The Los Angeles Lakers’ decision to hire JJ Redick as their new head coach wasn’t a very popular one and former NBA player Steve Francis certainly didn’t like it. Francis recently appeared on the Live From The District podcast, where he criticized the hire.
“I love basketball, but there’s no way that just because he went to Duke, and he criticizes people on television like he sounds like a great coach,” Francis said. “But I look at it like all these other guys who put a lot of significant work in, you have my boy David Vanterpool here in Washington, you have Sam Cassell… Mark Jackson.
“You have so many guys who have championship experience,” Francis continued. All these guys who have experience and get looked over just because it’s the ‘it’ thing right now with generation ’cause all these guys are doing these podcasts.
“The thing that’s going to happen just like when Darvin Ham was the coach, LeBron is not going to listen to one word JJ Redick is saying,” Francis added. “So, we’ll see how he’s able to maintain that beast.”
Host EZ Street wondered why LeBron wouldn’t listen to Redick and Francis had a simple explanation.
“Why would you listen to him? I wouldn’t listen to him if he was coaching me,” Francis stated. “I’ll just look at how much I used to bake him and be like, ‘What are you saying? You know what I do, so talk to somebody else.’ So, it’s definitely going to be hard for him to get through.”
Well, just because Francis wouldn’t have listened to Redick doesn’t mean James won’t. Also if we go by the logic he used, LeBron wasn’t going to listen to Sam Cassell either, as he “baked” him too.
The one point I do agree with Francis on is that giving Redick the job over others who have a lot of coaching experience seems like a bad idea. While he played for 15 seasons in the NBA, he hadn’t even coached at the high school level and the Lakers have taken a huge risk by hiring him, considering how little time LeBron has left in the NBA. Time will tell if this was a masterstroke or an unmitigated disaster.
Jeanie Buss Spoke On Why The Lakers Hired JJ Redick
With so many questions surrounding the hire, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss explained why they went with Redick as their new head coach.
“We wanted to kind of think a different way. Really, he’s got a vision. I’m not comfortable talking about the basketball stuff, but we were looking for a candidate that would bring something different and really invest in developing young players. JJ is the right person for us.”
“Again, I just want to work to really speak for itself, so I don’t want to hype it and say it’s gonna be a home run. We have to give him time to establish what he wants to establish. I’m really impressed with his staff. Right now, it’s not mandatory for the players to come in and practice but players are coming in and working out.”
“The coaching staff with Nate McMillan and Scotty Brooks, there’s a lot of experience that will be there for him to make that adjustment to being a head coach. Certainly a 12-year career in the league, he’s got a lot of experience. He knows what this league is about and I think he’ll be a great leader.”
Redick’s support staff does have a lot of experience, which is a positive. He also appears to have won over the Lakers with the vision that he sold them and it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out on the court.
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