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Ramona Shelburne, ESPN Senior WriterOct 4, 2024, 08:00 AM ET
- Senior writer for ESPN.com
- Spent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily News
AT EXACTLY 1:23 p.m. Tuesday, a full seven minutes ahead of his carefully planned schedule, JJ Redick paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. The question in front of him was about LeBron James and how Redick’s experiences with other great players throughout his playing career had prepared him to be the coach for the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in what are likely to be the final seasons of James’ career.
It was Day 1 of his first training camp as an NBA head coach.
“I take that responsibility seriously,” Redick told ESPN. “I really do.”
A few minutes earlier, James had been shooting with his son Bronny James on the same basket Redick was now seated under, mulling the question on how best to maximize the final years of James’ tenure with the Lakers.
“I talk about joy and gratitude all the time,” Redick said. “And I look back at the end of my career. Of my last year, being injured and getting traded. Obviously, [James] and I are different but … I didn’t get to enjoy the last chapter.”
That means winning, above all. But it also means savoring this unique experience of James playing with his son.
Redick turned 40 in June. James will turn 40 in December. They are contemporaries at very different stages of their lives and careers. But they are both fathers.
“I mean, you get to coach your own kids when they’re little,” Redick said. “But he’s in the freaking NBA, shooting right over here on this basket with his son. … They were doing 2-on-2 pick-and-roll drills to start practice against the coaches. One of them’s guarding the ball. One of them’s guarding the screener. It’s surreal.”
Those that know James best say he craves structure and accountability. He thrives in disciplined, highly organized systems. He does his best when everyone on the team understands their role. All are elements he had lost faith in under the Lakers’ previous regime, sources said.
Redick’s job is to create that kind of environment as quickly as possible, and his schedule represents that effort. Mornings start early, with weights and conditioning. At 10:30, he hosts a classroom session for younger players. Practice begins at 11. Each day new concepts and systems are being installed. Players’ workload is tracked each day; then pored over by the performance and coaching staff.
There’s room for deviation. After practice, Redick decided to grant James’ request for a DJ, though no one is sure yet who is paying for it, or how long it’ll last. Redick tries to get home in time to grill hamburgers or hotdogs for his kids’ dinner.
“I’ve tried to be super intentional about my time,” Redick said. In everything he has the team do and everything he does and says.
That requires a clarity of purpose: Everything he and the Lakers will do this season is about making the most of the final years of LeBron James’ illustrious career and avoiding some of the painful lessons of their past — when franchise icon Kobe Bryant finished his career with three injury-riddled seasons and very few opportunities to win.
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2:43
LeBron looking to carry Olympics momentum into Lakers’ season
LeBron James talks to Dave McMenamin about his hopes for the Lakers’ season and playing with his son Bronny.
PART OF THE reason James came to the Lakers as a free agent in 2018 is the standard of care they showed during the final seasons of Bryant’s career a decade ago, sources said. James liked playing for an iconic franchise as much as he liked how it treated its iconic players.
There was no telling how much longer James could maintain his level of play when he joined the Lakers. He was 34 at the time, the same age as Bryant was when he suffered an Achilles tendon injury that accelerated his physical decline.
Still, Bryant had tried to cajole the Lakers into fielding better teams around him in his final few seasons in L.A., recruiting free agent forward LaMarcus Aldridge, Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, and encouraging a trade for Sacramento Kings star DeMarcus Cousins, sources said.
The Lakers didn’t land any of them. Instead, Bryant played his final seasons with teammates who were infants when he entered the league. Over Bryant’s final three seasons, the Lakers won a combined 65 games.
It was a miserable, unceremonious bottom for the Lakers and Bryant — but one that opened a door to a future without him as they drafted four players in the lottery between 2014 to 2017, many of whom were a draw for James in 2018 and then the centerpieces of the trade for Anthony Davis in 2019.
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Last spring, Rob Pelinka, the Lakers vice president of operations, who was previously Bryant’s agent, found himself at a similar juncture with James. Like Bryant, James had made it clear he wanted to finish his career with the Lakers and contend for one last championship. And like Bryant, James was willing to recruit free agents to help him do so.
But unlike Bryant, James has shown little evidence of decline, heightening this pressurized season even more. He was an All-NBA second-team player last year at age 39. He played a lead role for Team USA as it won gold at the Paris Olympics. And his desire to win — and lengths he’ll go to ensure it — hasn’t waned.
In May, Pelinka called former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and asked for advice on how to approach the situation.
