Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick understands the pressure that’s on him to deliver a championship in his second year on the job.
Los Angeles is well-known as a city of champions and the community got to celebrate another title as the Los Angeles Dodgers outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2025 World Series to become MLB’s first repeat champions in 25 years.
Several Lakers such as LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Pau Gasol congratulated the Dodgers who won in seven thrilling games that some consider to be the best World Series ever.
New Lakers majority owner Mark Walter was present for the game against the Miami Heat, showing face fresh off his Dodgers celebration in Canada. Redick revealed he sent Walter a congratulatory text and described his love for baseball growing up.
“We spoke the other day, just sent him a note with the official congrats,” Redick said of Walter. “I think he has a real desire to learn about this. He’s obviously a very intelligent man, but it’s two different sports and how you build teams are different. I’ve said this for probably the last 10-15 years, I played baseball growing up, it was my first love, and baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. It’s a different thing.
“Daryl Morey said it best on the podcast a couple years ago, the NBA now is the equivalent of the Giants when Barry Bonds was in his prime basically getting to bat every single time and not only that, getting to pick the pitcher that pitches to him every single time. That’s what the NBA is. Baseball is different. You gotta wait your turn and the impact of star players, a guy like Luka, a guy like LeBron, a guy like AR, it’s just different than any other sport.”
Redick is no stranger to Dodgers games as he became a fan during his tenure with the L.A. Clippers and recounted how he felt watching Game 7 against the Blue Jays.
“I became a Dodgers fan when I played for the Clippers, although I remember going to games as a Clipper and a couple times they were like ‘Hey, can we put you on the jumbotron?’ I was like hell no, I might get booed, I’m on the Clippers. Dodgers fans like the Lakers, they’re intertwined…
“But I watched the game last night with my family and some friends and it’s just awesome. The reaction when Miggy hit the home run and Dave Roberts is just in disbelief. I’ve spent a little bit of time with Dave and when you’ve got certain guys on your team like that that have the heart of a champion, the group can sort of eventually self-identify that way and you could do some special things. I witnessed it in the NBA with the Warriors and their group of guys, they have it.”
Redick has a great appreciation for great athletes and coaches and it’s clear how high he holds the Dodgers organization. Hopefully he’s able to follow suit and give L.A. another championship to celebrate.
JJ Redick discusses playing baseball growing up
Most athletes grow up playing multiple sports and Lakers head coach JJ Redick is no different. Redick’s competitive edge developed early as he told stories of his old pitching days.
“I was a pitcher. I played shortstop too, but I was a pitcher. I like to tell this story, but I lost one Little League game in three years of pitching. There’s 18 outs in a Little League game and I struck out 17 batters in the game that I lost and the other out was a grounder back to me and I ran it to first. I’m not gonna name the guy, but our shortstop had nine errors and I lost.
“The only other time that I pitched in a game that I lost, I came in late, I had gone to Nationals and our All-Star team was in the State tournament. I went to Nationals, drove through the middle of the night to pitch the next day when I got back from Nationals. The game went into extra innings, I pitched all eight innings and struck out like 13 batters and won 3-2. Then the next day, our starting pitching didn’t get off to a great start so they were like can you throw again? And I was like gosh, OK, I’ll try. And I got shelled. Yamamoto last night, for him to come in and do what he did was just remarkable.”
Redick might have had a career in professional baseball if he continued, but he’d likely agree that it was a wise decision to stick with basketball.
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