ESPN anoints JJ Redick with a massive new role

The former player gets elevated to a top position despite joining ESPN less than three years ago.

Feb 13, 2024 - 00:30

0 11

ESPN anoints JJ Redick with a massive new role

JJ Redick retired from the NBA in September 2021 and joined ESPN a month later. And now he's about to call the NBA Finals.

ESPN is adding Redick to its lead broadcast team that already includes the legendary duo of Mike Breen and Doris Burke, according to a report by The Athletic. Burke was added into the team this past summer alongside Doc Rivers, but the latter left after just fifteen weeks to coach the Milwaukee Bucks.

Burke and Rivers were brought on to replace Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson who were let go by ESPN (DIS) in the summer after each calling well over a decade of NBA Finals games.

Redick, who played 15 years in the NBA, was originally included in the No. 2 broadcast team alongside play-by-play caller Ryan Ruocco and fellow longtime NBA veteran Richard Jefferson. ESPN is reportedly still figuring out whether it will replace Redick with another analyst or leave them as a pair.

The 39-year-old Redick has seen a gargantuan rise in the sports media scene, which actually started in 2016 when he became the first active NBA player to start a podcast. The former NBA sharpshooter has continued on with his podcast, "The Old Man and The Three," which has undergone several different iterations through the years, but he really rose to fame in sports media as a guest on "First Take."

He quickly began calling games for ESPN as well, paving the way for his inclusion into the network's No. 1 team due to the sudden opening.

It's worth noting that while Rivers left ESPN to return to coaching, Redick has publicly mentioned that he's had conversations with several NBA teams over the last few years about potentially coaching as well. But Redick has never coached on a professional or collegiate level — though he hilariously admits that he's enjoying coaching his nine-year-old son's basketball team in Brooklyn.