It’s no secret that former NBA player and current basketball analyst JJ Redick is being looked at for multiple NBA coaching jobs right now and he has shared why he wants to be a coach in the league.
Redick played 15 years in the NBA and his 1,950 career makes from three-point range rank him 15th in NBA history in that category.
Since his retirement in 2021, he became an ESPN analyst and a well-known NBA media personality.
He frequently appears on podcasts and even has a few of his own – one of the most recent being LeBron’s first podcast – Mind the Game.
But despite his successful media career, Redick says he misses being part of a team and living and breathing the whole NBA environment.
“What I really miss is the juice, I miss the action, I miss the competition, I miss leadership, I miss being on a team,” Redick said on Road Trippin‘. “Like in a locker room, like physically in a locker room after winning a road game. Like you miss that stuff. There is a high that you get as an athlete that goes beyond passing, and shooting, and dribbling, and, well Richard (Jefferson) never took charges, taking a charge, or dunking a basketball.
“Those are all these little moments of actual game play, it’s the other moments that I feel like we all miss as ex-athletes right. The part about coaching in general, it’s a very general statement, is like the things that I miss and the things that I love doing. That involves coaching, that all is part of coaching.”
The 39-year-old has most recently been linked to the Lakers head coaching job, and the team are reportedly “intrigued” with him.
If Redick and LeBron were to continue airing episodes of their podcast as a coaching and playing duo, no doubt the already massive number of listeners would further increase.
Former NBA player Rashad McCants recently claimed on Gil’s Arena that LeBron started a podcast with Redick because he’s “coaching JJ to be the coach” of the Lakers next season.
As it stands, Redick has never before been an NBA head coach, let alone an assistant. So if an NBA team were to hire him, the franchise would be taking quite the gamble.