Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Key quotes from the Redick pod, for those who either don't wanna spend 54 minutes listening to JJ Redick talk about stuff, including stuff which has nothing to do with the Pelicans at times:
About the signing delay:
''It was almost ready to sign last week.. and then Tropical Storm Barry came through. Apparently the General Council of the Pelicans had to evacuate his family. Yeah, serious stuff. Hopefully everyone down in New Orleans is doing okay, and my wife and Knox and Kai [JJ's kids] and I are all excited to get down there at some point in the next couple of months.''
How much do you know about NO as a city?
''That's a great question. I feel like I know there's a very popular food culture there, some say the best in the U.S. [short discussion about maybe doing a spin-off podcast that's just about food]. I believe it was the birthplace of jazz, or at least maybe I've heard that, but there's obviously the Jazz Festival down there, Mardi Gras, of course. I know that they love their sports teams, particularly the Saints, and we're hoping to bring some of that energy to the Pelicans. I know that they've had a couple of unfortunate storms come through, obviously Hurricane Katrina was in the fall of my senior year. You know, I've talked to CP about this because that was supposed to be his rookie year and he ended up having to go to OKC that year because of Katrina. So it's a place that, you know, I feel like is on the up-and-up, there's a lot of excitement about the team, obviously getting Zion is huge.
One other thing I know about New Orleans is that there's a big entertainment industry down there. Shows, movies, etc, there's a lot of things that are being filmed down there. One time I was leaving Cochon, which is a Donald Link restaurant, with Blake Griffin and Spencer Hawes, and we were walking back to our hotel and we saw a set, and Blake decided to walk on the set and act like he belonged there. It was a James Patterson book show on CBS, I don't think it lasted very long, I don't think it made it to the end of the first season, but that was an interesting experience. [...] Also, there's kind of that historical aspect to the city, because of, you know, the French influence and it being a sort of Naval hub at one point, so there's a lot of stuff going on. I'm excited to explore and get to know the city and know all the awesome people down there. Shout out Drew Brees.''
Talk about how free agency works. You don't need to go to New Orleans to sign, right?
''Yeah, so, it's funny cause there's been a lot of people even in the last two week who have reached out to me and been like, 'hey are you selling your place in Brooklyn', or 'hey are you already down in New Orleans?'. The answer to that is no, and no. So, basically we came out here as a family for the month of July to the Hamptons, and when I committed to Griff and Trajan Langdon during free agency Griff was like, 'hey do you wanna come down for a press conference, or come out to Vegas, or down to New Orleans, or whatever', and I said to him verbatim, I was like, 'I don't mind doing that, and if it's important to you guys, I'd be happy to come down but my preference would be to just maximise this family time'. But I did have to go, I took a car to New York last week for the full day, and I had three physicals and an MRI that I had to do for New Orleans. They outsourced the doctors, the Ortho guy was the Nets' guy, and the medical doctor was the Knicks' doctor, and I had to do my stress test for my heart and get an MRI, so I had to do all that.''
Thoughts about committing to a contract and then it taking two weeks to actually get signed
''Look, I thought for sure that I would retire in Philly. I thought that, and that was even a conversation that I had with Josh Harris. Sometimes the economics of things don't work out, and even prior to those conversations when I had heard that New Orleans might be a possibility, there was a genuine excitement that I had, this was not just me saying 'oh I'm just gonna go take whatever money', this was, 'oh I think this is a great basketball fit, it's a team on the up-swing, there's a lot of excitement around Zion and all the other young guys they got in the AD trade, and obviously the other kids they drafted looked awesome in Summer League as well', so I'm excited about that. And then the other big component of that was Jrue, Jrue Holiday. Jrue and I spoke before free agency - is that tampering? I don't know, they don't enforce it anymore, [...] - but we just chatted on the phone and I told him like, man, you're one of my favourite players in the NBA and I truly mean that, he's someone I've just respected and admired as a person and as a player for a long time, so as much as it was the young guys and the opportunity to sort of play that mentoring role and all that, a big part of it was the opportunity to get to play with Jrue, that was a huge piece of it.''
