JJ Redick’s answer to one recent question from his high school basketball coach in Roanoke County might have been all the inside information Billy Hicks needed to foreshadow the biggest news that unfolded in the sports world Thursday afternoon.
Redick’s name had been associated with the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coaching vacancy for several weeks, and when reports surfaced that the storied NBA franchise would sign the former Cave Spring High School star to a four-year contract, Hicks might have had a clue.
“I texted him not too long ago and said, ‘You know I hate the color purple,'” the former Cave Spring head coach said. “‘You need to let me know if I need to get some purple in my wardrobe.’ He laughed at the comment. I knew when he didn’t say, ‘No, you don’t have to get any purple,’ I knew it was pretty serious.”
While Redick never donned a purple-and-gold Lakers uniform during his 15-year NBA career, he now is tasked with putting the Lakers back in the hunt for their first NBA title since the shortened COVID-19 season in 2019-20.
Redick, who turns 40 on Monday, got the job after University of Connecticut head coach Danny Hurley rebuffed the Lakers by turning down a reported six-year, $70 million deal. Reports Thursday had Redick’s compensation in the $8 million per year range.
Redick is represented by Creative Artists Agency. One of his agents is former Cave Spring teammate Tom Hagan, who said Thursday he could not comment until the deal became “official” with the NBA.
Various NBA analysts on ESPN cited Redick’s “basketball IQ” as one reason he was hired despite having no experience outside of coaching his son’s recreation league team.
However, Redick has been very visible recently on multiple media platforms. His “Mind the Game” podcast with current Lakers legend LeBron James has drawn rave reviews, and he recently completed work as a courtside analyst on ESPN’s coverage of the NBA finals won by the Boston Celtics.
For those reasons and more, Hicks said he did not see his former player’s entrance into the NBA coaching ranks on the horizon.
“I’m not sure I did,” Hicks said from an airport while on a business trip in Birmingham, Alabama. “He and I talked about coaching a little bit, way back a long time ago. But then there were times he said he would never coach. I’m not shocked that he got the job. I am surprised that he’s going to coach.”
Redick, who was born in Cookeville, Tennessee, and lived in Charlottesville before his family moved to Roanoke County, led Cave Spring to the VHSL Class AAA boys basketball championship in 2002 by scoring 43 points in a 70-61 victory over George Wythe-Richmond at Liberty University in Lynchburg.
He set the ACC career scoring record of 2,769 points during a four-year career at Duke, where he was a two-time winner of the Rupp Award. He was named the Associated Press college basketball player of the year in 2006 after breaking the NCAA record for career 3-pointers, with 457.
He played for six NBA teams — the Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks — averaging 12.8 points.
When Redick retired after the 2021 season, he began a popular podcast called “The Old Man and the Three.”
Hicks is not the only person associated with Cave Spring’s 2002 state title who was not expecting Redick to enter the coaching profession.
“I’m a little surprised because I talked to him a lot when he was playing in the NBA, and he always had a lot of ideas for what he could do after he finished playing,” said former Cave Spring teammate and fellow 2002 graduate Daniel Payne. “He talked about a lot of things, and coaching was never super high up on the list. At the end of his career, the travel and the injuries were taking a toll on him right as his family was looking for some more stability and to see him more.
“He’s an integral part of the NBA now. He just finished calling the finals. The demand to hear from him, to hear his thoughts, it’s been fun to watch. It’s not a big surprise that a team would go after him.”
Payne said Redick’s basketball knowledge manifested itself on the court.
“JJ was helpful in terms of being a coach on the court,” said Payne, who is now an attorney based in Richmond. “If the defense changed, he would get us in the right play.”
Payne cited a crucial play late in a 2002 Group AAA quarterfinal against Heritage High of Newport News at Northside High School. Cave Spring trailed and needed a bucket as Heritage was playing a box-and-one defense with a man face-guarding Redick all over the court.
“We were all passing the ball around trying to find something, He was able to move and find a space and cut down the lane. I was in the corner with the ball, threw the ball into a tight spot. He was able to get an ‘and-1’ layup that put us up 2,” Payne said.
“Usually when they played box-and-one on JJ our senior year, he would just keep backing up until they stopped guarding him.”
Redick’s long-range shooting made him a VHSL and college basketball legend and kept him in the NBA until he was 37.
