BOSTON — Back in late September 2022, JJ Redick was heading to Cohasset, Mass., for a birthday trip for his best friend.
In the days leading up to the trip, Redick called Boston Celtics assistant general manager Austin Ainge and invited him to play golf with Redick and his friend. Three days before their golf outing, the Celtics, who had just suspended Ime Udoka for the season “for ‘multiple’ policy violations,” announced Joe Mazzulla would be their interim head coach.
Three days later, on Sept. 26, Mazzulla joined Redick, his friend and Ainge for a round at Old Sandwich Golf Club, a members-only club in a 3,000-acre forest estate in Plymouth, Mass.
Mazzulla, planning for the start of training camp in two days, made a compelling pitch to Redick to join the Celtics’ staff as an assistant coach. The day turned into Mazzulla and Redick talking about their basketball sensibilities and philosophies for 4 1/2 hours, through 18 holes and then into lunch.
“It was in those early stages of knowing I wanted to coach but not sure what the timing would look like,” Redick said ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 117-96 win over Boston on Jan. 23.
Redick declined Mazzulla’s offer and instead focused on continuing to build his ‘Old Man & The Three’ podcast and his TV analysis and commentating for ESPN.
But that didn’t stop Mazzulla from trying again. When former Celtics assistant coach Damon Stoudamire left in March to become the new head coach at Georgia Tech, Mazzulla reached out to Redick again, trying to convince him to take the opening.
“We had a couple talks about it,” Mazzulla said. “Definitely was interested in it. But I don’t know as far as where he was in that process. But you learn from each other. He’s an analytical mind, he thinks the game, thinks on his feet. He’s definitely someone you can learn from.”
The two discussed their bond in an appearance on Redick’s podcast in October 2023, just over a year after their initial meeting. During that season, which culminated in Redick being promoted to calling the Celtics’ championship victory in the 2024 NBA Finals, Redick complimented Mazzulla for his “thoughtfulness around the game” and “attention to detail.”
“I talk all the time about people that are truly obsessed with this game,” Redick said on his first ESPN broadcast with their lead team. “They are sickos. And Joe Mazzulla is an absolute sicko.”
“Sicko” is the highest form of compliment from Redick, who proudly labels himself a “basketball sicko” any chance he gets. Now, Redick describes Mazzulla as a “good friend.”
“We stayed in touch,” Redick said. “… The last two years, podcast included, and calling games and getting to see him. But particularly last year, we talked quite a bit on text after games and whatnot.”
When Redick prepared for his job interview with the Lakers, he consulted with several coaches, including Mazzulla and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, as well as former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was advising Lakers brass during the process.
Mazzulla and Redick are kindred spirits with how they see the game, both from a broader tactical approach and their obsession with the minutiae.
“When I was going through this process, he, along with a few other coaches in the NBA, were really helpful,” Redick said. “Not just in preparing for an interview, but just really helping me understand what this was and what it required.”
From his many podcast and media appearances to his opening news conference with the Lakers, it’s been clear how much “Mazzullaball” — Mazzulla’s 3-point-heavy offensive approach — has resonated with the Lakers’ coach. Redick’s modern, analytics-based approach to offense and defense was a breath of fresh air for the Lakers.
Mazzulla famously doesn’t fraternize during the season with opponents — including former coaches and players. He believes it dulls his edge. But he made an exception with Redick after finding out that Redick’s Pacific Palisades home burned down in the Los Angeles wildfires on Jan. 7.
“I have the utmost respect for him,” Mazzulla said. “He was sitting across from this table and then decided to enter the arena. I wish more people would do that. So the fact that he did that and wanted to be in the arena just shows how competitive he is.”
Since mid-January, the Lakers have won 20 of 24 games, with Redick emerging as a Coach of the Year candidate for the team’s defensive turnaround — from a bottom-10 defense for the first 2 1/2 months of the season to the best over the past seven weeks — and their steep ascent in the standings.
The Luka Dončić trade has actualized Redick’s vision for the team offensively, with the Lakers attempting 40 or more 3s in nine of the 10 games in which Doncic has played. (They had done so just seven times over the first 50 games of the season pre-Dončić debut.)
From a statistical perspective, the Lakers are closer to resembling the Celtics, ranking third in 3-point attempts per 100 possessions (Boston is first over that stretch), and increasing their offensive rebounding in an attempt to improve their margin for error.
“I just think he’s really smart,” Mazzulla said of Redick. “He has great self-awareness of what he’s great at, what he wants to work on. He’s willing to attack those things. We’ve had a good relationship. I’ve learned a lot from him as a coach and really as a person and as a player. Some of the stuff that he’s done as a player, you kind of replicate with some of the guys that we have. He’s a good example there.”
Saturday’s game against Boston is the latest measuring-stick game for the Lakers, who are on an eight-game win streak (and have won 12 straight games vs. teams .500 or better). It also marks the first time the Lakers and the Celtics have played each other while both were top-two seeds in their respective conferences this late into the season since 1985 (50-plus games). Dončić, who lost to the Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals, will face them for the first time this season.
The Celtics will be seeking revenge for the January loss to the Lakers. Mazzulla will surely be poring over the film for adjustments and Los Angeles’s weaknesses. The Lakers, meanwhile, are still trying to establish themselves in the Boston-Oklahoma City-Cleveland tier and finalize their new offense with Dončić. Redick knows Mazzulla as well as just about any opposing coach and will be anticipating his adjustments (and the adjustments to those adjustments and so forth).
It promises to be quite the clash between a couple of basketball sickos.
(Photo of JJ Redick: Jason Parkhurst / Imagn Images)
