JJ Redick pulled a rage-quit on his pregame media session Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Lakers head coach Redick addressed reporters before Game 5 of his team’s first-round playoff series vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif. During the press conference, a reporter asked Redick if he would be leaning on his assistant coaches for substitution decisions in the fourth quarter. Redick was obviously bothered by the question and offered a heated response.
“Are you saying that because I’m inexperienced? That was an inexperienced decision that I made?” said Redick. “You think I don’t talk to my assistants about substitutions every single timeout?”
Redick then proceeded to end the press conference on the spot, storming out after saying, “That’s a weird assumption” and putting down the microphone. Here is the full video.
For context, Redick made a decision during Sunday’s Game 4, which the Lakers lost to the Timberwolves to go down in the series 3-1, that was widely criticized. He played the five-man unit of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, and Dorian Finney-Smith for the entire second half without making even a single substitution. That made Redick the very first head coach in the play-by-play era to play five players for an entire playoff half. The unit was also clearly gassed by the end of the game, blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead to lose 116-113.
Redick is in his first season as an NBA head coach and has multiple assistants on his staff who are much more experienced (including ex-head coaches Scott Brooks and Nate McMillan). But Redick clearly did not appreciate the suggestion that he went rogue in Game 4, especially since he was already very upset about the way that game ended in the first place.
