The NBA Finals are set to begin on Thursday between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks as both franchises try to add another league championship to their legacies. ESPN will broadcast the games on ABC with its lead announcing team of Mike Breen, Doris Burke, JJ Redick and Lisa Salters, the first time this combination will call the championship series. Yet a report on Tuesday from Shams Charania of The Athletic identified the Los Angeles Lakers “zeroing in” on Redick to be the next head coach of the team, portending a third change of the NBA on ESPN lead broadcasting team in two seasons. Fred Toucher provided his opinion on the situation surrounding Redick and The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) on Wednesday’s edition of Toucher & Hardy on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
Toucher believes that the NBA Finals series will end up attaining high ratings so long as it is not harmed by the week between the conclusion of the last round. Last year, the NBA Finals on ABC between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat averaged 11.64 million viewers, which was part of a five-year ratings high for the NBA Playoffs as a whole. There is part of the situation, he asserted, that would be most beneficial if Redick were to forsake his position entirely.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if JJ Redick offered to not do the games,” Toucher said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he said like, ‘Look, I’m not going to be able to say anything.’ Wouldn’t you? If the Lakers job was done and you knew you were taking it as soon as the Finals were over and you knew that you had a job that forced you to be critical of players that you could be coaching against or be coaching, wouldn’t you try to back out of that?”
Update anchor Jon Wallach articulated that he would continue with the plan to broadcast the NBA Finals because of the money he is being paid by the network. Toucher replied by stating that this could, in turn, have enduring effects that impact his ability to perform in a head coaching position with the Lakers.
“If you plan on being there for 10 years, right, a huge component of that new job is making it enticing for players who are not currently there to come there and play, so you can’t say anything bad about anybody,” co-host Rob “Hardy” Poole explained. “You don’t know who you might want three years down the road [or] who’s friends with who.”
Wallach added that he does not anticipate Redick being a member of the Lakers’ coaching staff in three years, linking his time to that of James. Outside of his work with ESPN, Redick owns and operates ThreeFourTwo Productions, through which he hosts both The Old Man and the Three podcast with Tommy Alter and the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James. The podcast with James started in mid-March, and it has led some people to classify it as an extended coaching interview with the team and part of the reason he seems poised to land the job with no NBA coaching experience. At the same time, James is able to opt out of his contract with the Lakers and become a free agent, rendering it unknown whether or not he will be back next season.
“JJ Redick is getting this job because he co-hosted a podcast with LeBron James,” Wallach said. “That’s why he’s getting this job.”
Redick appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub last week to discuss the NBA Finals with afternoon drive hosts Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti. At one point in the interview, Redick classified a point Felger made about being outworked in the NBA as an “asinine way” to talk about the league. Later in the show, Felger articulated that Redick did not seem interested in answering any questions and might have been being careful in what he said.
“It might be historic how bad he is,” Toucher said of Redick. “For all of you who took his side in the Felger & Mazz thing, you’re idiots. You’re really idiots, and you’re just searching for a way to hate on Felger & Mazz. He came on and said nothing.”
Poole stated that most people do not have a concern with doing their job on the way out for an employer when they are no longer going to be paid by the entity. As a result, he was wondering if Redick even cared about appearing on 98.5 The Sports Hub and talking about the impending matchup he will call for the first time.
“Look, if I loved basketball the way that JJ Redick probably loves basketball and wanted to be involved in the NBA for the rest of my life, I would be much more concerned about I wouldn’t want the open mic in front of me,” Toucher said. “Maybe he’s far more disciplined than me, but I wouldn’t want an open mic in front of me because I might just have a gut reaction to something and then I would be beating myself up after the game about how bad a job I did.”
With the report that the Lakers are focusing on Redick to be the next head coach of the organization, Toucher believes that his presence will ultimately cheapen the broadcast. The reason for him making this claim is because Redick could have a rooting interest in the game related to a potential future endeavor as a head coach.
“All of it seems bad – it just seems bad,” Toucher said. “It seems like he should bow out. There’s got to be someone else who can do it.”
