JJ Redick isn't going to make the Basketball Hall of Fame — but he still had a storied career in the sport.
He averaged a very respectable 12.8 points per game across his 15-year career in the NBA, and his sharpshooting has him in the top 10 all-time in free-throw percentage and top 20 all-time in three-point percentage.
Redick's also one of the greatest college basketball players of all-time as his exceptional, albeit infamous, four-year NCAA stint in the 2000s still has him as the leading scorer in the storied history of the Duke Blue Devils.
Related: Dan Le Batard explains how JJ Redick is leveraging ESPN, 'First Take' to boost himself
But despite his success on the court, Redick's rise in sports media may outshine his playing career. He was the first NBA player to start a podcast in 2016 — a trend that has now swept the league — which he still maintains today under a different name, "The Old Man and The Three."
After retiring in 2021, he joined ESPN where has become a top voice on The Worldwide Leader in Sports There's no further proof of his rise than being named as the replacement to Doc Rivers on the broadcast trio that will call the NBA Finals.
Given his early success in sports media, at least one person believes that Redick has the chance to make more money in media than he did as a player — despite the fact that Redick made over $116 million during his NBA career.
That's former ESPN personality Dan Le Batard — who said last month that he thinks Redick is "smartly" leveraging his platform on "First Take" to build his audience as basketball media's intelligent voice.
Le Batard, who has been critical of the hot-take direction that sports media has moved to driven by the likes of Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, believes that Redick's branding is beneficial for him.
Redick has parlayed his position as a basketball guru into a basketball podcast with NBA superstar LeBron James called "Mind The Game" which released on Tuesday, March 19. The podcast differs from most sports podcasts as it goes into the technicalities of the game that professional basketball players are familiar with, but is not as common to the fan.
The release of this podcast comes just a month from when Redick spoke on "First Take" saying that he believes that media has a responsibility to educate fans — while also questioning whether fans want this education.
JJ Redick questions why it's the responsibility of NBA players to educate fans and questions how much fans actually want to be educated in the first place.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 21, 2024
"I can do a video on my podcast where I break down the last nine games the Pelicans have used Zion Williamson as the… pic.twitter.com/3zJqUdZ3T1
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His new podcast with James seems to directly address that criticism. He acknowledges that many fans like digesting hot take type of sports culture, but the idea that an all-time great like James — who is also known for his superior basketball IQ — will be showcasing his basketball mind is the one way to potential bring people in.
That's why Le Batard thinks that perhaps the interest generated and viewership results of "Mind The Game" will truly address Redick's theory.
"We will have access to [LeBron James' mind] that I will find fascinating, but is going deep in the weeds of basketball, but I do wonder: Is this going to test JJ Redick's theory that basketball fans don't actually want to be broadly educated about what their watching?" Le Batard said on his show on March 19.
The first episode of "Mind The Game" already has 1.4 million views on YouTube after just over 24 hours, while the YouTube account for the show has nearly 220,000 subscribers.
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