In total<\/a>, at least 31 people died. An estimated 13,000 homes were destroyed.<\/p>\nIn the 12 months since, Redick and his family bounced from hotels to short-term rentals and then back again to hotels. He and his family have vowed to rebuild the Palisades Recreation Center, where his sons once played youth sports. That effort continues this week with the foundation Redick co-founded, LA Sports Strong, hosting its largest fundraiser to date on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Following the Lakers\u2019 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on the first anniversary of the fires, Redick told The Athletic that the impact of the fire on his family and friends still lingers \u2014 and has even brought to light again the characteristics in the people he loves most.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you have to be reminded by the resilience of people,\u201d Redick said. \u201cWe\u2019re having a big event (Thursday). It\u2019s our first real large fundraising event for the rebuild of the rec center. We\u2019re making a lot of headway. And seeing families that have relocated multiple times over the last year \u2014 we had to as well \u2014 we were in a hotel for five and a half to 10 months before we ended up getting settled. \u2026 I told Chelsea today \u2026 I\u2019m proud of her, and I\u2019m proud of the kids, and I\u2019m proud of all our friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot for a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Redick and his family recently moved into a new home. Many of his friends and neighbors have not.<\/p>\n
As he reflected on the past year, Redick didn\u2019t revisit the horrific drive through the Palisades the morning after the fire, the difficult trip back with a reporter or the grief-filled nights inside hotel lobbies with friends who had lost everything. Instead, he spoke with some level of gratitude for his loved ones and their resilience through a defining period in their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first 10 days, you\u2019re devastated,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re in shock, and you\u2019re just trying to function in some ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some ways, Redick\u2019s family was fortunate. He said his sons\u2019 school wasn\u2019t impacted by the fires, so they had some sense of normalcy. His job, too, created an escape. But the devastation landed hardest at home \u2014 particularly for his wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for a long time, Chelsea, she wore it the hardest. And she\u2019s a mom, and what do moms want? They want to nest. They want to have a bed for their kids, and they want to have stuff up on the walls that show that this is where we live and this is where our family plays Rummikub together and watches stupid Netflix kid shows together. Like the disruption of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly all of their personal belongings, and the routines that had given the family comfort, were lost in the fires.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t really get normal again for a long time,\u201d Redick said. \u201cAnd I think a lot of people are still going through that. And that was the angst that we felt as a family. I know my boys felt it for months and months after. And it wasn\u2019t until we felt settled again. And even that took two to three weeks of, \u2018Oh, OK, we can actually turn off that valve of anxiety that we\u2019ve had for the last 10 months.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath of the fires, Redick became one of the public faces of the tragedy. He spoke emotionally about the rec center and the bonds he formed in the Palisades following the Lakers\u2019 first practice back after the fires. He was raw, and he promised to try to be a part of solutions.<\/p>\n
A year later, he remembered that sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked about our family. We were, we\u2019re gonna be fine,\u201d he remembered. \u201cWe were gonna go through the very specific challenges that our family was gonna face. And that was devastating and sad. And was emotional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the harder part, and it still is, it\u2019s like that sense of loss of community. \u2026 We still feel that. And all the people that we hung out with in Palisades, we still hang out with them all the time, but they\u2019re just not in the Palisades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stories like this, tied to the anniversary, remember the devastation. For Redick, the reminders are constant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certainly stories like us. Like, now we\u2019re settled. But I know so many people that aren\u2019t still settled,\u201d Redick said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s just amazing to see their \u2026 spirit and hope and optimism. We all have bad days, but the resiliency really just stuck out to me about everyone in that community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 JJ Redick\u2019s phone buzzed during the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 coaches meeting Wednesday in San Antonio,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,2284,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-525540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-lakers","12":"tag-lakers","13":"tag-lalakers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115861090841112407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}