‘LeBron and AD already respect him!’ – Austin Rivers on relationships with JJ Redick | First Take

‘LeBron and AD already respect him!’ – Austin Rivers on relationships with JJ Redick | First Take

happy birthday JJ he was introduced as the Los Angeles Lakers coach Monday and the recent podcast host and NBA television analyst was quick to address the most glaring emission on his resume saying I’ve never coached in the NBA before I don’t know if you guys heard that but that hasn’t diminished his confidence the man’s got it I don’t really have a great answer for your uh question because I I really don’t give a like honestly I want to coach the Lakers I want to coach the team I don’t want to dispel anything I don’t I want to become a great coach in the NBA and I want to win championships and I want my players to maximize their careers that’s all I care about fire it up my guy and that’s who he is through and through I found another friend Austin Rivers in the building good to you see you all right let let’s break this one down ESS I’m going to come to you first how do you think uh JJ will approach being under this Lakers scrutiny well I think he’s going to approach it with relative ease to be quite honest with you and Austin is good to see you bro um I’m going to tell you right now uh JJ’s No Nonsense I mean you know whether you love him or you hate him he really doesn’t give a damn he doesn’t care you know he operates to to the beat of his own drum he’s going to do things the way that he feels they should be done he’s smart um very adroit at the world of business understands the environment that he is is and what it’s and what’s required in order to be successful so getting to know Rob pinka a bit better Genie bus a little bit better and all the pieces around them which obviously would include the Kurt ramises the Linda ramises of the world and others within the organization because if you’re going to be a part of the Lakers organization you’re going to have to deal with these people at some point make no mistake about it JJ reck has the ability uh the communication skills um and and and the feess approach to tackle those things head on and to deal with it in a way that’s going to be successful but in the end he’s smart enough to know that it all comes down to wins and losses if you’re winning they’re going to have love for you if you’re not winning to their satisfaction they’re going to show you the door this is the 29th head coach in Los Angeles Lakers history they’ve had numerous coaches since Phil Jackson has departed uh they make changes um and they don’t mind doing so they don’t like it but they don’t mind it because feel like they do what they have to do because they do answer to Lake a nation and they understand that the support of folks really really does matter and so he knows what challenge he has ahead of him I think where it’s going to really really work wonders for him is that he is not afraid to hold anybody accountable we all worked with him we know how JJ is if JJ got an issue with you he’s gonna tell you and let me tell you something right now when you see some of these players and lir attitude that they have and what have you JJ’s not going to sit back OD sit oddly bu and tolerate that and now that he’s going to have the power that comes with being a head coach when it comes to having some level of dominion over those players yeah the star players he may not have dominion over but those other role players he will and the last point that I’ll make is this if there’s a video that I would love for y’all to find about JJ reick I want you to go to when he was playing in New Orleans and they were in the bubble if I remember correctly during the whole covid thing and they were losing by about 40 they were getting annihilated and you just saw him just laying on the floor with such utter disgust on his face looking at people like he wanted to slap every living person on his team I mean he was just that disgusted I’m telling you that’s the guy you’ll see as a coach if you see guys out there being lack aasal not paying attention to detail not putting in the work or whatever he is not afraid to hold anybody accountable you can bet the you can bet the house on that when it comes to JJ reick I’m rooting for him I think he’s gonna do a good job personally is it me or Austin Austin go ahead take off well first off I appreciate y’all having me on good to see everybody um y yeah you know to piggy back on on your point Stephen A you know JJ is a guy who I know is a creature of habits you know this is a guy that when I played with him in Los Angeles he was a vet that really took me in and someone I shadowed watching his habits he was always one of the first one to practice one of the last ones to leave first one to the game was very meticulous on what he ate how he prepared this is a guy who’s very into details he’s a very calculated guy so when we talk about X’s and O’s plays uh putting his time into this craft I have no questions about that at all the only thing lacking here is experience but you can always try to make that up in various ways hiring assistant coaches who have that you can bring in guys who have had uh head coaching experiences which I’m sure they’re going to do pinka said something about that yesterday in his pod uh or I’m sorry in the press conference but for me the the biggest thing that JJ has on this is his playing experience this is a guy who’s played I think we get so much caught up and H that he hasn’t coached before JJ played in the NBA for 15 years he’s one of the most decorated college basketball players of all time and then he’s also pretty damn good high school basketball player as well he’s a McDonald’s All-American MVP so at every single level this guy’s exceeded and then now here he is career already getting a Lakers job it’d be silly for us to come up here and even question some of these things I get naturally so we do that cuz he doesn’t have that experience coaching wise but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a great coach you shouldn’t be hired based off the Merit of only experience you should be hired mainly if well if you could do the a good job or not and and and I believe he can do a great job just due to his basketball knowledge and I think what’s going to help separate him from some of these other guys or some of these other coaches is relationships how much do we know in today’s game with coaches is it involved and