Many NBA players have podcasts these days, but LeBron James is the only one who can honestly say that his helped shape the future of his playing career. Mind the Game, his pod with JJ Redick, was a sensation for the way both men dove into the minutiae of the game in such an accessible way, something that hasn’t really been replicated. This partnership led to Redick being hired as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, a job he’s taken and run with but that required him to pause the podcast.
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Redick had also hosted the hugely popular The Old Man and the Three pod, which he also put on hold by saying, “I am excommunicated from the content space,” when he joined the Lakers. That pod has since been rebranded as The Young Man and the Three by his former cohost Tommy Alter.
It looked like, without Redick, Mind the Game might have been put on permanent hiatus, but today it was revealed that the show is coming back with a new co-host.
LeBron will still be on board, only this time he’ll be joined by two-time MVP Steve Nash to break down the finer points of the game. The show’s return was teased in a trailer on X this morning. The first new episode will premiere on April 11th, with new episodes coming out every Tuesday.
There’s been a mixed reaction to the announcement. Many fans are delighted to get the show back, but others have taken the opportunity to have some fun at LeBron’s expense. “LeBron looking for JJ [Redick]’s replacement already?” one commenter asked. Given the number of head coaches LeBron has gone through in his career, this one has to hit close to home, even if LeBron and Redick seem to have a great working relationship.
Could Mind the Game be a stepping stone to get Steve Nash back into coaching?
Redick had no head coaching experience at the time he hosted Mind the Game, though that didn’t stop him from getting the Lakers gig. He’s done an objectively fantastic job, though, even gaining steam as a Coach of the Year candidate for the way he’s managed LA’s ever-changing roster while getting LeBron and everyone else to buy in defensively.
Unlike Redick, Nash has already been a head coach. He was a surprise hire by the Brooklyn Nets back in 2020. Though that team, which included Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, had championship aspirations, they fell woefully short in his 2+ years in charge by getting eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in Nash’s first year, then being swept in the first round the next.
Nash was fired just seven games into his third season, and the team disbanded shortly after that, with Harden being traded to the Clippers, Kyrie to the Mavericks, and Durant to the Suns later that season.
It will be interesting to see if Nash parlays this into another coaching opportunity (a possibility LeBron even alluded to in the trailer by saying, “If he gets a head coaching job, we didn’t talk about this beforehand, guys!”), but in the meantime, it’s just going to be nice to elevate NBA discourse once again.
