This is one of the stranger elements in the Redick-to-LA story we’ve seen.
Since JJ Redick took over as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, there has been a lot of news about the rookie coach. Here are a couple of interesting highlights.
First, he talks here about how his Duke coach, Mike Krzyzewski, had an impact on his major career move, saying this:
“Coach since 2004 has had a great relationship with the Lakers and the Buss family. He was very complimentary of the organization. Truthfully, he was very helpful throughout this process... Coach throughout the process was very helpful in terms of just me navigating the interview process, Rob [Pelinka] and I’s communication, all of this stuff. Coach was great… There’s one person in my life that played for that I call Coach, and that’s Coach K. He’s still that to me.”
That’s not a big surprise obviously. Coach K helped Redick build an epic career at Duke and beyond and he’s had a major impact on all of his former players.
This is a bit of a surprise: Rashad McCants got something right.
McCants and Redick faced off while McCants was at UNC, so there is some history here.
McCants developed a reputation as being eccentric and difficult both at UNC and in the NBA, which makes this pretty wild: he called the Lakers hiring of Redick two months ago - while L.A. was still playing and before coach Darvin Ham was fired.
Calling LeBron James Jr. to be drafted by the Lakers? Easiest thing in the world. Calling the Redick hire before anyone even thought about it?
Pretty impressive, even for the occasionally strange McCants.