come down to relationships all about relationships it’s all about relationships and he has a podcast with the best player on the team LeBron he played with ad and the Pelicans so the two best players off the off the top are friends of his and guys that he has relationships with already so when it trickles down when he walks in the locker room people had questions of whether they could handle or if he’d have that respect he’s going to have that right away when he walks in the two best players already respect him could you argue that maybe playing experience and is even more valuable than coaching experience and never suiting up because we never get credit for that yeah because I think sometimes and Austin you can attest to this in certain situations I think if you’ve never played the game you could have sometimes unrealistic expectations of what you think a guy can and can’t do and if you played the game you understand certain situations like that I think LeBron James he really appreciates that’s why he had such a love for tyoo tyo actually played the game and so now he’s looking at tyo and as Austin stated this is what it comes down to will LeBron James allow JJ to coaching if you look at the great coaches look at Pop Tim Duncan allowed pop to coach him Tom Brady allowed Bill bich to coaching I love when Giannis won the championship and the guys were talking about how Giannis allow Bud to correct him and to get on him and he’s like coach I got you that’s what it comes down to because if you can coach the team’s best player everybody body else will fall in line now if the best players bucked the the rest of the guys going to give you their butt to kiss and so I think as Austin alluded to to picky back what he said he’s already has a relationship now I don’t believe for one second he well I ain’t talking to LeBron James about the lake a job until Thursday 30 minutes after Ste that’s that’s another story I ain’t gonna go there Stephen I’m not gonna go there I’m just say it you and I both know they have a relationship and I think LeBron James understand in order for this thing to be a success he’s going to have to allow JJ to coach it and when the great coaches pH Phil was allowed to coach Kobe and Shaq he coached Michael Tim Duncan allowed coach pop to coach him Tom Brady allowed coach bellich to correct him and Coach him for 20 years and if your best player will allow will allow you to coach him and sometimes you have to coach him hard now Stephen A you can’t because let me tell you what happened if every time that joker mess up and you don’t correct them in film study or you don’t say hey uh uh we need you to do a little better than this we need a little bit more effort them guys GNA turn you off yes sir no question let’s see a couple of things number one um when JJ said that when JJ said that I’m going like this first of all first of all I’m just looking at I’m like really really JJ I mean you know we on the air talking about how much of a straight shooter you are and then you going to come up with that BS well listen here’s the deal he may very well this is the Slick part about it I’m not saying he wasn’t telling the truth when he said he hadn’t spoken to LeBron my point is this Shay you didn’t need to you have been talking in the last few months what the hell I mean you’re trying to you’re playing with words you didn’t need to talk to him over the last two weeks the last two months you know so so get that out the way you ain’t fooling no damn body with that but having said all of that here’s the one thing that I do believe Austin he has to be concerned about you have people that’s going to look at him Udonis hasslen was right there are people that might look at him and wonder what’s coming from him and what’s coming from LeBron because of that relationship what we’re missing is that listen you might have people LeBron might be there cup of tea other people might feel like he’s not here’s what universally is recognized that man is respected and he’s revered because of his greatness and his accomplishments so whether you like him or not whether he’s your cup of tea or not it ain’t like if something’s coming from BR is something for you to ignore because we know what a basketball Savant he is and if you don’t believe that it’s not coming from JJ but it’s coming from LeBron well JJ’s a pretty brilliant damn mind himself and very well accomplished on a on a prep and on a Collegiate level that brother was a Player of the Year brother was big time okay so let’s remember that but even if it was coming from LeBron damn it ain’t no shame in that right because you listen to LeBron when you’re talking about basketball y Hey steephen Stephen A sometimes Gary KU who was our offensive coordinator used to come to me and say the boss going to get on you pretty good today but he want to send the message to other people I like he can’t pick out somebody else why he got to get on me why he got to use me as the example but if I’m JJ I go to LeBron say hey braon y I need to get on you a little bit today because I need to send a message to the team yep that’s right gak and the Run blocking screams uh I’ll give you the last word here Austin no I I I think they’re all great points I mean listen we sometimes if a Coach doesn’t have the proper relationship with the with with the best player then it’s a problem and then now that he has too good of a relationship with the pro it’s a problem so it’s like we’re just piggy back on or picking on anything here listen I think him having a great relationship with LeBron like like Shannon said he’ll be able to have those conversations with LeBron he’ll be able to go up to him and say Hey listen I’m gonna be tough on you today trying to send a message due to their relationship yeah Ma all all JJ has to do is go to LeBron on a Tuesday Morning say I’mma get on you and then I’m going to buy some tacos at the end of the day Taco Tuesday oh don’t be a hater don’t be a hater we have to go we have to go happy birthday JJ congratulations and I want tickets I’m not going to be shy about that JJ I want good tickets okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe and Austin Rivers join Molly Qerim to discuss JJ Redick being the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

0:00 JJ’s press conference
2:30 Holding players accountable
6:00 Addressing misconceptions
8:00 LeBron and JJ Redick’s relationship

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