Pat McAfee Didn’t Like How ESPN Coworkers Talked About JJ Redick and the Lakers’ Job

McAfee wondered if the criticism stemmed from pettiness from some at ESPN.

JJ Redick is set to become the next coach of the Los Angeles, which will be his first head coaching job of his career. The former NBA veteran has spent the past few years working at ESPN, including this past season when he became the No. 1 analyst on the network's NBA coverage.

That all made the talk leading up to, and after, his reported hiring a bit awkward on ESPN, with analysts questioning on different shows if Redick would be the right guy to take over the storied franchise.

Pat McAfee, who has a very popular daily show on ESPN, sounded off Friday on all those analysts who have been questioning Redick's chances of being successful as a head coach. McAfee, who hasn't been afraid to speak his mind about the inner workings of ESPN, didn't hold back, saying: "I don't appreciate or like how JJ Redick has been talked about by a lot of people who have been coworkers of JJ Redick."

"I don't appreciate or like how JJ Redick has been talked about by a lot of people who have been coworkers of JJ Redick." pic.twitter.com/QOxJZ3wJI0

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 21, 2024

He later added more and questioned if the criticisms stemmed from pettiness:

"Wouldn’t the people that had (Redick) on their show want people to believe that their show had the Los Angeles Lakers head coach on - none of the chatter made any sense around JJ Redick," McAfee said. "Is it because potentially they weren’t the ones that knew JJ Redick was maybe going to be the (the Lakers coach)? Is it the level of pettiness? Or is JJ Redick going to stink as a head coach? I guess that is what we’ll see and that’s what is being alleged seemingly by a lot of his former coworkers now at ESPN and around the sports media world.

But what if this guy is the next one? What if Joe Mazzulla and JJ Redick are the next batch of young coaches to take over the entire NBA? There is a chance, but that situation in LA is not the most desirable."

It will be interesting to see how Redick fares with his new job. And it will continue to be interesting to see how much McAfee doesn't mind calling out the network that pays him to do his job.