Lakers HC JJ Redick Highlights 1 ‘Glaring’ Difference Between the NBA and NFL After Attending Eagles-Chargers Game
Ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season, the storied Los Angeles Lakers franchise made one of the boldest and, frankly, head-scratching moves in the team’s history. The Lakers parted ways with head coach Darvin Ham and chose to take a chance on former NBA player-turned-head-coach JJ Redick, which drew a ton of skepticism and criticism, as it seemed like a baffling decision to bring in a first-time head coach.
However, Redick’s confidence didn’t waver, even with all the criticism and constant attention the move brought to the team, not exactly in the best light, as some believed the Lakers’ front office had hit an all-time low, with LeBron James, Redick’s podcast partner, seemingly calling the shots.
In the face of adversity, Redick was able to prove his ability to be a good head coach on the NBA level, with an impressive first season, which has carried over to his sophomore campaign, with the Lakers being one of the hottest teams in the league after 23 games.
Lakers Coach JJ Redick Reveals Distinct Difference Between the NBA and NFL
With the Lakers playing at an incredibly high level to start the 2025-26 campaign, Redick doesn’t appear to be a first-year fluke, as his team could very well be a legitimate title contender in the Western Conference.
That said, Redick has become a respected figure around the league regarding his coaching chops, which is why his opinion on the differences between the NBA and NFL is an interesting one, after he attended the Los Angeles Chargers’ game against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night at SoFi Stadium, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“In football, if you are an offensive lineman and you have a false start,” Redick said. “You are immediately shown on the television. If you are an offensive lineman and you allow an offensive guy to beat you to the outside and the quarterback then gets sacked, or a fumble is forced, you are immediately shown.
“Your mistakes are so glaring in that sport, and the Chargers completely outplayed the Eagles, but it is such a different sport in terms of the way they calculate things, so one play matters so much in that sport. And so there’s an urgency on every possession because if you mess up, you can give up seven points and you may not score seven points. You may only get two field goals.
“So in basketball, there’s 200 possessions in a game. Hey, if I mess up five times, who cares? As long as I’m good on the other 45 that I’m in the game. It’s just a weird thing.
“Then there’s the shift that I’ve seen, this is not our team, it’s just the league, the shift that I’ve seen is these guys read every single thing about them. They read every single good thing that’s said about them … They read every bad thing that’s said about them.
“What has happened, I think, is guys now just value just did I play well or did I play poorly, and I’m going to feel really good if I played well because all these people are going to say nice things about me and if I play poorly I’m going to feel really bad because all these people are going to say really bad things about me.
“And so, getting guys to neutral and consistency every single day has just become incredibly difficult in our league.”
Redick’s perspective on the NFL and NBA, how the two sports differ from a player’s perspective, is interesting, to say the least, as he may be spot on with his analysis.
The mistakes of players in the NFL are highlighted immediately and seem more significant due to the high volume of crucial plays that occur over the course of a game, compared to the NBA, which has a considerably lower volume.
In the end, these are two completely different sports played at various speeds and flows, and can’t really be compared to one another. However, this is an interesting perspective from the second-year head coach.
