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Lakers coach JJ Redick says he’s ‘got a lot left to accomplish’ after 100th win

April 1, 2026

OKLAHOMA CITY — Lakers coach JJ Redick ran through a list of the team’s assorted milestones during a speech after a 127-113 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night.

He shouted out forward Rui Hachimura recording his 5,000th career point. Redick celebrated Luka Doncic’s historic month of March (one of just 10 NBA players to score 600 points in any month) to go along with reaching 15,000 career points. He mentioned the latest LeBron James milestone, the 41-year-old breaking the career wins record (regular season and playoff wins combined), passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

There was plenty to honor in the Lakers’ locker room – not to mention the team’s 50th win, the first time since Phil Jackson was coach that the Lakers (50-26) have had consecutive 50-win campaigns (2007-11). But Redick didn’t get to himself. In a video shared by the Lakers’ social media accounts on Wednesday morning, President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka interjected at the end of Redick’s postgame talk, holding the basketball behind his back.

“We have one more accolade tonight, but we got to roll the video first,” Pelinka said.

And that started the celebrations for Redick, who achieved his 100th career victory on Tuesday, the team having gone 15-2 in March. On the locker room television, Redick’s pre-teen sons, Knox and Kai, wished him congratulations as he turned visibly emotional over the sentiment arranged by the Lakers for his coaching milestone.

From that moment, the true celebrations could begin. In Indiana last week, a reporter asked Redick about his work/life balance; and if the idea of there being a balance is a lie or not. Redick responded by recalling a conversation he had with Pelinka during the interviewing process for the Lakers job.

“He’s like, ‘When are you going to watch film?’” Redick remembered. “And I said, ‘A lot. I’ll watch it throughout the day. But from 3 o’clock when my kids are out of school, to 8:30 when they go to bed, I’m not going to watch film.’”

For those five hours, Redick said, his family has his attention. That’s his balance, navigating the intensity of NBA coaching and fatherhood. If there’s an off day on the weekend, he said, his priority is attending his sons’ travel basketball tournaments, putting on his fan hat for his kids at their flag football games.

“There’s four burners on the stove and those four burners are work, health, family and friends – and it’s very hard to have all four burners going,” Redick said on March 18 in Houston. “For me, in-season, it is work and family.”

In recent weeks, the Lakers have become a family of their own on the court. Gone are the questions about the trio of stars’ production, or if their defensive traits could hold up against the better NBA teams.

Redick has the Lakers playing to their roles. Jake LaRavia is diving for loose balls. Austin Reaves is driving his way into contact and to the free-throw line as James’ high-IQ plays set up Luka Doncic for 40-point nights. Deandre Ayton is crashing the boards, while Marcus Smart sets the tone defensively.

“I think it was a confluence of things starting with health,” Redick said when asked about how the Lakers succeeded through arguably their toughest stretch of the season. “I think it’s much easier when you have a consistent stretch of health to – not even buy in – but settle into roles and minutes and rotations.

On Tuesday night, Redick reiterated multiple times during his postgame press conference that the team’s leadership comes from each individual on the team; not one or two players driving the Lakers’ rousing run toward the postseason. After the Lakers beat the Washington Wizards on Monday, James shared that he felt that the Lakers’ chemistry is “high” heading into April, a team firing on all cylinders coached by Redick, his former podcast co-host.

“We’re in a good place right now,” James said. “Everyone loves being around each other. We love playing for one another. We love being off the floor with one another. It’s a good tight-knit group and we got to carry that for the rest of the regular season.”

If the Lakers defeat the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (60-16) on Thursday night, Redick will have win No. 101; coaching the job he feels he was meant for.

His parents, as Redick put it, “were hippies who grew up out in the sticks.” They lived in Tennessee and Virginia. Redick’s father worked in pottery and was an artist. At some point, Redick said, his family needed to improve financially, and so his dad, Ken, became a counselor.

“Eventually, both him and my mom became life coaches,” Redick said. “And for most of the entirety that I played basketball, that’s how I’ve operated – with that mindset to help people, to coach people.”

Redick said that throughout his 15-year NBA playing career, he relished helping the younger players with the New Orleans Pelicans or Philadelphia 76ers, those stints coming during his final handful of seasons. The “natural extension” of Redick’s upbringing eventually paid dividends from veteran leader status into a fully-fledged coaching career despite never having served on an NBA staff.

When Redick interviewed for the Toronto Raptors’ head coach opening in 2023, a job that eventually went to Darko Rajakovic, he knew that becoming an NBA head coach was his future, meant for the type of person he would become.

“I left Toronto and said, ‘I wanna be an NBA coach,’” Redick said. “It was an obsession of mine for a full year and a half before I ever got the (Lakers job).”

Redick’s Lakers are now just three victories away from the most wins the franchise has had in a season since Jackson led the 2010-11 team to a 57-win campaign. The 41-year-old coach still has a long way to go before reaching the heights of Hall-of-Famers like Jackson or Pat Riley, another former player who transitioned from media personality to Lakers coach.

And he knows it.

“Don’t deserve to be mentioned along with Phil or Pat or any of those guys,” Redick said. “I’ve got a lot left to accomplish for sure.”

LAKERS AT THUNDER

When: Thursday, 6:30 p.m. PT

Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City

TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet, Prime Video, 710 AM

Orange County Register

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Lakers coach JJ Redick says he’s ‘got a lot left to accomplish’ after 100th win

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