“For the time being, and hopefully it’s a very, very long time, I am excommunicated from the content space,” JJ Redick said during his introductory press conference with the Lakers. Since then, the head coach and LeBron James’ ‘Mind The Game’ has been on a break. But it’s coming back. And most things remain the same. There will be wine, the Akron Hammer, and an intellectual head coach sitting in front of him dwelling on the nuances of the games. But is the head coach JJ Redick?
Unfortunately not. The renowned podcaster is sticking true to his words. And in his place will be former Nets HC Steve Nash who will break down the most complex plays in basketball. It will be part of James’ new deal with Amazon Prime’s Wondery. A short preview made its way to Instagram. The first scene itself is James disagreeing with a midseason blockbuster trade disturbing a team’s dynamics. Maybe his way of defending the Luka Doncic swap?
But that wasn’t all. At first, when he started the venture with Redick, it attracted major scrutiny. Many thought of it as a job application as the Lakers searched for a head coach at the time. So James wanted to clear the air out. “Real quick, if he gets a head coaching job because whatever, we didn’t talk about this beforehand guys.” the four-time MVP sarcastically said in the short clip.
This was mainly aimed at those who accused him of abandoning Darwin Ham after a rough season last year to push Redick’s name forward. Notably, Stephen A. Smith, who recently has been in a rift with the 40-year-old made some comments about the issue.
“JJ is a different situation because of the situation LeBron James and his camp created by doing that podcast in the middle of the season knowing that Darvin Ham was on the hot seat. I don’t care what anybody says, that was a very egregious thing to do,” Smith said during a First Take episode.
To be fair to him, at that time the timing and the Lakers’ decision to later hire Redick did play into his narrative. But James has always kept the same stance. Their podcast together came into existence because of their love for the intricate parts of basketball. Anything else was a byproduct.
Redick didn’t want to coach because of the podcast. Mentally, he was ready to do so a long time ago.
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