How much do you know about some of their young guys?
''Obviously I know, I watched Zion a ton at Duke, as many games as I probably watched as a pro, maybe eight or ten games this year, all of the tournament games. I love his skillset and all, but what I love the most is the kind of person he is. Even before New Orleans had won the lottery, Coach K had called me right after we lost to Toronto and we were just chatting about RJ and Zion and he basically said that Zion is the best kid in the world. So again, that's exciting, to be able to work with someone and help someone as they navigate those first few years that's all ears and is open to things. [Tommy mentions how many Duke guys there are on the roster] Oh yeah, it's Duke South! Frank Jackson, Jahlil, me, Brandon, Zion, and then Trajan Langdon the GM. I mean, Trajan's only been there a few months, imagine what's gonna happen 5 years from now. We may have an all-Duke team.''
What is it like, having already committed to a team, and watching all of this crazy stuff happen in free agency?
''Okay, so, with respect to our own team, I was hoping we would get Derrick Favors. I had gotten wind that this Jazz/Bogdanovic thing was real after Mirotic had, you know, decided to do something else, so that means to clear that space Favors could be on the market. So I was hopeful we got him, so that was exciting.''
The roles of Griff and Trajan in recruiting:
''Yeah, so Trajan and I, I mean I've known Trajan for... jeez... 17 years now? I remember Trajan from when I was like, a freshman or sophomore at Duke. He was still an active player and he came back one summer during one of our summer camps and pulled me over into Coach K's office and we chatted for about three hours about life and how to better commit myself to being essentially what I've become. So he's been a friend for a long time, so in those dealings with New Orleans it's been mostly Trajan and then my agent and Griff have gone back and forth discussing the contract and working out the logistics of everything.''
What New Orleans food/restaurants are you most excited for?
''I think I've talked about this on the podcast before but the wood-fired grilled oysters with the chili butter sauce at Cochon are to die for. That, to me, and the butchers shop and sandwich place next door is incredible. There are a lot of places in New Orleans that I haven't really tried that are sort of the institutional places, [Tommy asks if he's done the beignets], at Café du Monde? Yeah I've done those. Many times. So, uh, there's a lot, I think, that I'm excited about and also when you're a visiting player and you're in town for a day and you're on a road-trip, generally you're not doing a ton of exploring. So some of the neighbourhoods, the garden district, and uptown and all that stuff that I haven't really spent any time in, I'm excited to explore.''
Terrible out of context food quote from JJ Redick here, found at 33:35 in the pod: ''a hotdog is a taco.''
When you go to a young team, how much of your role is mentoring?
''It's a good question, and I kind of went through it two years ago in Philly. My whole thing is if you walk into a locker room you've never been in before and immediately just start talking and acting like you're the expert on everything, that generally rubs people the wrong way. I've had some team mates that've done that. So that's just not my strategy at all, I like to get to know guys individually and the mentoring part, to me, has gotta be personal, it's gotta be more of a one-on-one relationship. And then the other component is how you work yourself and how you take care of yourself and people see that. Guys are smart. They see who's in the gym, who's not in the gym, who leaves right after practise, who gets to practise 10 minutes early, and who gets to practise two hours early. Who's in the treatment room every day, who's in the cold tub after every practise, by a month into the season you see all that stuff and that, to me, is as much mentoring as anything else. And as the season goes on you get the opportunity to share past experience and that can be helpful as well.''
That took a long time. Just note: Redick also said that he's looking forward to getting Pels guys on the Redick pod. He named Zion, Jrue, Lonzo, and Ingram.
thank you! I really don't mind it, a lot of the streams, press conferences, podcasts, etc, all come out here well after I'm finished with whatever stuff I have to do during the day, and I don't have any kids that I need to deal with or anything, so I always figure if I'm gonna watch the presser or listen to the pod, I might as well write up the stuff for people who either can't catch it, don't wanna spend an hour watching it, or want to have it written out later to refer to. That's an advantage my time-zone gives me
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