ESPN NBA analyst and prolific podcast host JJ Redick is trying to be the change he wants to see in basketball media.
He was just promoted to the top NBA broadcast team at ESPN and hosts the most popular basketball interview show online. Most recently, he launched a podcast with LeBron James called Mind the Game that might as well be titled AP Basketball — it’s a class as much as content. But while most people might think Redick is on a mission to overhaul mainstream sports media, he views his mission as taking the baton from a former legend who inspired him.
In an interview Monday on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Redick opened up about the passing of the late Kobe Bryant in early 2020, which inspired him to pursue opportunities for deep basketball talk with great players on the biggest possible platforms.
“This is an opportunity for any basketball fan to listen to one of the greatest players ever talk about the game of basketball,” Redick said. “We saw that for a few years with Kobe. And god rest his soul, him being gone, there’s a void there. How many of the [other] all-time greats are talking about the game? I don’t know if there’s anybody.”
So when the opportunity materialized for Redick to cohost Mind the Game with the greatest active player in the NBA, it was a no-brainer.
“I’ve always had a deep appreciation of LeBron and the mental side of his game,” Redick said. “These guys think the game, and they court-map the game at a different level. And there are certain coaches now that I get to interview now before games … these guys think about this differently. There’s a lot of joy that I get out of that.”
Bryant brought that mental side to life with Detail, his brilliant video series on ESPN+ that breaks down and narrates game films of the greatest men’s and women’s players in the game.
Redick explained that when he retired in 2021 and joined ESPN, he viewed it as his mission to explain to sports fans the “why” behind what they were seeing on the basketball court. With James, he gets to do that at the highest possible level.
“I want to help explain the ‘why,'” Redick explained. “That’s essentially what this show is.”
Mind the Game airs weekly, while Redick’s Old Man & the Three show features weekly interviews with active NBA players like Luka Doncic or Devin Booker, as well as retired stars and coaches.
Redick will call the NBA Finals with Mike Breen and Doris Burke later this spring.
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on YouTube]
