The Los Angeles Lakers’ wait for a head coach recently ended after it emerged that they hired former National Basketball Association (NBA) star JJ Redick as their new head coach on a four-year contract.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Redick met with Lakers vice president and general manager Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss over the weekend. Pelinka offered him the job on Thursday, June 20.
“JJ Redick has agreed on a four-year contract to become the next coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Rob Pelinka offered the job this morning and Redick started working on a staff to surround himself with experience,” Wojnarowski wrote in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Many believed that Redick’s hiring was due to the fact that he shares a close relationship with NBA all-time record scorer and Lakers’ icon, LeBron James, with whom he hosts a podcast called “Mind the Game.”
In his first press conference as the new Lakers head coach, Redick refuted such suggestions and reports, claiming that he never discussed the job with LeBron during the nearly six-week coaching search undertaken by the franchise.
“He did not provide any advice. LeBron and I did not talk about the Lakers job until Thursday afternoon about 30 minutes after I was offered the job. And that was very intentional on both our parts,” Redick stated.
“I had an understanding that he did not want to be involved in this and for me, I didn’t want to go down the path of hypotheticals with someone that I consider a friend and someone that I have a great amount of respect for. So, for us, it just came down to literally Thursday afternoon. And I talked to him for about 15-20 minutes and got off the phone. That was it,” he added.
Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ vice president of basketball games operations and general manager, echoed Redick’s thoughts, revealing that while LeBron was very supportive during their search process, he did not involve himself in any way in the hiring of the head coach.
“LeBron was very supportive of us in our process, but chose not to be heavily involved. And we respected that. Anthony Davis, our other captain, chose to be very involved and was very involved. I talked to him throughout the process and got a lot of help and wisdom from him. And he was very excited for today,” Pelinka revealed.
JJ Redick claims he does NOT give a f#ck about the narrative surrounding him when it comes to his lack of coaching experience or that he secured the job through his friendship with LeBron James. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/tX0GPrZu9R
— NBA Strife ツ (@strifeomg) June 24, 2024
James maintaining a distance from the front office is a possibility, considering that he came in for major criticism for pushing the management to acquire Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards in 2021 despite the think tank wanting to land Buddy Hield from the Sacramento Kings.
The Lakers failed to make the playoffs in the 2021/22 NBA season amid multiple injuries to players, with many also believing that Westbrook was a poor fit and did not gel in with the team.
Since then, it is understood that the superstar has refrained from getting too involved in other matters and used the same tactic after the Lakers fired Darvin Ham after they lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2023/24 playoffs.
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