WHEN JJ REDICK ARRIVES AT THE ARENA, HE MIGHT APOLOGIZE TO KOBE AND WEST

If it’s odd to see him coaching the Lakers after his podcast appearance with LeBron James — he only has guided 9-year-olds — Redick should stop at the famous wall and wonder why he angered two legends

     He did coach AAU teams, on the elementary school level, and they might have been more mature than a LeBron James eruption. The question becomes how long a “Mind the Game” podcast lasts between JJ Redick, the new coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and James the broadcaster. Considering he only has led 9-year-olds and might have no idea how to maneuver a middling team through the NBA’s Western Conference, my response is three months.

     Or not much shorter than it will take him to become the latest coach fired by James, who hires them and dumps them, such as Frank Vogel after he won a championship and Darvin Ham after a trip to the final four and another playoff season.

     All we need to know is that two colossal banners, on the wall at Crypto.com Arena, should bother Redick. Jerry West died last week. It wasn’t long ago when he thrashed into the new coach, who said on ESPN that Hall of Famer Bob Cousy played against “plumbers and firemen.” Bad idea, JJ. Or “Just Joking,” as Bill Plaschke called him.

     Said West: “Tell me what his career looked like. What did he do that determined games? He averaged, what, 12 points a game in the league? Somewhere along the line, numbers count. JJ certainly wasn’t going to guard the elite players. And so you can nitpick anyone. The only reason I’m talking about him is, he was not an elite player.”

     There was more this week. Carmelo Anthony appeared on his own podcast and said Kobe Bryant — KOBE BRYANT!!! — “couldn’t stand” Redick as he tried out for Team USA before the 2008 Olympics. Mike Krzyzewski, Redick’s coach at Duke, was praising him during practice. “He got tired of Coach K talking about JJ Redick. Kob took it very, very personal,” Anthony said. “To the point he was running through screens in practice. He was denying JJ the ball. Fouling the s— out of JJ. I'm like, why are you treating the young boy like that?”

     To which Bryant said, “This motherf—— ain't letting JJ Redick score in practice.”

     So, Redick shouldn’t expect to be greeted with a warm home ovation in October. As he awaits the re-upping of James with the Lakers, who soon will choose son Bronny in the draft, we’re about to watch a post-career talker smiling passionately as he awaits LeBron’s responses to his podcast questions. They share glasses of wine, and it would shock me if Redick does anything but grin at LeBron during and after games. Does it matter how many games they win or how many listeners they nab? At one point, Redick said on the show, “I want to be clear here. This is a basketball show. This is a show with the intention and purpose to celebrate the game, promote the game, explain the game. LeBron and I are two people who, I would call us 'obsessed’ with the game of basketball, with this sport that has given so much to us.”

     Were they so obsessed that Redick pushed his way into the job? A first-time coach rarely makes it in the NBA, such as Steve Kerr. Most of them flop — Derek Fisher, Vinny Del Negro and Mark Jackson was dismissed by the Warriors before their dynasty, while Steve Nash was run out of Brooklyn by Kyrie Irving. I’m not sure what Redick will tell Anthony Davis about ruling the paint or how he’ll handle Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But the Lakers have had eight coaches since Phil Jackson left in 2011. Did Krzyzewski, who once rejected an offer in Los Angeles, inform Redick about the potential ills of finishing in 11th place?

     James should be ashamed. What does Redick know about coaching the Lakers that Ham did not? Or what Sam Cassell knows in Boston? Or Micah Nori in Minnesota? What, LeBron is so wowed by JJ’s “Xs and Os’’ knowledge? Most of it bored us on TV, where ESPN again must remake a lead broadcast crew and is making Mike Breen dizzy. As it is, Black coaches also are upset, with Stephen A. Smith reporting the podcast unnerved Ham. “Numerous coaches, Black coaches, called me expressing how they took issue with that podcast taking place,” he said. “Some of them felt very salty about that.”

     Dan Hurley knew what he was doing. He flew into the airport, checked out Manhattan Beach with his wife, then flew home and rejected a $70 million offer. He can’t win in this gig. JJ Redick will not win in this gig.

     And when he enters the arena and passes the statues — Bryant, West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Elgin Baylor and Chick Hearn — he might want to pause and apologize. Why did he anger West and Kobe?

     Why is he here? Because LeBron needs subscribers?

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.