As Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick prepares for his first season at the helm, this has been a long time coming for the former Duke Blue Devil. While L.A.’s coaching search was not smooth, general manager Rob Pelinka notably used legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski as a resource since he had previously coached Redick.
To be able to lean on Krzyzewski for thoughts and opinions was definitely valuable for Pelinka and the Lakers. Despite not coaching at the NBA level, Krzyzewski coached Team USA and managed all sorts of personalities during his tenure as an Olympic coach, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
As expected, Krzyzewski shared his positive thoughts on Redick as a head coaching candidate, but there were other conversation topics as well. Given James is entering his 22nd season, the five-time national championship coach talked to Pelinka about putting the superstar in better positions to succeed, via Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
“It was just about going into the last part of LeBron’s career, how his legacy should be intertwined with what the team is doing,” “It was just about going into the last part of LeBron’s career, how his legacy should be intertwined with what the team is doing,” Krzyzewski told ESPN of his message to Pelinka. “I said it can’t be the only thing that you’re thinking of. But is there a way that you can help him in positioning him in different ways on offense? On defense?”
Dating back to when the Lakers opened up their head coaching job, there were not many veteran, championship head coaches available. So there would be some inherent risk on whoever they hired, but Krzyzewski pushed Pelinka to work alongside Redick seeing how the former 15-year veteran sees the game:
“We’ve gotten that from a lot of people,” Pelinka said. “When I huddled up with Mike at the Chicago combine, he was like, ‘I really think you and JJ should work together. I’ve known you for over 20 years and I think you guys just see the game and see the business of basketball very similarly.’”
Whenever Krzyzewski offers advice, it is going to be extremely valuable, especially for Pelinka, as he navigates through a delicate time for the Lakers. While bumps in the road are expected for Redick during his rookie season as head coach, seeing how knowledgeable he is about the game perhaps eases that transition a bit.
JJ Redick credits Mike Krzyzewski for advice when getting into coaching
It is a daunting task for JJ Redick as he has no professional head coaching experience and is now getting thrown into the fire by coaching the Lakers. However, Redick credits his former coach, Mike Krzyzewski, for providing advice as he developed an interest in coaching.
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