Clippers' J.J. Redick recounts NBA emoji battle, DeAndre Jordan saga

J.J. Redick called the NBA emoji battle "the best day on Twitter maybe ever."

Los Angeles Clippers guard J.J. Redick appeared on Zach Lowe's Grantland Podcast, The Lowe Post, on Thursday to discuss the DeAndre Jordan saga and the great NBA emoji battle of 2015.

Jordan, who had originally agreed to join the Mavericks, spurned Dallas to re-sign with the Clippers.

Redick said he was finishing up his weekly Tuesday morning swim class with his infant son when he saw a text message from Clippers coach Doc Rivers that read, "Call me ASAP." Soon enough, Redick was en route to Houston in a mission to convince Jordan to re-sign with Los Angeles. 

Redick said he was waiting for the Clippers' meeting with Jordan to start at a hotel suite when he whipped out his phone.

“I was already in Houston and was just kind of on my Twitter account and scrolling through my timeline and I saw a plane emoji. You know, Chandler Parsons to the rescue! Yay!” Redick recalled to Lowe. “And I’m just like, alright. We’re gonna tweet out a car. I’m already here.”

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The ensuing emoji battle comprised what Redick called "the best day on Twitter maybe ever." 

Redick described the meeting with Jordan as "less a pitch and more of just team building." 

The group proceeded to play spades on Jordan's kitchen table. 

“We're a close-knit group and we have been,” Redick told Lowe. “It's the closest team that I've ever been a part of in my nine years I've been in the NBA. I think his heart was in L.A.”

Redick was also confused by Paul Pierce's attempt at tweeting an emoji. 

“I still am unsure as to why it was a picture of a spaceship emoji and not just a spaceship emoji,” Redick told Lowe. “It still doesn't make sense to me.”

- Jake Fischer