JJ Redick’s Lakers are taking leaps and bounds this season and Mike Krzyzewski is anything but surprised.
Redick’s former college coach and one of the greatest basketball coaches ever, Krzyzewski (Coach K)
“JJ is really smart and he functions under the theory that he’s always becoming,” Krzyzewski said. “Who he is, who he was last year, is not necessarily the exact person, player, or coach that he’s going to be the next year. And so you’re always becoming. When you’re always becoming, that means you’re always willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to adapt to something new.”
Although he didn’t see Redick becoming a coach when he first came to him with the idea, Coach K said it all started clicking into place when he thoughts about it.
“I never thought of him as a coach – I always just thought of him as, well, he’s the best shooter we’ve ever had and one of the greatest players in college basketball history, and he’s a heck of a pro,” Krzyzewski said. “When he went into broadcasting, he knocked it out of the park right away. Like he wasn’t learning to do that. He had that. And his competitive drive was not fed. He wasn’t able to feed that hunger for competition through being a sports announcer or sports commentator or whatever. He craves competition. …
“But he also craves the game. OK, competition at this level, how can I stay in the deep end with the game? ‘I want to coach.’ And so I was surprised when he said it to me, but then I wasn’t surprised, because I put those two things together. This guy will be competitive for his whole life, and he loves the game of basketball. And, you know what? He’s such a damn good competitor, and he understands the game. …”
“Once I got over the little bit of surprise of him doing it, and said ‘OK, that makes sense. I think you should go for it.’ And then obviously, he went for it, and he went for it in one of the most visible coaching assignments, the toughest ones you could have – the Los Angeles Lakers. Which, that doesn’t surprise me either.”