JJ Redick was hired as the Lakers’ head coach after a series of interviews that began in May. But as Brian Windhorst pointed out, the résumé the Lakers were looking over was Redick’s Mind the Game podcast. Over nine episodes, Redick talked basketball with LeBron James, sipped wine, and worked himself into a gentle kind of ecstasy over plays like “Horns Chest.” Many TV types have announced their way into coaching jobs. Redick did it with a new twist.
One of the easiest ways to become an NBA head coach is to announce the Finals on TV. In 2004, Doc Rivers was hired by the Celtics a month and a half before he called his only Finals for ABC. This year, the Bucks poached Rivers before he and his ESPN partners Mike Breen and Doris Burke even made it to the All-Star break.
In 2001, Doug Collins was hired by the Wizards weeks before he called his fourth straight Finals for NBC. The Cavaliers hired Mike Fratello after he announced Michael Jordan’s first three titles. Just about the only recent TV analysts not to convert a Finals assignment into a coaching job were Mark Jackson, who wanted to coach, and Jeff Van Gundy, who didn’t but watched as ESPN cited his alleged desires to do so as an excuse to lay him off. (In an odd twist, Van Gundy’s firing led him back to coaching.)
Redick used his spot on ESPN’s no. 1 NBA team, which he got when Rivers left for Milwaukee in January, to the same advantage. A captive audience heard Redick talk basketball, (lightly) admonish players, and (even more lightly) chew on the refs.
What was different—in addition to Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast—was Mind the Game. As the Lakers stumbled toward a loss in the first round of the playoffs, the team’s shadow GM was giving Redick his seal of approval.
Part of what made Mind the Game stand out was Redick’s embrace of the finer points of the X’s and O’s. When Redick put the definitions of plays on the screen at the beginning of the show, he was like a fantasy novelist listing off the characters and lands in a preface so readers wouldn’t get confused.
If there was an element of world-building in Mind the Game, there was also something that seemed like … coaching. On the latest episode, James and Redick got to talking about the Celtics’ half-court sets. Redick pulled out a whiteboard to draw up plays. As James watched Redick work, he said “yep” every few seconds—the assent of a respectful but wised-up veteran. It was like a preview of the Lakers’ huddle next season.
Redick might wind up back on TV, like Rivers and Collins and Fratello before him. But it’s worth saying a few things about Redick’s unfinished media career.
I don’t think Redick is a great game announcer yet. I think he might have the tools to become one. In the Finals, Redick found himself in the same developmental stage that Fox’s Greg Olsen was in during the fall of 2022. Which is to say: Redick was learning to edit himself.
Take Game 3. “Is there a better finisher with his weak hand than Kyrie Irving?” Burke asked after watching Irving throw up a floater in the lane.
“Doris, I actually don’t know if that was a rhetorical question or not about Kyrie Irving,” Redick said one possession later.
“It was, sort of,” said Burke.
“I do know,” Redick continued, “in terms of high-frequency guys who finish with both hands at the rim, he’s top three over the last four seasons. So the answer is probably ‘yes’ to your question.”
Redick had used a lot of words to get us to “probably.” Later in Game 3, Redick claimed that “like three or four guys on planet Earth” could make a pass from the baseline like Luka Doncic just had. Burke was kind enough not to ask for a stat.
As a teacher of X’s and O’s, Olsen is affable and huggable. Redick is more cerebral. He sounds like he’s trying not to chew the scenery. Early in the playoffs, there were times when you could barely hear him—a tic he corrected by the time the Finals began.
Perhaps as a way of trying to elevate the NBA conversation, Redick opted out of certain announcer duties. In the fourth quarter of Game 3, Doncic got called for his sixth foul. It was the biggest call of the Finals. “I thought it was a block, JJ,” Burke said as ESPN showed replays.
Redick talked through some more replays. He finally said the play was “bang-bang” without actually weighing in. I think you can elevate the conversation and still say whether a call should have been a block or a charge.
Redick had plenty of good moments, too. As an announcer, he has positive traits. I liked his description of Irving as an “ethical scorer” who doesn’t seek out cheap fouls. At a crucial point in Game 3, Redick noted that Irving turned his head toward a driving Jayson Tatum, which made Irving lose track of Jaylen Brown in the corner. As he said it, ESPN’s truck served up a replay that showed the fatal head turn perfectly. Similarly, in Mind the Game, Redick’s basketball points were far more digestible when they were accompanied by a piece of tape than they were when he launched them into a vacuum.
In the fourth quarter of Game 3—the last interesting moments of the Finals—the Celtics went up by 21 points. Just as the game suddenly required something different from the Celtics players, the broadcast required something different from the announcer.
Out of a commercial, Redick addressed his colleagues in a let’s-subtly-start-crowning-the-Celtics tone. “Mike, I think tonight is a great example of trust what you do,” said Redick. “This is a historic Boston Celtics offense, primarily based on the 3-point shot. We’ve been waiting for a barrage all series. Another slow start tonight. We’ve seen that barrage in the second half. Trust what you do.” The Mavericks came back, and the moment was quickly forgotten. But it showed that Redick was figuring out how to tell the story that was in front of him.
Redick might have used the media to launch his coaching career. He also poked at its absurdities. “It’s our job, Stephen A., to educate people on basketball,” he announced on First Take, refusing to commit to the bit in the way Dan Orlovsky and others have.
The funniest example of this came last month when Redick called in to Felger & Mazz, Boston’s no. 1 sports radio show. There are no more haunted words in American media than “incident on Boston sports radio.” But, here, hosts Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti asked straightforward questions. Redick just refused to answer them.
“Do you think Tatum gets over-scrutinized?” asked Felger.
“Yeah, everybody gets over-scrutinized,” Redick replied. “That’s what I think.” Surely there are degrees.
“If [the Celtics] were to not win the championship, why do you think it’ll be?” asked Massarotti.
“If they don’t win the championship, it’ll be because the better team won,” Redick replied. In the simulcast, you could see Felger shake his head.
Three weeks later, Redick was hired by the Lakers. Suddenly, challenging the questions and doling out loads of unquotable material made sense. JJ Redick was giving his first interview as an NBA coach.
