Nearly two decades back, the NBA rookie hazing reached a new high soon after JJ Redick entered the league. In Redick’s 2006-07 rookie season, his former teammates at the Orlando Magic welcomed him to the NBA with a set of hilarious activities. One of his former colleagues, Grant Hill, in 2022 recalled some of those moments in an episode of Redick’s show, The Old Man and The Three.
Advertisement
The Duke graduate was picked as the 11th overall pick by Magic after winning National College Player of the Year and 2 Rupp trophies during his college days. So as any other 22-year-old, who achieved things early, he might had that ‘I am special’ feeling. And it was visible as according to Hill, Redick used to be late for practice. And, he was not 20-30 minutes late, but,
“You might have showed up when practice was over but it was definitely late in practice”.
Because of this, the newcomer faced a cruel outcome, as the senior figures in the dressing room decided to take the matter into their own hands. The rookie was brought to the locker room by the veterans before they duct-taped him to a chair.
“Then they wheel him into the showers and turn the showers on”. Amidst the heat of the moment, the former Magic star, Hedo Turkoglu came up with a hysterical suggestion, declaring, “Let’s pee on him“.
Luckily for Redick, Hill intervened in that scenario as he recalled stating, “I’m like, ‘No,'” putting an end to his former teammate’s motive. Yet, it did not mitigate the intensity of activities as the roster came up with an alternative soon after that.
“So they wheeled him out onto the court and then they duct taped him in the chair to the basketball stanchion and just left him out there.”
While looking back on the entire incident, the former small forward accepted the difficulties Redick had to face in his rookie campaign. “I know for you it’s probably the first time that you didn’t have immediate success,” he highlighted. Thus, doubts crept into the mind of the Texas-born as he remembered thinking, “I wasn’t sure how your career was gonna turn out at that point”. “To your credit, you worked your a** off. You just became a great player in this league,” Hill candidly admitted during the show.
Redick in his rookie season season played 42 games, managing to score only 6 points per game. But, as Hill highlighted, Redick worked on his game and by the end of his career he was averaging 12.8 points per game with 44.7% FG.
The rookie hazing story of JJ Redick was just one of several similar ones
The veterans of the NBA always take their time out to produce a ‘welcome to the league’ moment for the novices. Shaquille O’Neal gave rise to one such incident during his Los Angeles Lakers time and even showcased an insane amount of patience behind the process. To rookie haze Devean George, the 4x champion emptied a bucket of excreta on the newcomer.
Gordan Giricek had to pay a price too during his first NBA season with the Memphis Grizzlies for not buying donuts for his teammates. His former colleagues had duct-taped him naked into a laundry bin before putting him into the shower soon after filling it up with ice. The players took it even a step further as they left him on the pyramid floor for hours to make him regret his decision.
All these put forward the aggressive nature of the league as the tradition has been deemed important to make the novices understand precisely that. Over the years thus, many icons have been critical of the softening of the nature of rookie hazing. Amidst the change in time though, the modern stars have accepted it as a more level-headed approach.