He scored a VHSL-record 111 points in three state tournament victories in 2002, along with a record eight 3-pointers in the championship game. Playing with plantar fascia injuries in both feet in the state final, Redick was hitting shots from the Liberty University logo.
“We were certainly keenly aware we were probably never going to see anything like it again,” Hicks said. “I don’t think we have, and there have been a lot of great players in the Roanoke Valley.
“There was a practice one time when we were coming off the floor and my brother said to me, ‘I don’t remember JJ missing a shot today.’ I said, ‘Aw, come on.’ He said, ‘I’m serious. I don’t think he missed a single shot the entire practice.'”
Payne said Redick, who was star pitcher as a youth baseball player, was a much better athlete than his earth-bound college and NBA game evidenced.
“We’d walk through the gym after classes to change for practice,” the former Knight said. “He’d have on boots and dress clothes and a book bag. He would grab a ball and just go up and dunk it. People would be very surprised to hear that. That wasn’t his calling card, but when you compared him to normal people, he was very athletic.”
Redick, a two-time ACC tournament MVP, led Duke to the 2004 NCAA semifinals where the Blue Devils lost to Connecticut after letting a second-half lead evaporate. A postseason showdown with then-coach Mike Krzyzewski awaited.
“That was the year he had some issues,” Hicks said. “He’d gained some weight. He still was performing really well on the floor, but not up to the standards that he could. He said Coach K brought him into the office and told him the reason he hadn’t won a national championship was he wasn’t championship-worthy. That his effort and his desire and his work ethic, he didn’t deserve to win a championship.
“He said that just crushed him. They accounted for all 24 hours of the day for him. They put him on a diet. No more Bojangles. No more sweet tea. No more staying out. No more pizza. That’s the year it flipped.
“That’s the year that Coach K flirted with [coaching] the Lakers. JJ told me if Coach K had left, he really would have considered transferring. That would have changed the whole course of basketball history.”
Redick developed into a college basketball superstar. Earlier this week Duke announced he will be inducted into the university’s sports hall of fame. He became a first-round pick by the Magic, going No. 11 overall.
In 2008-09, the Magic reached the NBA finals and Redick averaged 5.5 points in four losses to … the Lakers.
“I’m absolutely thrilled for him,” said Payne, speaking Thursday while on a business trip in Switzerland. “I’ve known him my whole life and it couldn’t happen to a better guy. He’s serious and professional, and I know he’ll do a great job.”
Pressure resides on the head coach of a franchise with 17 NBA championships, one fewer than Boston. Redick is the eighth Lakers coach since Phil Jackson retired in 2011, including the recently fired Darvin Ham.
“It’s nuts to think about the gravity of that and the impact that he could have on that,” Hicks said. “And it’s the Lakers, right? Other than the Celtics, it’s the most iconic franchise there is in the NBA.”
Some traits of successful coaches are shared no matter the level.
“It’s all about respect,” Hicks said. “He’s going to have the respect of the guys in the locker room right away, just because he’s one of them. JJ’s a really straight shooter. He’s not going to give them a bunch of word salad. He’s going to speak their language. He’s going to understand the grind of travel, the grind of being away from the family, the expectations in L.A. He played for the Clippers.
“It will be important to surround himself with good, experienced coaches. There’s a ton of those guys in the NBA that are lifers who have never been head coaches. He’s big into analytics, so he’ll have a top-notch analytics guy.”
No one is questioning the former Duke All-American’s intelligence, on or off the court.
“People forget, he’s super intelligent … double major at Duke,” Hicks said. “There were times where he was on the all-academic team in the ACC. And he always told me once he got in the NBA, ‘These guys all have their Ph.D. in basketball.’
“The people in the NBA are the smartest basketball people in the world. It’s a whole different level now. His understanding of basketball and the way it will be played and the way he’ll need to manipulate the chess pieces on the board, that will not be a problem for him.”
While James and Redick appear to have good chemistry on their podcast, there is no telling how the NBA’s all-time scoring leader will relate to his new coach.
“This is just my opinion on it,” Hicks said. “The very first time he and LeBron disagree on something, how that’s handled from there will determine what kind of coach he’s going to be.”
Hicks is wagering on his former player.
“The guy has thrived his whole life on doing things that people told him he couldn’t do: ‘There’s no way you’re going to play at Duke. There’s no way you can play in the NBA. There’s no way you can coach the Lakers and be successful.’
“I would never, ever bet against him.”