The Los Angeles Lakers' head coach, JJ Redick , recently appeared at the Summit Sportsplex in Roanoke County, Virginia. He addressed over 500 local kids in his return to Star City after 13 years. Subsequently, he also spoke to WDBJ7 about his basketball journey.
"This journey has been beyond my wildest dreams, and I'm pinching myself every day that I'm at Duke with Coach K; I'm pinching myself every day I'm in an NBA locker room, and I'm pinching myself now every day that I get to coach the Lakers," Redick said .
He also hopes to inspire the next generation through his journey and his story.
"Hopefully they got something out of it, hopefully they were inspired," Redick said of his address to the crowd. "They got some insight into me and my story and how I've been able to get to where I'm at."
JJ Redick's association with basketball goes back nearly three decades now, when he first started attending Cave Spring in Virginia. He was later selected for the McDonald's All-American Game, which helped Duke scout him to play for the legendary Coach K.
Following a four-year career at Duke where he won back-to-back National Player of the Year awards (formerly known as the Rupp Trophy), he was drafted 11th overall in the first round of the 2006 NBA Draft by the Magic .
That began his 15-year NBA career, where he averaged 12.8 points, 2.0 assists, and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 44.7% from the field and 41.5% from the three-point range.
His former teammate from Cave Spring, Kevin Connelly, is the co-founder of the Summit Sportsplex, and he admitted that Redick's return was about more than just reuniting after years.
"To bring him here had less to do with my relationship with JJ than it did with, 'How can we impact these kids, right? How can we make a difference with these kids?'" Connelly said.
Just three years after his retirement, Redick was hired by the Lakers as their head coach in 2024 and has since become a key public figure that the young kids look up to. In his address to the crowd, he shared an inspiring message for the kids.
"Find your own dream. Find it. Work at it. Over and over and over again," Redick told the students. "Learn to love failure. Eventually, you won't be afraid of failure."
What sets most athletes apart from other kinds of public figures is their consideration of the next generation. JJ Redick's journey from a young basketball player from Virginia to a star at Duke, an NBA veteran, and the head coach of the Lakers exemplifies tenacity and drive.
Redick wants to teach the next generation of athletes that dreams are worthwhile, and that failure is a necessary part of the journey.
