JJ Redick is retiring the microphone.
The freshly minted Lakers coach is stepping away from his various podcasts — including the one recently launched with LeBron James — as he embarks on a new career track in Los Angeles with a four-year deal.
“For the time being, and hopefully it’s a very, very long time, I am excommunicated from the content space,” he told reporters at his introductory press conference on Monday. “There will be no podcasts.”
That means the “Mind the Game” podcast with James will come to an end after just nine episodes following its March 19 premiere.
The same goes for Redick’s “The Old Man and the Three” podcast with co-host Tommy Alter, which concluded with a preview of Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals between the Celtics and Mavericks on June 17 after 274 episodes.
It’s not exactly goodbye forever — at least not yet, the 39-year-old said.
“We’ll do something when I have a breather from what we have coming up — I’m gonna be drinking out of a firehose for the next month,” he said. “At some point we’ll do something for all the people that’ve listened and we’ll have a small little video. But I’m done with podcasting for now.”
Redick comes to the Lakers after a 15-season NBA career that spanned six teams.
Since retiring in 2021, he’s becoming big in the basketball media space through his podcast projects and as an ESPN analyst.
Los Angeles is getting itself a coach with a polished media presence — even if his coaching background, may leave some with something to be desired.
“I have never coached in the NBA before,” he said with a wry smile. “I don’t know if you guys have heard that.”
Redick, whose only previous coaching experience was with his son’s youth team, believes his podcasting background will be a big boon to his success with the Lakers.
“I would argue that I’m very experienced,” he said. “It started 22 years ago when I went to Duke and I got to play for Coach K for four years, spent 15 years as a player. Honestly, the last three years have been invaluable in preparing me for this moment. Being able to connect to players, connecting with them on the podcasts, being in coaching interviews with ESPN, calling games, analyzing the game in three different formats — all of that has helped prepare me to be an NBA head coach.”