Krzyzewski had been a close confidant of Bryant’s for nearly two decades and was his choice to coach the team in 2004. Pelinka had developed a relationship with Krzyzewski through Bryant and other clients with Duke ties.
“It was just about going into the last part of LeBron’s career, how his legacy should be intertwined with what the team is doing,” Krzyzewski told ESPN of his message to Pelinka. “I said it can’t be the only thing that you’re thinking of. But is there a way that you can help him in positioning him in different ways on offense? On defense?”
Krzyzewski developed a close relationship with James in his years coaching Team USA. He knows the way James likes to be coached and the systems he has thrived in.
He also knew Redick, who’d won numerous awards as a player for Duke from 2002 to 2006.
“JJ was as courageous a player as I’ve had,” Krzyzewski said. “He sought the moment, the bigger the moment, the bigger the situation was during a game, the more he loved it. “
The connection was made. Krzyzewski was the first person to make Redick and Pelinka aware of the similarities in their personal styles and way of thinking.
“We’ve gotten that from a lot of people,” Pelinka said. “When I huddled up with Mike at the Chicago combine, he was like, ‘I really think you and JJ should work together. I’ve known you for over 20 years and I think you guys just see the game and see the business of basketball very similarly.'”
If Redick could take being booed in every arena he went to, the thinking went, continuing “in a long line of hated players we’ve had here” as Krzyzewski put it, he could handle the pressure of coaching James in the final years of his career. Redick was organized and thoughtful about everything he did. His personal style was one that would meld easily with James and Pelinka, Krzyzewski said. And that was essential in the environment they were all entering together.
“It’s a long season. … I think they will have each other’s back, and that’s going to be essential,” Krzyzewski said. “Especially in JJ’s case. If they can keep growing that relationship, I think the players will see it too.”
In his five years on the job, Pelinka has endured withering criticism despite winning a championship in 2020 and advancing to the Western Conference Finals in 2023. It is the cost of leading a franchise like the Lakers and managing a superstar like James.
“I mean, there’s always stuff going on around the Lakers,” Pelinka said. “When you have a strong partner, you’re not facing it alone.”
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1:51
AD on LeBron and Bronny at practice: ‘Everybody was talking smack in Bronny’s favor’
Lakers star Anthony Davis talks about the dynamic of having LeBron James and his son Bronny on the team and what it has been like during practice.
REDICK WAS IN the room when the Lakers made history and a dream into reality.
He stood next to Pelinka as the Golden State Warriors, who had tried to trade for James last season, weighed whether to take Bronny at No. 52. The Warriors liked Bronny’s skill set and had him on their draft board, sources said. Selecting him ahead of the Lakers, who held the 55th pick, would’ve been a shrewd move — perhaps even to entice James to sign there as a free agent. But ultimately, sources said, the Warriors opted to respect the wishes James had made clear and the Lakers signaled they would grant.
Dream met reality this week. After practice Wednesday, Anthony Davis described a scene from a scrimmage earlier in the day. First, Bronny hit a 3-pointer over his father, which had the whole team doubled over in delight. Then James responded by bullying a defender on the opposing end, only to have Bronny knock down another shot over Austin Reaves. The next time down, Bron called for the ball again.
“They weren’t even matched up,” Davis said. “But the competition was there and that’s what we love to see.”
Each day there are stories like this. And starting tonight, there’s a chance they play together in the Lakers’ first preseason game.
“It means the world to [James],” Davis said. “I mean, no one has ever got a chance to play with their son. So that’s like a different level of joy and appreciation. Nobody’s ever done that.”
There are also the quiet moments no one sees. Each day after practice, LeBron and Bronny are part of a shooting group with third-year guard Max Christie. They shoot jumpers from all over the court, taking passes from new player development coach Ty Abbott and assistant coach Scott Brooks.
James makes his 3-pointers at a high percentage. Bronny is still working on his form and release. Very few words are exchanged. It is very much a veteran getting his work in alongside two younger players still trying to prove themselves.
Above them are the franchise’s 17 Larry O’Brien trophies peering down on them through six windows. Banners for each of the team’s championships and retired jerseys hang on the walls overhead.
While there’s palpable joy of seeing LeBron and Bronny together, the weight of expectations looms. But every once in a while, the significance of the moment wins out.
At the end of their workout Wednesday, James brought his son in for one of his elaborate handshakes. As they parted ways, James reached out his right hand and rubbed the top of Bronny’s head — as only a proud father would.
