Stephen A. remains CRITICAL of the LeBron James-JJ Redick podcast optics 👀 | First Take

Stephen A. remains CRITICAL of the LeBron James-JJ Redick podcast optics 👀 | First Take

damn it LeBron James is his own man you’re wearing a Lakers uniform you are a player you know your coach is on the hot seat and deciding to do a podcast about games about basketball with specifics in mind schemes and and and how you coach and how you draw a plays up and you knew the Lakers would all more than likely be looking for a coach next season is one of the most egregious things we have seen a basketball player do to a coach it’s a spicy Steve right there you know I’ve been looking forward to disagreeing with him Le time you excuse me were you watching I was watching at home last night I was like oh I’m going to be on okay I’m G to be on who was challenging him Wendy well you were thank you you were and Wendy as well and Wendy all right you wanted to talk to him about this so I can’t allow you to put this on Braun all the way put what on Bron specifically I’m just asking well the how egregious it was was that the the timing aspect of this aligned with almost seeming as if it was predictive of him and his team that it would position JJ or the fact that he would talk schemes that would then undermine Darvin ham okay there are a lot of players that have podcast play a PE talk schemes right about other teams obviously LeBron James is different just for some context I mean between Maverick and LeBron and spring Hill we’ve been talking about doing a show like this for years for a very long time around basketball intricacies nuances schemes how would you defend dhos how would you defend guys like yic you know would you Blitz uh Luca donic in the P&R we love schemes like I talk schemes all the time with my friends you and I have talked schemes on sets before I I think it’s actually it’s a incredible value proposition with in the marketplace cuz nobody really does that at that level okay so that has already been in the works for a while I think that JJ actually was the perfect person to talk schemes too actually make a case also that depending upon who they’ve gotten invested by Redbird and finway and companies like that they have a lot of capital to deploy yeah Spring Hill Spring Hill right they have a lot of capital to deploy as reles to a platform like JJ so I just wanted to come to the defense a little bit MH that this wasn’t a multi-year approach in which it was set up for JJ to then become the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers now LeBron James is one of the most Brilliant Minds we have in the game without question he’s great um but they haven’t been referencing schemes that the Lakers have employed they’ve been referencing schemes around the league so I just want to make sure that we’re not inciting that LeBron’s main mission by having a podcast was to under mind the likes of Darin ham watching games this year there was a lot of personnel decisions that I questioned that you question on new that we we’ve talked about around Darvin ham um I think Darin ham could still be a good coach in the NBA I think for the pressure that LeBron James has right now it’s going to be different you’re saying it wasn’t premeditated I don’t think it was premeditated at all okay I think it just evolved into that because a relationship organically happened yes we’re not faulty JJ in any way for doing the podcast or for the content on the podcast with LeBron James but at some point in time we do have to do this Jay as I said to Wendy last week we have to remember the things that we’ve said about LeBron James as it pertains to his Brilliance as it pertains to controlling a narrative as it pertains to being two three five steps ahead of others in terms of what you’re plotting and what you’re planning and what have you and then that’ll raise an antenna we knew before the podcast ever started that Darin ham was on a hot seat we knew this now In fairness to LeBron James when the news came out hell we celebrated it right here on this show oh gonna be great and mind the game they’re talking the game I mean they’re talking basketball it’s fantastic I mean JJ re’s the brilliant basketball mind LeBron James we know what he is no problem but as the podcast gained Steam and then the spotlight became more magnifying for Darin ham and then you saw an Anthony Davis after game two against Denver talk about how lost and you know we we we just weren’t on the same page we just seem to be out of syn etc etc we saw all of these things then we started having the others not not necessarily us as a show J just the industry everybody was talking about how LeBron’s had all of these coaches you never really heard him speak up for a coach even though Rich Paul of them would say he spoke up for tyo and stuff like that we thought tyoo should have got the job the Lakers should have been in a position trying to tell him to pick his staff trying to underpay him all of this other kind of stuff we looked at all of those things and we said you take all of those things into account this does not look good that you got like and and what I was saying on the air with Wendy last week and Molly was that couldn’t have started it during the playoffs couldn’t have started it after doin ham go the job could did you have to start it in