JJ Redick praised Doc Rivers at his first Lakers press conference — a few months after ripping him on ESPN

Former Sixer JJ Redick is stepping into his first head-coaching job next season with the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite his lack of experience, Redick said in his introductory news conference on Monday that many of his former coaches, including Doc Rivers, told him he would be a coach one day.

“There were certainly coaches that I had throughout my career that would say, ‘You’re going to coach someday.’ Doc was probably the first one that did that,” Redick said, adding that Rick Carlisle in Dallas was another later in his career.

“Doc was such a good motivator,” Redick said of what he learned from Rivers. “One of the things that I think he is particularly good at is creating a vision, communicating a vision, and then getting you to buy into that vision day after day. Now, those Clippers teams, we didn’t reach our ultimate vision, unfortunately, but that’s something that he was always so great at. He’s an incredible communicator.”

But just a few short months ago, Redick shared a different impression of Rivers as a basketball coach on ESPN, where he was part of the network’s lead NBA broadcast team. In February, during an appearance on First Take, Redick criticized Rivers for a lack of accountability after the Milwaukee Bucks struggled following the midseason hiring of Rivers, who took over after Adrian Griffin was fired despite a 30-13 record.

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“I’ve seen the trend for years,” Redick said Feb. 20. “The trend is always making excuses. Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of a season is hard. It’s hard. We get it. Just like getting traded in the middle of the season is hard for a player. We get it. But it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus.”

The clip of Redick’s rant instantly went viral, leading to responses from Rivers’ son, Austin, and Patrick Beverley, among others.

In a roundabout way, Redick becoming coach of the Lakers may be thanks to Rivers. The viral nature of his rant frustrated Redick, who felt it was his role to educate fans about basketball, but that fans were not as interested in that content as they claimed.

“This is the ecosystem we live in,” Redick said on the next day’s First Take. “I can do a video on my podcast where I break down the last nine games the Pelicans have used Zion Williamson as the primary ballhandler and what type of actions that has led to. I looked it up this morning: 54,000 views on YouTube. But, I want to call out a coach yesterday. Oh, that gets tens of millions of engagements. That’s the ecosystem we live in. So do fans actually want to be educated or not? Do they?”

Following that rant, Redick launched the Mind the Game podcast with Lakers superstar LeBron James, focused on delivering real basketball analysis to fans.

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Did Mind the Game help get Redick hired by the Lakers? General manager Rob Pelinka said James was “very supportive” but not “heavily involved” in the process and praised Redick as one of the “best basketball communicators out there.” So … yes and no?

Regardless, Redick’s podcasting days officially are on pause now that he’s a coach, meaning his time with Mind the Game and his long-running Old Man and the Three podcast has come to a close.

“For the time being … I am excommunicated from the content space,” Redick said. “There will be no podcasts.”