LOS ANGELES — JJ Redick revealed a long-rumored story that he and Joe Mazzulla discussed having him join Mazzulla’s first Boston Celtics staff in 2022-23. Mazzulla replaced suspended head coach Ime Udoka days before training camp and assumed a staff that already lost associate head coach Will Hardy, who the team would never replace. For personal reasons, Redick never joined the staff and broadcasted for ESPN last season before the Los Angeles Lakers hired him as head coach last summer.
“I met him at Old Sandwich, which is a golf club,” Redick said. “I happened to be in Boston for a pre-planned trip for a buddy’s birthday party. He’s actually here tonight, he came out to the game for Boston, and Joe got the job on Friday and we played golf Sunday morning and we talked about potentially joining the Celtics staff. It was in those early stages of knowing I wanted to coach but not sure what the timing would look like. We stayed in touch. There was another conversation around joining the staff later, and the last two years, podcast included, and calling games and getting to see him. But particularly last year, we talked quite a bit on text after games and what not. When I was going through this process, he along with a few other coaches in the NBA were really helpful. Not just in preparing for an interview, but just really helping me understand what this was and what it required.”
Redick and Mazzulla recorded a podcast last year and the former emerged as one of the latter’s few close friends in coaching circles. Redick said before Thursday’s game, their first meeting as head coaches, that Mazzulla reached out to him in recent weeks to check on him after Redick’s rental home burned down in the Los Angeles fires earlier this month. He noted Mazzulla’s stance on not talking to his former assistant Charles Lee, which made the mid-season message from Boston’s head coach such a pleasant surprise.
Mazzulla affirmed their relationship and like-minded analytical approach to the game moments later during his pre-game press conference. While he wouldn’t reveal how close Redick came to joining that staff, he praised Redick for deciding to enter the arena after sitting on the media side of the coaching-press dynamic. Mazzulla learned from him as a person, coach and player, using Redick’s game as an example for some of his players.
“We had a couple talks about (Redick joining the staff),” Mazzulla said. “Definitely was interested in it, but I don’t know as far as where he was in that process. You learn from each other. He’s an analytical mind, he thinks the game, thinks on his feet. He’s definitely someone you can learn from.”
Redick said he wanted the Boston-Los Angeles game as much as any other, and didn’t expect to trash talk his friend after the game. Both sides entered the game mostly healthy, and the Lakers have started 23-18, fifth in the west, and stayed above the play-in line for most of this season despite multiple significant injuries and some team turnover. Los Angeles traded D’Angelo Russell for Dorian Finney-Smith earlier this season.
Mazzulla and Redick first met 2.5 years ago now, Redick remembered, and Redick called Mazzulla a really good friend. Redick typically assesses each opposing coach who comes up on the schedule, and with Boston, he pointed out how Mazzulla teams attack the weak link repeatedly.
“Doing that over and over and over again,” Redick said. “We’re gonna have to be prepared not only to guard the first action, but then to guard the ISO. It’s gonna come in a number of ways. We have to be good with that, and we’re expecting cross matches. They typically let Jrue roam. Who’s Porzingis gonna guard? And I didn’t think when Houston cross-matched, we didn’t do a good job of recognizing that early in the game. Hopefully we’re prepared for that tonight. Cause they’re gonna do it at some point.”
