In his two seasons as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, JJ Redick has been able to build some great relationships with his players. Perhaps none as close as the one he shares with guard Austin Reaves.
Redick and Reaves are very close and even go out golfing together at times. And because of their time on the golf course, the Lakers guard knows of a particular fear that Redick has and revealed it to the world.
“There’s a better way to get in his head on the golf course if you ever get out there with him,” Reaves said in an interview with Pardon My Take. “He’s terrified of his shadow. So if he has a shadow that’s like, if the sun is back here and he’s aiming this way and the shadow is over the ball or right behind him just mention it and his brain will start spinning.”
That is definitely something that is not seen every day. Reaves even knows that Redick likely won’t be happy with him telling this story, but he continued on anyway.
“He’s gonna hate me for saying this,” Reaves noted. “He came to me one day last season and he was like ‘I’ve overcome it,’ and I was like ‘what are you talking about?’ He was like ‘my shadow problem.’ So we went and played at Bel-Air the next week and there was a shadow in his way and he actually hit a good shot and I was like maybe he did. And then he came back the next day and he was like ‘No it’s still there’ […] I guess it’s something about seeing his self when he swings, like seeing the movement and stuff. I guess he just overthinks it.”
Who knows what the cause is or how to overcome it, but apparently it is still a struggle for Redick on the course. And Reaves wasn’t done as he also brought up an old commercial Redick appeared in to describe the way he coaches.
“Have you seen the, is it the SportsCenter commercial, of him when they walk in the room and he’s the analytic guy?” Reaves said. “Look it up and that’s exactly how he coaches. They basically walk in and he’s got all this, he’s got a marker and he’s writing on the board and he’s like screaming and he’s drank like six cups of coffee. It’s exactly how he coaches.”
The commercial Reaves is referring to is actually a State Farm ad in which Redick looks disheveled, like a typical conspiracy theorist with a giant board filled with writing and an empty pot of coffee. Reaves did make it clear that he loves the way Redick coaches and is the type of coach he wants to go to war with. But he may have a couple extra sprints to run once training camp gets underway.
Austin Reaves’ heart was with Lakers throughout free agency process
Of course, Reaves got his big payday this summer, signing a new four-year deal to remain with the Lakers, though there were times where it felt like he could actually leave. But throughout the entire process, Reaves’ heart was always in Los Angeles.
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