JJ Redick is the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and he admits that Mike Krzyzewski played a big role in helping him make the decision. During his introductory press conference last week, Redick talked about the impact Coach K had on him becoming the head coach of the Lakers.
“Coach since 2004 has had a great relationship with the Lakers and the Buss family,” Reddick said. “He was very complimentary of the organization. Truthfully, he was very helpful throughout this process. I didn’t know Coach had like Google Alerts, or I don’t know how he gets his news, but I guess somebody tipped him off that I was potentially interviewing for Charlotte. I was literally flying back from a game and landed at LaGuardia and we talked for 30 minutes that night. Ultimately did not do the full interview there and kind of put that coaching thing on pause.
“This opened up and 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.
Redick, 40 played for Krzyzewski at Duke from 2002 to 2006. During his time with the Blue Devils, Redick was named Naismith College Player of the Year in 2006 and was selected a First-Team All-American in his final two seasons.
Why the Lakers hired JJ Redick as their head coach
Redick becomes the 29th head coach in Lakers history, and this is his first coaching job in the NBA. He played in the league from 2006 to 2021 and scored over 12,000 points.
“It became evident that one of JJ’s passions was bringing some of the incredible things he’s done in basketball thinking and basketball content to player development as we build that out,” Pelinka said in a statement. “I think it’s going to be exciting for our fans to see how we take a new and unique approach of Lakers excellence with player development, and combining that with high-level strategy and high-level attention to detail on the basketball court, with how we play, with how we’re organized, how we compete and ultimately how we win. A very, very proud moment for us to introduce JJ Redick as our new head coach.”
The post JJ Redick on Mike Krzyzewski’s impact on taking the Lakers job: ‘Truthfully, he was very helpful’ appeared first on On3.
