Still Lurking for JJ Redick Closure, Bill Simmons Publicly Backs James Borrego for Lakers’ Coaching Job

It’s been over a month since the Los Angeles Lakers fired head coach Darvin Ham and the search for his replacement is still ongoing. The franchise even went so far as to make a $70 million offer to the UConn HC, Dan Hurley, but to no avail. With this move, former Orlando Magic player JJ Redick, who was once the top contender for the HC position, is now back in consideration. Unfortunately, Redick being back in the spotlight may have been the last thing his one-time podcast partner wanted.

Yes, that’s right. Bill Simmons, along with ESPN host Ryen Russiollo, discussed Lakers’ ongoing HC search and Redick’s contention. They believe that Hurley turning down the offer was “embarrassing” for the franchise. He felt this resulted from a lot of “different” information being circulated about the HC search. As a result, Simmons could not think that someone like JJ Redick, who has had no prior coaching experience to his name, could be considered the top pick. Therefore, the podcaster expressed his opinion on who deserves the top position.

“To say that Redick now moves to the forefront….and so I was like ‘Who’s ahead of him?’” said Simmons. “I guess Hurley was, and then where is (James) Borrego in all of this? Cause I just hope Borrego gets it, cause he’s a great coach”.

James Borrego, who currently serves as the assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans, is another individual whose candidacy got a boost after Hurley declined the job. Furthermore, Simmons is not the only one who has chosen to back him for head coach. In a recent report, veteran journalist Marc Stein wrote that the Lakers second-in-command, Anthony Davis, “probably prefers for James Borrego to get the job over Redick.” Unfortunately, Redick may have the backing of the lead scorer LeBron James himself, who is a co-host on the ‘Mind the Game’ podcast. Both candidates seem to possess an equal advantage in the race for HC.

Bill Simmons’s skepticism of JJ Redick may be justified because of the latter’s lack of experience. However, there may also be some hidden motive disguised beneath it. Simmons and Redick used to host ‘The Ringer’ podcast before the latter chose to exit the team. Years later, the former player would give an interview in which he talked about convincing ‘The Ringer’ to do video interviews. The success achieved from this shift caused Redick to state, “The realization was audio doesn’t go viral, video goes viral”. This allegedly hit Bill Simmons’s nerves. Highlighting Redick’s wordings on his X account, he wrote “You did 8 pod eps total in 2019. 3 had NBA guests. You started doing video pods on mid/Jan 2020 and the pandemic happened 7 weeks later. You never took the pod seriously until 2020 – that’s why it’s good.” This incident laid the foundation for a dislike from Bill Simmons, which he allegedly still hasn’t managed to close up.

Bill Simmons got personally offended by JJ Redick and LeBron James’ podcast

JJ Redick and LeBron James’ podcast ‘Mind the Game’ podcast gained instant traction. LeBron’s popularity, combined with JJ Redick’s deep basketball IQ, quickly got its first episode over 3.1 million views in just a week, while the second crossed the 200,000 mark within half a day. But Bill Simmons isn’t too impressed with this.

On one hand, he feels glad that the two members of the NBA fraternity are doing such a podcast together, but at the same time, he feels it can get too preachy. “The first 15 minutes of the pod, when they were lecturing everybody that basketball discourse is so bad so they’re here to save the day, I was personally offended. It was like, ‘Hey man, we’re trying. We’re trying to have some more basketball conversations.’”

While no criticism was made directly towards him, Simmons was still not happy with whatever was discussed. When Ryen Russillo further inquired about his state of mind when viewing the ‘Mind the Game’ episode, the 54-year-old stated, “There’s a lot of smart people trying to have conversations about basketball. We’ve been trying to do this for the last 15-20 years on podcasts”.

Before leaving, be sure to check out some insights that Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, shared about WNBA stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.