J.J. Redick has gone through a whirlwind of an offseason, one which many free agents felt after a furious run of signings in the first three days of the month.
Having signed a one-year, $23 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, the former L.A. Clippers sharpshooter put a few impending questions to rest.
“Probably there was some ignorant people questioning my loyalty,” said Redick in his popular podcast “The Chronicles of Redick”, which has now switched from The Vertical to Uninterrupted. “Going back to the Clippers was honestly just not an option.”
“I kinda figured last summer when they signed Austin (Rivers) and Jamal (Crawford), they basically had guaranteed $25 million in salary for this upcoming season and I knew they weren't gonna be able to commit financially long-term to a third shooting guard at a high rate. It's just unrealistic.”
Redick was also aware of the limitations the franchise would have while trying to retain a max player in Blake Griffin and deal with the unloading of several players in return for Chris Paul, knowing full well a departure was inevitable.
“You can't have $30, $40 million at one position, especially when you have max players on the team. So on June 29, Lawrence Frank was nice enough, professional enough to give me a call — I call it my ‘break-up call' — he said basically ‘we're not gonna bring you back.'”
The Duke marksman also shed light in the change from his iconic jersey number, being forced to change it to No. 17 during his starting stint with Philly.
“Seventeen is a very random number,” Redick admitted, having worn his signature No. 4 since his high school and AAU days. “Basically I requested ‘four' — Bryan Colangelo told me that four was being retired, I believe Dolph Schayes wore No. 4 and that was not an option, so I had to go to double digits and 17 looked kinda cool, basically.”
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