the middle the damn season when he’s on the hot seat because why that’s what some of the coaches were saying no I I understand what you’re saying there but this is where I have to push back sure if LeBron didn’t want Darin ham as his head coach don’t you think there’s other ways he could go about it rather than orchestrating a whole podcast with JJ reick I mean that feels let me say this I am not in any way I am not in any way accusing LeBron James just saying the look of it overall exactly saying the Optics after the fact saying to I’m not saying he orchestrated something to push Darvin ham out the door to get JJ reck the job that’s not what I’m saying I’m not going there what I’m saying is you are a person known for being Mindful and cognizant of the Optics how could you possibly think that was going to look good and that’s why I came up with I didn’t know 1 plus 1 equals 4 I apologize everybody I didn’t know that because you can’t tell me that that’s something that you were completely oblivious too now you may not have cared you may not have cared now but that doesn’t mean but that does not mean that he orchestrated something to get JJ reick in and Darin ham out I’m not trying to imply that I’m simply saying the Optics were bad no and in the end you can’t say that you weren’t mindful about it you probably just didn’t care I guess I get the aftera fact but Jay in terms of the timeline I don’t think anyone was thinking of JJ reck as a coaching candidate at that point point I think you’re just thinking a contemporary to LeBron around the same age basketball mind totally I mean it’s not like you brought on a well I guess that’s a challenge though it’s a challenge of and I I understand what you’re saying overall how it looks within that moment when things started to happen but I guess that the context that had been in the works for so long am I supposed to then pull the plug on the launch date of something that frankly could make a lot of money because of the conversation that’s missing in the marketplace I find that to be a little unfair even if it is a bad luck it’s the reality of the situation but but but here’s another thing is important nugget to point out some of that conversation and Wendy standing over there he’ll confirm that some of that conversation took place before we learned that Danny Hurley was somebody that was going to get off of the job and so what happened is when JJ elevated to being the primary target in a lot of people’s eyes for the Lakers job that further made it look made it look worse made it look worse and then all of a sudden it dialed back because Danny Hurley was going to get off at the job but Stephen I think about the narratives involving Danny Hurley now some people are saying he just did it to get more money from Yukon and that the Lakers always wanted JJ reic that was he it was just a ploy like you can’t go by narratives and what other people people are always going to talk and you know this yeah but but here’s what you’re missing if a bunch of ladies in the world of Sports yeah are texting Molly yeah they’re in it yeah and they’re telling you this is how they feel no and I understand now especially with the coaching but wait a minute it’s not just that they’re not just coaches they’re in the locker rooms they’re with players they’re around Executives they’re in the Arenas they have access to situations and circumstances we hear about through Word of Mouth etc etc they’re in it so what I’m saying is you have not a whole bunch or anything like that it was about five or six calls that I received but what I’m saying is they were saying this kind of stuff they feel this way that it under they feel that it under not that JJ reck is guilty of they believe that this undermined darving ham because it was highlighting what he wasn’t bringing to the table and if anybody should have had a height level of sensitivity to that it should have been LeBron you go to a lot of games yes sir we both been you’ve been to a lot of Laker games you’ve seen a lot of Cl games how many times have you and I recognized LeBron in the Huddle saying uhuh like let’s run him cross he be taking over time out now I’ve seen he done that with everybody that’s what I’m saying I’ve seen it before I’ve seen it and Eric went like this a couple times okay like that’s actually that makes sense it’s about learning how to cohabitate with that so I I I don’t see that undermining I just see that showcasing how LeBron’s brain and I’m saying to you let’s my last comment would be you’re saying the perception of my last comment be fine Jay I’m not going to even disagree with you as long as you’re willing to concede that there are employees in the NBA in the coaching rank who feel differently yeah okay that’s I can see that that’s what I’m say I can see the effects of that that fair that’s fair that’s fa that’s what is look at us all seeing both sides I mean no we want to be fair I never thought about that I never thought about that POV from that perspective though just kidding yeah I know [Music] he

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith and Jay Williams address the “egregious timing” of LeBron James’ podcast with JJ Redick as Darwin Ham was on the hot seat as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

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