What can a man with no coaching experience do? JJ Redick smashed those low expectations and ended up guiding his team to a 3rd seed in the west. It was the second time in 14 years that the Lakers have breached the 50 wins record. It should be considered a successful season, right? Well, the job “it’s not done” as per the head coach, but that doesn’t mean his former podcast co-host won’t hype up the win.
LeBron James added on X, after the 140-109 win over the depleted Rockets. The celebration was not only on social media, as the Lakers squad drenched their coach with multiple ice buckets. Let’s hear from JJ Redick about the whole experience of celebration in his rookie season.
“Yes, and I just want to apologize to Kathy. Hopefully, in the next nine days, the $17,000 of damage to the carpet can get fixed. So, there’s about eight ice buckets put on me.” Coach Redick was presumably apologizing to Kathy Montoya, Vice President of Game Operations & Entertainment at Los Angeles Lakers. After the fun conversation was out of the way, the 40-year-old got serious about his goals and if he was satisfied with the current position.
“I think you’re as a coach you’re you’re obviously judged on regular season wins and losses and your ability to get to the playoffs.” JJ Redick continued, “But I think the other two things that you’re really judged on are: The way you’re able to handle the pressure of the playoffs, the adjustments the in-game stuff there’s so still so much work that we have to do myself our staff. And then I think you’re also judged on the culture you create and whether or not your players and everybody in the building like coming to work.”
Looking at the tweet from LeBron it is fair to say that the players enjoy coming to work. Plus, they will be motivated as the third spot is clinched with playoffs starting a week from today.
When the Duke alum got the job, the obvious connection was made to him doing a podcast with LeBron James. Plus, no basketball coaching experience did not help the matter. However, there were few who credited the former ESPN analyst for his basketball IQ. But throughout the season, with wins and losses the critics grew stronger. They started the season with elite offensive plays but gave away a lot of points to the opposition. However, defensive frailties were on notice.
One such strong critic was Charles Barkley. “Remember, I got your Lakers’ games. You can’t hide them flaws they got. You just a dead man walking.” During Inside the NBA, Chuck was very blunt in his opinion. “He [Redick] came in there thinking, ‘I can make this thing work.’ Hell you can! Put some makeup on that pig… The Lakers stink, man…” .
At the time, the Lakers were fourth in the Western Conference with a 20-14 record. But currently, they secured the 50th win of the season, along with the third spot in the conference. However, all was not smooth, as the recent game also produced a small setback, as LeBron James did not participate after an injury crisis. Now, will it have a larger impact in the playoffs? Only time will tell.
