The new NBA podcast cohosted by LeBron James and JJ Redick has the sports world talking, and Redick knew instantly in the studio that it would be a hit.
With nearly 400,000 subscribers on YouTube in just over a week, Mind the Game is racking up a massive audience along with chatter on nearly every basketball website, podcast, and social media community. The reason it comes as no surprise to Redick is that while the crew was recording the first couple of episodes, the ESPN NBA analyst said he was “floating.”
“Nothing surprised me,” Redick said on the latest Flagrant podcast with Andrew Schultz on Akaash Singh. “What’s interesting is we typically have seen LeBron in a press conference where he’s talking. To get him in that setting, he’s awesome at it.”
Redick also revealed a bit about how the project came together. James apparently reached out to set up a meeting in December between Redick and his ThreeFourTwo production company and James’ Uninterrupted group, and everyone hit it off.
“There’s always been a mutual level of respect as players, so we saw each other in December with the folks on his side and had a conversation, and that kind of just got the ball rolling,” Redick explained.
While the first episode debuted to great acclaim, Redick said episode two was when he really felt the magic.
“The second part of the conversation was the part where you’re in the room and you’re just floating, because it’s so pure,” he said on Flagrant.
The second episode of Mind the Game dropped on Wednesday. Redick said the plan is to record two episodes at a time, with new releases weekly.
