JJ Redick, a former Orlando Magic draft pick and sharpshooter for more than six seasons, makes his return to the Kia Center for the first time as a coach on Monday evening. He leads the Los Angeles Lakers into battle with Orlando at 7 p.m. ET.
ORLANDO, Fla. –– Monday evening in Orlando, Dwight Howard isn’t the only former Orlando Magic player coming home.
When JJ Redick, a former teammate of Howard’s in the Magic black and blue, makes his way from the visiting team’s locker room area to the visiting media interview room, he’ll pass artwork of him donning the jersey of his first professional team.
Only this time, he’ll be clad in the iconic purple and gold trim synonymous with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Redick, Orlando’s No. 11 overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft and sharpshooter for six and a half seasons, is set to return to the Kia Center for the first time as a coach. He leads LeBron James, Luka Doncic and the rest of the Lakers into battle versus the Magic at 7 p.m. ET.
Redick played 396 games over his six-plus seasons in a Magic jersey. He shot 39.8 percent from three on 1,381 total attempts, and currently stands 10th in franchise history with 549 makes.
The Magic made the playoffs in each of his first six seasons with the team, going as far as the Eastern Conference Finals twice and appearing in the 2009 NBA Finals.
A 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard drafted as one of the Duke Blue Devils’ best players in the last 25 years, Redick played for six different franchises during his time in the NBA. No stint with any team was as long as his time in Orlando, however.
His time with the Magic concluded when he was traded to Milwaukee as part of a package deal that landed Tobias Harris in the middle of the 2012-13 season. After finishing that season with the Bucks, he’d go on to play for the Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.
After Redick retired, he fully delved into media creation. He and Tommy Alter created a production company called ThreeFourTwo Productions, and together, they co-hosted the wildly popular podcast, “The Old Man & the Three.
Redick also began broadcasting NBA games for ESPN as a color analyst while coaching his son’s youth basketball team before taking the Lakers job in June of 2024.
