JJ Redick's former teammates and coaches explain why he's the perfect man to take over the Lakers

Before JJ Redick had thick skin, he had a skin problem.

When Redick was an 18-year-old freshman at Duke, his shoulders were covered in bad acne under his Duke jersey. ACC fans took notice.

When the sniper guard went to Virginia, a lot of them wore shirts with Redick's number on them. 4 on the front. They added another twist – red dots were spread across the top of her shoulder sleeves.

It was one of the few light-hearted incidents during the dark period of hecklers during Redick's college career. As he told ESPN, fans would call his brother names. They insinuated that they had had sex with his then twelve-year-old sister. A fan shouted “FU JJ” in the middle of the national anthem. He had to constantly change his phone number due to nasty calls from strangers at all hours of the night.

“We’re on campus, the woman putting cream cheese on your bagel in the lunch hall is talking to you,” Redick said on “Pardon My Take.” “I can’t escape this.”

Redick seriously considered quitting basketball midway through his sophomore year. Instead, he came up with a plan to defeat the trolls.

At first, Redick begged coach Mike Krzyzewski to break his rule banning singlets during games. Coach K relented and Redick wore a white T-shirt under his jersey for the rest of his time at Duke to hide his bad acne.

Second, Redick decided to take on the role of heel. He would goad hecklers for big threes. He was talking about the owner of the Baltimore Ravens when he helped Duke beat Maryland. And he backed it all up with a cocky confidence that bordered on arrogance.

Redick didn't know it at the time, but that thick skin was preparing him for one of the toughest coaching jobs in all of professional sports worldwide.

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If you want to know why Redick believes he can be successful in coaching, all you have to do is listen to his podcast.

“You only need two things,” he explained in 2021’s “The Old Man and the Three.”

“If you’re not a basketball genius, your players won’t respect you because the best players are basketball geniuses.”

“The second thing is interpersonal skills. That's all that matters. Honestly, being able to talk to the guys on and off the field.”

There's little doubt about how well Redick knows the game. TJ McConnell played alongside him in Philadelphia for two seasons and became like a second little brother to him. McConnell was amazed at Redick's breadth of knowledge.

“X and O are smart, JJ is one of the smartest I’ve ever seen,” McConnell noted.

In the second part, America's greatest villain became one of the league's most popular teammates. Towards the end of his career, he was a leading vote-getter for the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, as voted by his NBA peers.

Stan Van Gundy coached Redick at both the beginning and end of his career.

“JJ really had to earn the respect of his teammates,” Van Gundy said. “You come from Duke and have a great reputation. There are some people who aren’t automatically attracted to you.”

By the end of his seven seasons with the Magic, Redick had convinced even the toughest skeptics.

“JJ was the guy that everyone trusted and looked up to because of what he had done,” Van Gundy said.

McConnell believes Redick has a kind of superpower – the ability to show genuine interest in the passions of others.

“It's a great quality as a human being to be self-aware and not superficial when it comes to things that people are interested in,” McConnell noted. “He needs time to really learn about you.”

Redick has always been “a connector,” as McConnell calls it, able to bridge gaps between people.

“When we were in college, he was really into rapping and writing rhymes,” recalls Redick’s former Duke and Magic teammate Chris Duhon.

Duhon and Redick did freestyle rap with their Duke teammates. Redick imitated his favorite rapper Eminem and rhymed Duhon and the others.

“He wasn’t bad,” laughs Duhon. “He was decent.”

Redick has a long list of passions. He began writing poetry in middle school. He is a big fan of Hemingway. At various times he was obsessed with luxury watches, wine and golf. He taught himself how to rise to the top of the NBA media world and build a podcast empire.

“It shows how smart he was and how creative his mind is,” Duhon said. “He knows how to deal with people.”

“He’s a smart guy with a lot of interests, so he can talk about a lot of things,” Van Gundy said. “He cared about his teammates. It wasn’t always just basketball.”

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No one exemplifies Redick's ability to charm more than his bitter college rival, Chris Paul. The two hated each other so much that Redick touched Paul during Michael Jordan's 2004 basketball camp.

“When I say I'm not like JJ, I can't stand JJ,” Paul told the Draymond Green podcast about that time.

Redick and Paul buried the hatchet and became good friends as Clipper teammates. As Redick told Bleacher Report's Taylor Rooks, the catalyst for this friendship was a shared interest in one of Paul's favorite TV shows at the time, Scandal. The two of them met ceremoniously every week with their wives, drank wine and watched the latest episode in Paul's theater room.

Redick never considered coaching until he came to the Mavs in a trade late in his career. He only played a few games before getting injured and unable to play. In Dallas, without his family, he learned to connect with a whole different group of people – the coaching staff.

“He was more interested in the strategy as we went into the playoff series with the Clippers, matchups, adjustments, things like that,” Carlisle said. “Maybe that whetted his appetite.”

Redick was praised for his preparation

There is a third great coaching quality that Redick possesses that is fundamental to his personality. His preparation is second to none.

LeBron James described Redick's first practice as “very detail-oriented.” Austin Reaves noted, “Lots of attention to detail and structure, it's beautiful.”

“I’m not a comparison guy,” Cam Reddish told Jacob Rude that day, “but so far it’s been very detail-oriented.”

“When we were teammates in Orlando, it was like he came from the military,” Duhon said. “Everything was planned. Do specific things at a specific time every day. That's why he became a great NBA player by sticking to a routine. Nobody could stop him.”

Redick's discipline allowed him to succeed in the NBA. He carefully studied scouting reports and was able to stay on the field defensively.

Van Gundy remembered when Redick replaced injured starter Courtney Lee during a playoff series against the Celtics. Redick's job was to stick with All-Star Ray Allen, who shot just 13 percent from 3 in that series.

“Everything we talked about in terms of where to force Allen, when to contain him, when to not help him and when to rein in his fakes, JJ did. He made virtually no mistakes.”

Redick extends this meticulousness to the building of his relationships. Years ago, he introduced McConnell to the world of wine. McConnell would occasionally text Redick about the wine list at restaurants and ask him what he should choose. But he learned to give Redick a few hours before getting his recommendation. This gave Redick the time he needed to find the perfect fit.

Another time, McConnell told Redick that he was going to Italy for his honeymoon.

“JJ basically came back with a PowerPoint presentation of where I needed to go. What we have to do. Go to this place? Get this wine. Go here, get this pasta, here get this ice cream.”

“He really cares about relationships, and with his understanding of basketball, there obviously aren’t many like him.”

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These days, Redick's shoulder acne is long gone. In his place is a skin thick enough to ward off any criticism that is sure to come his way.

For predecessor Darvin Ham, who seemed overwhelmed in the middle of his final season, the flood of media was at times too much. “I'm tired of people living and dying at every single game. Actually, it’s ridiculous,” Ham told reporters in those final days.

Redick takes a different approach. He's heard it all and won't be as unprepared as he was as a teenager in Virginia.

In Redick's first press conference with the Lakers, he was asked if he could clear up any misconceptions about himself.

“I really don’t care,” Redick replied. “Honestly, I want to coach the Lakers. I want to coach the team. I don't want to get anything out of the world. I want to be a great coach in the NBA. And I want to win championships. And I want my players to maximize their careers.”

“That’s all I care about.”