Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick went viral during Game 2 of their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Mics caught Redick brutally cussing out his players after calling a timeout in the third quarter, and LeBron James was asked about that fiery rant in his postgame press conference.
“I thought we responded well just from the timeout,” James said. “We know JJ is gonna spazz out from time to time. That’s JJ… We need to listen to the message and not the way how he’s delivering it.
“For me, my high school coach my freshman year was kind of the same way,” James added. “He would spazz out on us. You have to be able to understand it’s not how he’s saying it. It’s about what he’s saying, and I thought we responded after that.”
James was referring to Keith Dambrot there, who was his head coach for his first two seasons at the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. Thanks to Dambrot, he’s used to a head coach blasting the team the way Redick did.
“Timeout,” Redick said. “What the f*** is going on? Timeout. Jesus f***ing Christ, the f*** are you guys doing? Come on!”
JJ Redick:
“Jesus fu*king Christ what the fu*k are you guys doing.”
(h/t @MrBuckBuckNBA)
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) April 23, 2025
The Lakers had come out with low energy in the second half, and Redick wasn’t happy about that. They had scored just four points in close to four and a half minutes in the quarter, and he wanted his players to get their act together.
The Lakers responded well to Redick’s rant, as they went on an 11-2 run after the timeout to push their lead to 20. As James stated, they focused on what their head coach had to say, not how he said it.
Redick was unsurprisingly asked postgame about the frustrations that led to his going on that rant and how he thought his team responded.
“Not frustration, just coaching,” Redick said. “… Other than just a couple disorganized plays, we played good offense tonight. As a coach, you can see it coming when the other side of that is on the horizon, and it was building. Just wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page.”
Redick later added that he hasn’t reacted in this manner often this season and doesn’t really want to do that either.
“I’ve done that in a game a handful of times in six preseason games, 82 regular season games,” Redick said. “What is that? 90 games? I’ve done it a handful of times. It’s not something that I want to do. It’s something I’m more than comfortable doing, but I think tonight it was just more about getting that urgency button switched back on.”
The Lakers did play with more urgency from then on. The Timberwolves, though, refused to just lie down and managed to cut the lead down to nine at multiple points in the fourth quarter.
Anthony Edwards even had the ball with the Timberwolves down 90-81 with under three minutes remaining, and he had a chance to make it a two-possession game. James ensured he’d never even get an opportunity to put up a shot, as he stole the ball and scored on the other end. That play all but killed the game.
James finished with 21 points (8-19 FG), 11 rebounds, seven assists, one steal, and one block as the Lakers won 94-85. They have now tied the series at 1-1, and Game 3 will be at the Target Center on Friday at 9:30 PM ET.
