Lakers officially introduce JJ Redick as team’s new head coach – his 1st NBA coaching job

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The Lakers on Monday officially introduced JJ Redick as the franchise’s next coach.

Redick, an ESPN NBA analyst who played 15 years in the league, will be one of the youngest head coaches in the NBA at 40 years old, just a few months older than LeBron James.

Last week, the Lakers agreed to a four-year contract with Redick, who is taking up his first coaching job after he retired from playing in 2021. He’ll be the team’s seventh head coach since 2011.

His lack of experience was one of the first subjects he tackled in Monday’s press conference.

“I take this responsibility very seriously,” he said.

Just a little tongue-in-cheek he added: “I have never coached in the NBA before. I don’t know if you guys have heard that.”

“My motivations for doing this – it starts with a very simple foundation of service. I think the greatest moments, especially toward the end of my career, was about helping players. So it starts with the desire to serve players, to serve the Lakers organization, to serve our fans.”

“It’s also about competition and performance, collaboration, leadership. These are the things that drive me.”

He added that he is well aware of the Lakers’ storied history and fans’ high expectations.

“Sitting in this seat, I know what the expectations are. Lakers fans have some of the most passionate fans around the world. The expectation is a championship. It’s my job, it’s our staff’s job, it’s Rob’s job, it’s all of us to deliver a championship caliber team. That’s what I signed up for.”

Lakers vice president and general manager Rob Pelinka said he spoke with Redick at the NBA draft combine in Chicago last month and it became quickly apparent they shared a similar outlook about the game.

“… We shared a basketball philosophy that was very similar, and it was based on high-level strategy,” Pelinka said. “It was based on a certain way of communicating with players and teaching them, and probably most importantly, prioritizing player development.”

“… It became evident that one of JJ’s passions was bring some of the incredible things he’s done in basketball thinking and in basketball content to player development. … It think that’s going to be something that’s really exciting for our fans to see – how we take a new and unique approach of Lakers excellence with player development and combining that with high-level strategy and high-level attention to detail on the basketball court with how we play, with how we’re organized, how we compete and ultimately how we win.”

Lakers guard Austin Reaves spoke about his new head coach over the weekend.

“He’s a basketball genius, I think as everybody knows,” Reaves said. “I think he’s going to make a good coach and I can’t wait to get to work with him… I just can’t wait to put our brains together and go have a good year.”

Redick already has a strong relationship with James, with whom he co-hosts a basketball podcast. But he said he didn’t talk to James about the position until shortly after he was offered the job.

Lebron could opt out of his contract with the Lakers this week.

In his roles with previous teams, James has been perceived as being very influential in team coaching and personnel decisions. Pelinka described his role in this search as supportive, but not involved.

“LeBron was very supportive of us and our process but chose not to be heavily involved and we respected that,” Pelinka said.

“Anthony Davis was very involved. I talked to him throughout the process and got a lot of help and wisdom from him. He was very excited for today.”

ESPN contributed to this report.