If you’ve followed basketball for the past two decades, you are very familiar with JJ Redick and likely have strong opinions about him.
Reddick had an accomplished career on the basketball court. The former national collegiate player of the year at Duke finished his NBA career ranked in the top 20 all-time among all NBA players in total 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage. He also ranks top-10 in career free-throw percentage.
But he has since become just as prolific and relevant off the court.
Redick was the first NBA player (and the second active pro athlete) to host a podcast during the regular season. He now appears on ESPN’s First Take and offers his unique perspective when he provides color commentary for NBA games on the ESPN/ABC telecast.
He was recently nominated for a Sports Emmy for Emerging On-Air Talent.
Redick caught up with us over Zoom to discuss his journey from becoming one of the all-time most hated players in college basketball (even though he doesn’t like to think of himself that way) to the beloved basketball media personality that he is now.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Has anyone improved their approval rating from college to where they are now than JJ Redick?
JJ Redick: I don’t really think about a character arc for myself. It seems a little narcissistic to do that. I certainly focus on my own personal growth and I have good times and bad times and like anyone else, good years and bad years. I was an [expletive] for a couple of years in college, my first two years. That’s where a lot of it comes from. I think playing at Duke is where a lot of that comes from. I think my slow start in the NBA eventually helped me. I was the butt of many a joke my first few years in the NBA. The sort of sticktoitiveness and the grit to carve out a place in the league and then to last fifteen years — I think any human being that looks at that objectively, I would respect them. At the very least, I would respect that journey.
How would you describe your journey from NBA player to Brooklyn media personality?
JJ Redick: As you probably know, I started podcasting about seven years ago. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I didn’t know what a podcast was before I started. The industry itself was much different back then. To some degree, I believe I benefited from being the first athlete to have a podcast. Although I had to lose my RSS feed when I left Yahoo then when I left Uninterrupted and then when I left The Ringer, because I was doing them on a decently regular basis prior to starting The Old Man & The Three, there was already enough ground coverage when we started ThreeFourTwo Productions. The timing, too. We were the only podcast going live from The Bubble.
Then, on top of that, you get better with enough reps. Anybody who has worked in the media will tell you that — whether that’s doing a studio show or calling a game or hosting a podcast, the more reps you get, the more comfortable you are. I know I am very conscientious of the actual content we are making. There is a lot of thought. I hope that comes across to viewers and listeners of our show. I think a lot of podcasts operate to get clicks. I really believe this in my heart having seen this in my heart for seven years: That is the opposite of how you should do a podcast. Some of the stuff with J.R. Smith, when we were talking about losing your identity when you retire from basketball or how he didn’t win until he started playing with LeBron in Cleveland, are really organic moments on podcasts. That, to me, is what gets clicks. It’s the natural flow. The interview with Damian Lillard is such a natural example of that. It’s just Dame being his authentic, real self. That’s my job to try to get the guest to a place of comfort where they can be that.
The media stuff that has happened is funny. There are a lot of people who don’t like me in the media. But generally, it’s because I’ve said something about your team that you didn’t like or I said something about your favorite player you didn’t like. I mean this sincerely: Whether it is just voting in awards or an appearance on ESPN’s First Take, I don’t have an agenda! There is no agenda here! I try to be an impartial observer of the game. I love basketball so much and I’ve loved basketball for thirty years now. For thirty of my 38 years on Earth, basketball (and now my kids and my wife) has been number one in my life. You talk about that obsession? I’m more obsessed with basketball now than I’ve ever been and I’m retired. It’s all-consuming for me. My goal is not to push an agenda. My goal is to be a steward for the game of basketball. I love it so much and I want, in thirty years, for basketball to be in a better place than it is today.
Who are some players you think have the potential to follow a similar career path?
JJ Redick: Oh, that’s a good question. There are the obvious ones to me. Draymond Green. He’s already a member. I’m so happy that Jamal Crawford dove in this year because I think he’s been fantastic. I really believe this with Jamal. His ceiling as a member of the media is so high because of the things I was just talking about: He loves the game. It’s all about the game for him. There is no agenda. There is no pushing a certain topic or narrative. He looks at the game and he tells you what he sees. There is nothing else.
