Thirteen games into the Los Angeles Lakers’ season, freshman head coach JJ Redick is not the headline story – and that’s a story in and of itself. There are, of course, plenty of other storylines for the Lakers already this year: for starters, the rumblings that they haven’t done enough to provide a competent supporting cast around superstars Anthony Davis and LeBron James, the former of whom is having an MVP-caliber start to the season. Then there are the cries of nepotism at the signing of James’ son, Bronny. They may not be true championship contenders, but at 9-4 the Lakers look, at least, like a solidly good NBA team. One might never guess that their coach has only a few weeks of experience.
Redick, the sharpshooting NBA veteran turned podcaster turned broadcaster turned head coach, faced plenty of scrutiny when he was appointed this summer, dealing with accusations that he’d “skipped the line” or that he’d only been granted the job opportunity in order to appease LeBron, Redick’s podcast co-host as recently as this year. It’s been widely reported, after all, that the only head coaching experience Redick possessed before he got the Lakers gig was with his son’s youth team. When I asked him, a few months ago at his introductory press conference, what he was most looking forward to disproving from the chorus of naysayers, he (now infamously) said he didn’t “give a fuck”. It’s possible, of course, that the once chronically online Redick may have been trying to convince himself of this sentiment as much as he was trying to persuade the rest of the world. But it’s clear that the one-time Duke legend has tuned out the noise enough to stay focused on the task at hand.
