Earlier in the National Basketball League regular season, Doc Rivers was hired by the Milwaukee Bucks to serve as the new head coach of the team, thus ending his short-lived tenure as a lead basketball analyst for the NBA on ESPN. Redick, who was originally part of another broadcast team for the network, was added to the lead broadcast with play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, analyst Doris Burke and reporter Lisa Salters.
Redick will be on the call for the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals this season for the first time, something he had always wanted to do but is surprised that is happening so quickly. In a recent appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Redick expounded on his logic about calling NBA games.
Redick is involved in a variety of endeavors outside of broadcasting NBA games, including making appearances as an analyst on various ESPN studio programs such as First Take and NBA Today. Moreover, he has his own media company – ThreeFourTwo Productions – through which he has co-hosted his podcast, The Old Man and the Three, alongside Tommy Alter since August 2020. Redic also recently started the Mind the Game podcast with NBA all-time scoring leader and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James last month.
“I would say the best thing for me, truthfully, is calling games,” Redick said. “There’s nothing like it because you do get that closeness to the game and you also get a little bit of that performance anxiety that you had as a player right before you do the live intro and right before as they’re doing the National Anthem and the starting lineup and [the] producer’s in your ear [saying], ‘90 to tease.’ Whatever it may be, that feeling is something that is hard to replicate and probably isn’t at the same level as when I played basketball, but I feel that performance anxiety when I get to call a game, and that’s really fun.”
Over his years working as a host and reporter, Le Batard has seen various athletes step away from the game and struggle with retirement. There have been certain people that have handled it better than others, he stated, but there are other times when self-worth and identity are closely tied to what they did as an athlete. Le Batard asked Redick what his experience with retirement has been like, prompting him to tell a story about his final year in the NBA.
After spending six weeks in the bubble to conclude the pandemic-stricken 2019-2020 NBA season, Redick was back on the road in December in Tampa, Fla. to play the Toronto Raptors on Christmas Day. Redick, then a member of the New Orleans Pelicans, received a video from his wife of their son running downstairs to open up presents under the Christmas tree, a moment he remembers immediately letting go.
“Doc Rivers always talks about this internal battle that we face as players within a game, and we certainly face that a little bit as we get towards the end of our career,” Redick said. “You can’t let go of the rope. You’re in this tug of war – you can’t let go – and at that moment I let go. I really struggled through that entire season.”
Redick remembers speaking to his parents on New Year’s Day and learning that they evinced something was not right with their son upon watching his last several games. Off of that observation, he began to weep that he wanted to go home and was unable to because he could not effectively let go. Following working with his performance coach/therapist for several months, Redick was able to let go and found a way to cease playing the game of basketball. Over the last several years, he has continued to elevate his workload in sports media and has quickly gained a reputation for being an insightful, credible analyst.
“I was fortunate and lucky in some ways just due to timing,” Redick said. “Because I was one of the first guys who had started this player podcast revolution, I had a podcast. I was already going to be doing that podcast – I had one year left on my deal with [Cadence13] at the time – and I got asked by Dave Roberts and my agent – they really pitched me hard on doing a year contract with ESPN. It gave me something to do; it gave me a sense of purpose.”
