When taking the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job, JJ Redick knew he was coming into a high pressure situation. Along with trying to maximize Anthony Davis and LeBron James in their final years together as duo, Redick was also tasked with revamping the Lakers’ player development program.
After deciding to part ways with former head coach Darvin Ham, general manager Rob Pelinka took another massive swing by taking another chance on a first-year coach. However, there have been positive strides from Redick as he continues to navigate through this massive learning curve.
Seeing how popular the Lakers brand is, there are always going to be opinions surrounding what the former 15-year NBA veteran is doing at the helm.
He recently talked about the current media landscape of the league amid a ratings decrease, which got a response from NBA analyst Charles Barkley, who shared harsh criticisms on Redick. Now, Boston Celtics legend Kevin Garnett has come to the Lakers head coach’s defense on his podcast KG Certified:
“That —- looked like some 22-year-old —-. That’s the new lens I’m talking about, we can do a better job of celebrating through that lens. I heard JJ Redick and he got a good point. None of us is admitting it, none of us have seen this —-.”
Regarding how historic of a rivalry the Celtics and Lakers are, the NBA community is everlasting. Frankly, at the end of the day, it is basketball. Having healthy conversations about the direction of where the game is going is fair, but it can be done in a healthy manner.
Barkley took the entertainment route to crack jokes at Redick, but there are more in-depth reasons as to why the Lakers moved on from Frank Vogel and Ham.
A lot has been made about whether the game itself is trending in the right direction with the amount of 3-pointers attempted. All in all, fans are going to watch the game regardless and it when comes to marquee matchups, the global audience will be there. If a more substantial sample size is shown that viewership is declining, then more discussions can be had.
JJ Redick doesn’t care about Charles Barkley’s criticism
Word gets around in L.A. as head coaches are going to hear what the outside noise is regarding their job security. After Charles Barkley’s comments, they became popular on social media and eventually made way to JJ Redick. When asked about his thoughts on Barkley’s comments, Redick said he does not care.
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