Lakers’ Redick, Thunder’s Daigneault share memories, link to Scott Brooks – Orange County Register
OKLAHOMA CITY — When JJ Redick first met Mark Daigneault, the present Lakers head coach was within the first chapter of his post-playing profession.
As an ESPN analyst, requested to dissect the ins and outs of the league, Redick spoke to the 2024 NBA Coach of the Year throughout a manufacturing assembly, receiving intel on the younger Oklahoma City Thunder squad that was growing right into a title contender. On Monday, in the course of the Thunder’s ultimate observe earlier than the best-of-seven second-round sequence in opposition to the Lakers started, Daigneault advised reporters that he had proven movie of Redick taking part in protection to his gamers – one thing Redick remembers from these ESPN pregame conferences.
“(Daigneault) pulled me aside afterwards and mentioned a very specific series that he was showing clips (of Redick) to a couple of guys,” Redick mentioned Tuesday earlier than Game 1 tipped off at Paycom Center. “I think probably because of how I look, I get labeled as like a duck. But I was a duck in my first two years, and I was a duck my last three years. But in between, I was a pretty good defender.”
Redick shared that he has solely ever proven one video of himself to his gamers, whereas making an attempt to present some extent about being prepared to take a cost in the course of the common season final yr.
“I showed a clip of me taking a charge on LeBron (James), catching his spin move and it was his left elbow that went into my eye, and I got nine stitches and a concussion,” Redick mentioned. “But that’s the only clip I’ve ever shown them of me.”
Daigneault and Redick not solely shared their quick tenure on reverse sides of the teaching spectrum – the coach-to-media interactions that Redick as soon as took half in – but in addition a shared colleague: Lakers assistant coach Scott Brooks.
When Brooks was the pinnacle coach of the Thunder, a place he held from 2008-2015, Daigneault was the pinnacle coach of the Thunder’s G League squad (Oklahoma City Blue) in the course of the finish of Brooks’ tenure. Diagneault shared at Monday’s observe that Brooks supplied him along with his first alternative to see how an NBA franchise was run, telling reporters that Brooks was “gracious” along with his entry.
“It was my first exposure to the NBA, and I was a G League coach,” Daigneault mentioned. “I had never coached a 24-second shot clock before or been a head coach. He was gracious enough to let me be around the team in training camp, and when there were home games, I’d be around, preseason stuff and their staff meetings. I knew nothing about the NBA at that time, and so everything that I was seeing was new to me. He opened the door.”
Redick mentioned when he was first “rumored” to be a prime candidate for the Lakers’ head coach job in the course of the 2024 offseason, his telephone buzzed repeatedly, alerting him to Brooks as a possible teaching workers addition.
“I was getting hit up by 20, 25 people across the NBA saying, you got to hire Scott Brooks,” Redick mentioned.
So, Redick took Brooks to a golf course in Los Angeles after turning into head coach – a pseudo-job interview, he mentioned – to decide if Brooks was the best match for his teaching workers.
Brooks, as Daigneault as soon as discovered, was the best match for Redick too.
“I felt like someone that if I was going to spend a lot of time around someone I wanted it to be Scott Brooks,” Redick mentioned. “He’s an amazing basketball coach. He’s an even better person, and he’s meant the world, not only just to me, but really everybody on our staff, particularly our younger coaches. He’s been an incredible mentor, an incredible sounding board and a great friend to all of us.”