Current players: I think Tyrese Haliburton and Mikal Bridges — I know we have them on the pod a lot and there is a reason for that. The maturity, the depth, the insight, the thoughtfulness, the basketball genius — they fit all that and they’re young guys and they’re charismatic. Of any of the young guys we’ve interviewed on the show, they fit the bill. Those two guys, if they wanted to when they’re done, they could crush it in the media space.
FTW: They’re not players but I’m glad you’re giving a platform to Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones on The Dunker Spot.
JJ Redick: It’s a big priority for us to help Nekias and Steve to grow that thing. It’s not just us. We’re working with Wondery and Amazon. We’re trying to elevate them. They’re fantastic. I’m looking forward to seeing where they are in a year.
Are there any players you think will eventually thrive as coaches?
JJ Redick: It’s funny because a lot of the guys who I played with that I thought would be coaches are already coaches, like Jared Dudley and Willie Green. For me, with Willie, I always thought he would either be a head coach or he is going to run a franchise. He is going to do one or the other. He’s that good. I think a lot of the guys who played with James Jones probably felt the same way.
It’s funny because when I finished with L.A., guys are either still playing who I don’t think would be good coaches or they’ve all now become coaches. Then, when I was in Philly and then New Orleans, I was the only old guy on the team. I would say Jrue Holiday! But I know that Jrue is just going to sit on his ranch out in Southern California on his compound and train and ride horses and go on walks with his wife and kids.
I've always wanted to ask you about the literature-inspired naming convention of your podcast and newsletter.
JJ Redick: First of all, I love Ernest Hemingway as a writer. I know he has a very unique style of writing. I haven’t read all of his books but I’ve read A Farewell to Arms and I’ve read For Whom The Bell Tolls and I’ve read The Old Man and the Sea. I’ve read a number of his books and some of them I’ve read a couple of times. When we were figuring out what to name the podcast, when we went out on our own and left The Ringer, one of Tommy Altar’s friends sent us a list of podcast titles. A lot of them were puns. There was one we loved. It was called Eat, Pray, Dunk. We may use that at some point for something else because I think we trademarked it.
But the one that really hit was The Old Man & The Three. I was an old man in the NBA. I shot 3-pointers. It seemed to fit. So when we started the newsletter, we threw around a couple of ideas but we landed on A Farewell to Takes. That is essentially what our newsletter is. Our newsletter is not clickbaity. It’s thoughtful. It’s very short and smart anecdotes about the NBA. We include some podcast content on there. We’ve got the Wine of the Week. It’s stuff we are observing about the NBA and it’s all based in fact. There’s nothing legacy about it.
We actually have a show, and this has been so fun for us, that we started with DraftKings on our YouTube channel. It’s exclusive to YouTube and DraftKings puts it on all their social stuff. It is called Islands in the League because Islands in the Stream was a short novel by Hemingway and it was sort of the precursor for The Old Man and the Sea. Islands in the Stream was a 3-act novel and when we created the show, we said let’s make it a 3-act show. So there is an opening monologue, which was my idea because we lose so much in the current discourse around the NBA. Everything happens so fast. Everybody gets so angry and so that section is really about a broad, historical trend about the NBA. I went back for the first episode all the way back to the very first All-Star Game in 1951 and then brought it back to how it impacts the game today.
Our Emmy Award-winning producer Jason Gallagher and I then come up with a second act which is generally a bit. We made a mockumentary of me trying to make an NBA comeback. There was a satire on the NBA referees. We have a lot of fun with this show. Then, for the third act, we bring on Josh Appelbaum from VSiN who is our resident sports betting expert and we talk about betting trends with DraftKings. It’s a 30-minute show. The show has been awesome. But it’s all Hemingway, man.
What exactly is your attachment to Hemingway?
JJ Redick: I read The Old Man and the Sea in fifth or sixth grade. It was a long, long time ago. I’ve always been a reader. I think my taste in literature in terms of fiction versus nonfiction changes depending on the season. I get obsessed with things. That’s really what it comes down to. I get obsessed with things. At one point, it was with watches. It was wine. It’s golf now. When I first got into wine, it was legitimately two or three years where every book I read was something wine related. I wanted to learn as much as I could about different wine regions and winemaking methods — whatever it may be. When I become obsessed, it becomes an encyclopedia up in this brain. It’s funny because you only have so much up here. So you have to let go of some stuff, too.
