As JJ Redick ready to coach the Lakers towards the Celtics on Sunday, Pat Riley was being honored exterior of Crypto.com Enviornment with the workforce’s first statue of a coach.
The franchise’s previous and current had collided, with the 41-year-old scorching shot hoping to in the future mirror the accomplishments of the 80-year-old legend.
Ever since Redick was employed to take over the Lakers’ helm in June 2024, he has drawn comparisons to Riley.
They’re each former gamers. After they retired, they each grew to become broadcasters. Riley hardly had any teaching expertise (two years as a Lakers assistant from 1979-81) earlier than being handed one of the prestigious jobs within the league in 1981. Redick had no teaching expertise. They each have strikingly slick personas.
They usually each had been tasked with main the workforce via main transitions. Riley helped the Lakers move the baton from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Magic Johnson, whereas Redick is overseeing the Lakers’ passing of the guard from LeBron James to Luka Doncic.
When Redick was employed, he knew the franchise hoped he’d fill the Armani sneakers of the legendary coach. The query on everybody’s thoughts was apparent: Might he be the following Pat Riley?
“Pat, to me, type of set the usual for contemporary NBA coaches,” Redick mentioned.
For Riley, the respect is reciprocated.
“He’s a fiery man,” Riley mentioned of Redick. “He might shoot the hell out of the ball. He was powerful as nails, you already know. I don’t know. Typically I look again and I keep in mind myself at the moment and I checked out JJ and I believe they picked the correct particular person. There’s only a high quality about him I believe that goes above and past.”
Redick continues to be evolving into who he’s as a coach. He’s nonetheless discovering his model. His voice. However this a lot is for positive: He’s an extremely exhausting employee. His basketball IQ is revered by everybody within the locker room. After video games, Redick locks himself in a darkish basement and pores over movie. He’s a basketball sicko.
He undoubtedly will be described as intense, a top quality for which Riley was notorious.
Magic Johnson gave a handful of reporters a glimpse into how Riley ran his groups after the 8-foot, 510-pound statue of his former coach was unveiled in a star-studded ceremony Sunday.
“He didn’t allow us to take a day without work or a play off or a second off,” Johnson mentioned.
Johnson praised Riley for his masterful in-game changes, calling him “a visionary.” He additionally identified how a lot braveness it took for Riley to make Johnson the workforce’s No. 1 offensive possibility whereas he was nonetheless sharing a uniform with Abdul-Jabbar, who turned 35 in Riley’s first season as Lakers head coach.
“Maintain on, wait a minute, huh?” Johnson recalled his response being on the time. “A dude who was the best participant at the moment that ever performed the sport and also you’re going to go to him and say someone else goes to take the majority of the offense now?”
Johnson referred to as Riley fearless and difficult as nails.
He’d make the Lakers run for 40 minutes straight at practices. He’d make them do three-man weaves with out letting the ball contact the bottom. Over the summer time, he’d ship every participant a letter telling them how a lot he needed them to weigh. Then he’d weigh them publicly once they reported to coaching camp.
Riley particularly knew the right way to get underneath Johnson’s pores and skin. He’d present him highlights of Larry Fowl and Michael Jordan and say, “What are you gonna do?”
“Quickly as he did that, the button was going to go off on me and I’m going to have a triple-double,” Johnson mentioned. “That’s all he needed to do, simply put these two dudes up there and he knew I used to be going to go to a different degree.”
Riley led the Lakers to 4 championships from 1982-1988, and he ushered within the Showtime period. Below him, Johnson grew to become a three-time MVP. Johnson referred to as him “one of many best coaches who ever lived,” in addition to “the good man that’s ever placed on an Armani swimsuit.”
Redick, in the meantime, is simply in his second season as coach of the Lakers.
He’s nonetheless getting his toes moist. Final season, he vowed to guage himself by progress as a substitute of metrics. He led the Lakers to 3rd place within the Western Convention at 50-32 earlier than they had been eradicated by the Timberwolves within the first spherical.
Afterward, Redick was removed from patting himself on the again.
“I know I will be higher,” he mentioned. “And I do know I’ll get higher. I don’t essentially take any satisfaction from how the 12 months went. That’s to not say I’m not pleased with what the group was in a position to do and the way we had been in a position to determine issues on the fly and put ourselves able to have homecourt within the first spherical. However there’s all the time methods to get higher. And I can get quite a bit higher.”
This season, Redick has led the Lakers to fifth place within the West regardless of James, Doncic and Reaves solely taking part in 12 video games collectively due to accidents.
Redick continues to be changing into Redick.
However his potential is certainly via the roof. His evaluation of the sport is extremely sharp. When he was nonetheless internet hosting the “Thoughts the Sport” podcast with James earlier than he was employed by the Lakers, he’d dissect gamers and their strikes with surgeon-like precision.
Gamers reply to him. They respect him.
And he has navigated the tough line of serving to the 26-year-old Doncic change into the face of the workforce whereas the 41-year-old James continues to be the face of the league and one of many best gamers of all time. Whether or not he can change into a Riley-esque determine continues to be unknown.
Maybe it’s an unfair comparability, one that will set any fledgling coach up for disappointment.
However for now, Redick goes to have a reminder of who he aspires to be each time he reveals up for work. It stands tall in between bronzed figures of Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar. It has slicked-back hair, a tailor-made designer swimsuit and is an instance of greatness.
“It’s a handsome statue,” Redick mentioned.
