JJ Redick has only been the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers since June, but his close relationship with the face of the franchise, LeBron James, has been public for longer than that. The pair started the Mind the Game podcast in March 2024, just three months before the Lakers not-so-surprisingly brought in Redick to replace Darvin Ham.
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While the show featured two of the best basketball minds around and was a booming success, Stephen A. Smith believes LeBron and the Lakers disrespected Ham by hiring the King’s podcast mate. “How the h*** are you gonna have a podcast about basketball and the nuances and the expertise and the intricacies of basketball with JJ Redick, who you knew was aspiring to be a head coach?” the longtime sports broadcaster said on The Stephen A. Smith Show, “And you [LeBron] knew you wanted Darvin Ham out.”
Stephen A. continued to lambast LeBron for seemingly pushing his former coach out in favor of Redick. “LeBron James, that’s the classic case of spitting in somebody’s face and saying it’s raining,” the 56-year-old continued.
The Lakers have always been prone to having short leashes with their head coaches, and Ham was no exception. Although the 51-year-old led Los Angeles to a 90-74 record in two seasons, including a Western Conference Finals appearance in 2022-23, it was not enough to extend his tenure.
Stephen A. underlined how this situation wasn’t the fault of Redick at all, who was simply an aspiring head coach with little prior experience as a coach since retiring as a player in 2021. The First Take star segued into a tangent regarding the Lakers’ supposed interest in UConn head coach, Dan Hurley.
“When [Los Angeles] offered Danny Hurley, I thought you wanted Danny Hurley in the organization until you offered him $11 million.” Smith believed this was a purposefully low-ball offer considering Hurley’s elite collegiate track record and the relative salaries of other top coaches.
LeBron James claimed to be hands-off during coaching search
While the Lakers’ signing of JJ Redick can easily be tied to his relationship with LeBron, James has gone on record before saying he had little input in the direction the team decided on. Their established friendship makes it easy to insinuate that’s why Redick landed the job, but LeBron was adamant despite the circling speculation.
Even Redick himself explained to the media how he hadn’t spoken with LeBron regarding the job until it was already confirmed. Redick explained how he knew LeBron didn’t want to be involved in the team’s coaching search, so the two deliberately put off talking about the role until 30 minutes after Redick was hired.
At 20-16, Redick is doing a fine job in his first season as a head coach. However, this season may also make the Lakers realize that it isn’t their coach holding them back from contention – it’s their unbalanced roster.
