The Los Angeles Lakers have enjoyed a fine start to the season, sitting second in the Western Conference behind only the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder under the guidance of JJ Redick
00:05 ET, 10 Dec 2025Updated 00:09 ET, 10 Dec 2025
JJ Redick outlined why the modern NBA is difficult to coach in(Image: X @mcten)
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick insisted that keeping players “neutral” throughout the NBA season is more challenging due to the prevalence of social media.
Redick, whose career spanned 15 seasons, is showing he is from a slightly different generation of NBA stars. Last week, he visibly took issue with LeBron James’ on-court actions and has now broken down the effect of social media on coaching in the NBA.
Speaking to the media as the Lakers prepare to try and reach the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas, Redick philosophized about the additional requirements of coaching when players are so present on social media. He also addressed the differences in the value of each possession in the NBA versus the NFL.
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“This is not an evolution… in football, if you are an offensive lineman and have a false start, you are immediately shown on the television, right? If you are an offensive lineman and you allow a defensive guy to beat you to the outside and the quarterback gets sacked, or there’s a fumble, you’re immediately shown,” Redick told reporters.“Your mistakes are so glaring in that sport.
“The Chargers completely outplay the Eagles, but it’s such a different sport in terms of the way they calculate things, so one play matters so much in that sport. There is an urgency on every possession because if you mess up, you give up seven points, and you may not score seven points. You may only get two field goals.
“In basketball, there’s 200 possessions in a game, ‘Hey if I mess up five times, who cares, as long as I’m good on the other 45 in the game?’ It’s just a weird thing. The shift that I’ve seen is — this is not our team, this is just the league — these guys read every single thing about them. They read every single good thing that’s said about them, even if it’s @JoeSmith496842, and they read every single bad thing that’s said about them.
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Redick was frustrated with LeBron James against the Suns, but the King responded against the 76ers(Image: Getty Images)
“And so what has happened, I think, is guys now just value, ‘Did I play well or did I play poorly? And I’m going to feel really good if I played well because all these people are going to say nice things about me, and if I played poorly, I’m going to feel really bad because all these people are going to say really bad things about me.’
“Getting guys to neutral and consistency every single day has just become incredibly difficult in our league.”
It’s not just social media that has defined the modern NBA, but a perceived lack of grit or disdain toward opponents. Instead, many of this generation’s players are believed to be friends, which tends to frustrate old heads who recall a different league.
An example of this occurred when the Lakers, led by Redick, faced off against the Phoenix Suns. With under one minute to go in the third quarter and the Lakers down 94-73, Redick shouted to get James‘ attention as Los Angeles attempted to run a play for the NBA star.
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But James was talking with members of the Suns bench, seemingly unable to hear Redick’s cries. Seeing his star disengaged during the play, Redick burned a timeout to get James’ head back in the game as Los Angeles hoped to make it a more manageable deficit.
As players walked back to their respective benches, James continued to talk with Phoenix’s players, and the camera panned to show Redick just shaking his head in what ultimately was a double-digit loss.
James’ double-digit scoring streak came to an end days later, but the King hit back with a stellar 29-point showing in the win over the Philadelphia 76ers. With James potentially hit by a fresh injury, Redick’s 17-6 Lakers will host the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup quarterfinals in their next game on Wednesday, Dec. 10.