JJ Redick Media Availability – July 18, 2020
On how enjoyable has it been as a team to see Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball improve over the course of season:
“I think both those guys have taken steps forward. The scary thing is they probably haven’t reached their ceiling yet. They’re such young players and have such physical gifts that they’re still learning how to use, but both those guys took huge steps forward. You saw BI (Brandon Ingram) make an All-Star Game and Lonzo will be an All-Star someday. So both those guys have such a bright future, and as their teammate it’s great to see them improve and play at such a high level.”
On if he made the playoffs all four years of his high school basketball career:
“Yes.”
On how much does it mean to continue his life-long streak of making the playoffs:
“I don’t know that It means anything to me because it’s just normal, and I don’t mean that in any sort of pretentious way. It’s what I’m accustomed to, is just playing deep into the season. When I had the two years in Orlando when we made the Finals and made the Conference Finals, that was pretty early on in my career. We had everybody under contract, and I thought it was just going to be an annual thing to play on the Magic and play in the Conference Finals. I haven’t been back to the Conference Finals since 2010. It’s nice to make the playoffs, but the deeper meaning for me is the pursuit of a championship. I’m at the end of the – towards the end of the road here, so (I’m) hoping that becomes a reality at some point.”
On if the uncertainty of the league during this pandemic has any effect on his decision to keep playing basketball:
“The answer is yes. First of all, I just turned 36, but I feel like I look at least 34 and a half. So I feel good still. I feel like I have years left in my body. As many of you know who have children and a family, as they get older and you start missing millstones, it becomes harder to be away from them. I think, as an athlete, you always want to have some sort of storybook ending. Most of us don’t get to have that…and so when you get towards the end, at least my thought process is, as I get towards the end you sort of examine things in the moment. Yeah, if there is uncertainty about next season and maybe even beyond that, it’s in the back of my mind about how much longer I want to play. I don’t know what ‘normal’ looks like for the foreseeable future. None of us do, and so you’re just examining it in real-time with the information you have.”
On the progress that the Pelicans have made in Orlando thus far and how much he is looking forward to playing against other teams:
“I think we’re in a good position. We’ve probably gotten up and down full-court and scrimmaged, I would imagine, as much as anybody. We’ve had eight days of live basketball with contact, so we’ve gotten after it. Trying to get our rhythm back, and I think we’ve made progress there. I said this the other day when it was like July 14th, and I was like, ‘Man, we’ve still got 16 more days until we play an actual game.’ So that’s in the back of your mind because we came down here to play basketball games and not just practice in convention centers. So we’re looking forward to, obviously, the scrimmages next week, but we’re really looking forward to the (July) 30th and getting going on these seeding games.”
On how the team is handling the NBA bubble after being there for ten days thus far:
“I get the sense that we’re in great spirits. I’ll say this again: I think the NBA has done an amazing job in pulling this thing off. I’m really excited to see what the arena atmosphere is like and what that feel is going to be like. I know we had some people in the organization go over there earlier today and check that out, and they said it was amazing. The NBA and the NBPA have worked extremely hard to pull this thing off. I’m grateful to be here, truthfully. I think for a lot of us, we just want to do our job. We want to do what we love and play basketball and being around your teammates and getting on the bus and talking (stuff) after practice…I mean that’s the normal, so we’re enjoying this.”
