. I do regret the delivery. I think sometimes when you get in certain environments, you can get emotional, and I regret that.”
A few months later, Rivers told Stephen A. Smith that he felt Redick “had a problem with me for a while.” This was around the time Redick’s name was floated as a potential coach for the Lakers, and Rivers offered him some advice.
“I really hope he gets the job,” Rivers said. “Because then he’ll understand, some of the things that he has a problem with me and other coaches that you hear on his podcast – he’ll realize, not as easy as you think. And some of these decisions that you have to make are brutal.”
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.