LeBron James' 31-point near-triple-double on Tuesday against the Atlanta Hawks gave Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick another opportunity to effusively praise the king during the postgame presser. We've all learned when Redick has a chance to glaze his buddy Bron, he goes all in.
In the press conference, Redick passionately defended LeBron against his haters, reminding us all to feel bad for James.
"It's actually unfortunate how much this guy puts into it and how much he cares and the way certain people talk about him," Redick said.
Let's keep things real here. While Bron deserves all the credit in the world for the wondrous season he's having north of 40 years old, the Redick glazing is getting out of hand at this point, and it's a real problem for the Lakers.
JJ Redick's constant ego-boosting of LeBron is bad for the Lakers
Redick always goes out of his way to praise LeBron with these sweeping statements, and it always feels highly biased, unnecessary, and not productive to team chemistry. It's also a reminder that Redick and Bron are good friends, which complicates the head coach/player dynamic, and not in a good way.
Furthermore, it's worrisome that Redick's main message on Tuesday night with his LeBron monologue was that James is mistreated by the media and fans. Why is Redick concerning himself with this?
Public perception isn't something that successful head coaches need to care about or spend time worrying about. It doesn't have anything to do with their objective, which is to win games. If they do that, public perception takes care of itself. Perhaps Redick hasn't completely removed his broadcasting and podcasting hat yet.
Redick deserves time to keep acclimating himself to the job, but it's worth noting that there are coaches his age in the Western Conference doing more with far less. Redick has too much on his plate to be thinking about media narratives.
Instead, he should be constantly brainstorming a fix for LA's terrible defense or tinkering with rotation adjustments to arrive at a better on-court alchemy for his Lakers, who have look disjointed for much of the season.
Off-the-court stuff matters, too. When Redick is venting to the media about his team's effort on one night and then worshipping LeBron to the press the next, it might undermine the locker room.
Again, acknowledging Bron's greatness every now and then is totally fine. However, when Redick's affection for his friend begins to bleed into his duty as head coach of the Lakers, the hierarchy of accountability gets thrown out of whack.
Redick doesn't need to make major changes in his pressers, but a few small tweaks would go a long way. While you're deifying LeBron, throw in a jab about his declining defense as a way to remind everyone of the current task at hand.
When Redick waxes poetic about LeBron, he's letting the story of James's career feel more important than the 2025-26 Lakers season. By the way, Bron's career is more relevant than one average Lakers campaign in the context of basketball history, but it's Redick's job to act like the reverse is true.
The Lakers are paying Redick to win games now, not remind us of LeBron's greatness. JJ is capable of doing both, but he needs to start drawing the line somewhere.