NBA Legend Reveals Viral Story of Lakers New Coach JJ Redick

JJ Redick was once a very hated man.

Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

During the early years of JJ Redick's career, he was one of the most infamous players in basketball due to his time at Duke. While everyone loves being on the podcast of the Lakers' new head coach, it wasn't always that way - Carmelo Anthony knows firsthand.

Carmelo Anthony revealed a hilarious untold JJ Redick story during an episode of his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast. The story was centered around Kobe Bryant bullying a young JJ Redick during Team USA. Kobe was tired of Coach K praising Redick, so the Black Mamba took things into his own hands.

“JJ Reddick and Kob [Kobe Bryant] and Team USA.  We were preparing to go play against the Ginobilis’ and the Rudy Fernandez’s around the world.  Just JJ Reddick-type of style players. And I remember Kobe couldn't stand JJ Reddick. So he coming to practice and I hope somebody vouched for me on this story…Kobe took it personal against JJ Reddick in practice because he got tired of Coach K kept talking about JJ Reddick. Kobe took it very, very personal to the point where he was running through screens in practice. He was denying JJ the ball was fouling the shit out JJ. I'm like damn, why are you treating a young boy like that? F**k that motherf**ker. I'm like what's the problem? ‘Coach K keep talking about this motherfucker like he come up here to do something. Fuck this motherf**ker, I'm going to show you today.’  So I'm like yo look at this n****a man, this n****a is bugged out!  Why you chasing JJ like that? But I learned that's how you got to do these young n****as, like you got to show him shit is real. But also we were actually locked in. You know what I mean? But the fact that his competitiveness kicked in based off of what somebody else was saying.”

It's crazy to believe that around 20 years later, that same player Kobe Bryant bullied became the head coach of the team Kobe played for. JJ Redick's coaching job on the Los Angeles Lakers will be one of the hottest seats in the NBA, but also one of the most fascinating.