Lakers' JJ Redick Responds to Viral Clip of Being Upset at D'Angelo Russell

Ricardo Sandoval | Nov 9, 2024

Nov 6, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick reacts during the second half against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

If you haven't noticed yet, Lakers head coach JJ Redick is a bit of a basketball junkie, but in a good way.

Redick has already displayed his firey energy on the bench, and we have caught him display that more than once in less than 10 games this season. Clearly, the 40-year-old head coach is here to win games and is serious about leading the Lakers back to where they belong.

So much so that sometimes, he needs to make the hard decisions, and that was evident on Friday when he decided to bench starting point guard D’Angelo Russell for forward Cam Reddish.

The move wasn't easy, but he felt it was necessary at this time. Many question why Redick made the move, but a clip of Redick from the previous game against the Memphis Grizzlies shows a play that may have caused Redick to bench Russell.

You could see Redick visibly upset about the possession, and he addressed it prior to the Lakers' match against the Philadephia 76ers on Friday night.

“To be clear, some of the younger staff members brought that to my attention this morning. I will say, first of all, basketball to me is an emotional game. I’m a competitive person, I’m a passionate person. Sometimes for a brief period of time, you lose control of that emotion,” Redick said. “It’s not the first time that it’s happened, I’ll be honest with you. Maybe it’s the first time that something like that was over Twitter. But it’s gonna happen again. It may happen two hours from now. That’s just the reality. I think about myself as a player, now as a coach, certainly when I watched NBA games and analyzed NBA games, I’m not a zombie. That’s like what we kind of refer to as a non-passionate, non-competitive, non-expressive people. I’m not a zombie. I don’t like seeing myself in that light. When I watched the video, I actually forgot it happened.

“But I want to be clear on something and DLo and I actually talked about this today. That was not directed at him. Yes, it came after I think a shot in the corner that he took, but there was 25 plays that preceded that from a number of different players. When you’re 1-3 on a road trip and you get to a point where you feel like you’re in a ballgame on the road and a play like that happens, you let out some emotion. But it was not directed at DLo. It was directed more at the series of plays for two-and-a-half quarters that preceded that. Not DLo’s shot.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bleacher Report (@bleacherreport)

Redick is here to win games, and that was evident in this move he deemed necessary.

Russell has been polarising throughout his career, and that has been evident in his time as a Laker.

With Russell in purple and gold, we've seen it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's unclear how much longer he will be here, but one thing is for sure: there will never be a dull moment.

Russell could likely come off the bench for some time. In his first game off the bench this season, he recorded 18 points, three assists, and two rebounds in 25 minutes of action.

More Lakers: Lakers' D'Angelo Russell Addresses JJ Redick's Demotion to Bench Role