The Los Angeles Lakers named JJ Redick as their 29th head coach a few days ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft. NBA icon and Laker legend Shaquille O'Neal recently weighed in on Redick's statement about LeBron James not being informed of his hiring as the Lakers' head coach.
JJ Redick was officially introduced by general manager Rob Pelinka on Monday as the new leader of the team. During his press conference, the former Duke standout noted that LeBron James had no role in or awareness of his hiring as the Lakers' head coach.
Shaq is calling cap
However, O'Neal doubts that the NBA's all-time leading scorer would let something like this happen without his awareness or input. The former Lakers superstar discussed this on a recent episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq.”
“Yeah, I'm starting a website called yeahright/*******.com,” Shaq said nonchalantly while his co-host Adam Lefkoe was cracking up.
“Everything goes through LeBron,” he continued. “They were doing a podcast together,” added Lefkoe, to which Shaq just answered, “Exactly.”
“I know that for a fact. Because in that position, as leadership, you get to know everything. So, I was in that seat for a long time. Nothing went without my permission. The only time something went down without my permission is when they cut my head and traded me. And then Kobe took over and nothing went down without his permission,” Shaq remarked.
Shaq is confident that every decision the Lakers have made since LeBron James joined the team in 2018 has been influenced by the star forward. However, he credited Redick for his professionalism in stating that LeBron had no involvement in his hiring.
“It’s professional of him to say that “we didn’t talk about it,” but yeah okay. Nobody believes that,” stressed Shaq.
JJ Redick has many things to prove with the Lakers
Many NBA fans recognize that Redick lacks coaching experience in the NBA or any other league, aside from coaching 4th graders. Despite this, the Lakers have shown strong confidence in him by appointing him as their head coach.
In an earlier part of the episode, Shaq discussed a need for Sam Cassell to get an opportunity as a head coach following Redick's hiring.
O'Neal took the opportunity to share his thoughts on the hiring of JJ Redick over Sam Cassell, who has been an assistant coach in the league since 2009, including contributing to the Boston Celtics' championship victory this year.
“It makes it look crazy that a guy with no experience can overshadow a guy like Sam Cassell, who's been in the league 15 years. No disrespect to JJ, but I think Sam should also get the same looks,” said Shaquille O'neal.
However, the Big Diesel still expressed his happiness for JJ Redick but also warned him that winning games is not enough stating, “Winning games will not be good enough. Expectations when you take that job, when you take the Miami Heat job, when you take a job where there’s a lot of talent, the expectation is to win championships.”
JJ Redick has a lot to prove next season, and one of the people he needs to impress is Shaq.
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