Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has long been seen as one of the game’s greatest basketball minds. His basketball IQ has been a topic of conversation among teammates and opponents alike, and former players have often praised his intelligence in their post-playing careers. Another one of those brilliant basketball minds currently taking over the NBA media landscape is JJ Redick.
The former 3-point specialist has carved an incredible media career for himself in the years since retiring from the NBA. His podcast “The Old Man and the Three” was an instant success, earning him widespread accolades and eventually a role with ESPN on their NBA broadcasting team.
So now, in a natural pairing, James and Redick are teaming up to start their own basketball-centric podcast entitled “Mind the Game.” The podcast is being produced by James’ Uninterrupted and Redick’s ThreeFourTwo Productions. It is meant to be an entirely basketball-centered conversation that currently has no advertising sponsors, a point that James is particularly excited about, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic:
“I’m really proud of what we’ve done to innovate in sports media,” James said in a statement to The Athletic. “… When I do a project, the only thing I think about is whether me and my friends would watch it. That is definitely the case with ‘Mind the Game.’ Everything doesn’t need to be designed for internet culture and clicks.”
Here is the official trailer for the podcast as well as another statement from James:
.@kingjames and @jj_redick are obsessed with basketball.
Consider their podcast, Mind the Game, a celebration of the sport as they discuss the state of the game, dissect X’s and O’s (like they do here), and wax poetic about the game they love. pic.twitter.com/lDf8ToVlHE
— Mind the Game (@mindthegamepod) March 18, 2024
Full episode up tomorrow. This is for everyone who truly loves our beautiful game. Shout out to @jj_redick for creating this with us. Wait until we add the visuals/clips to go along with it too! OMG 😱🤯🤯😁 https://t.co/mrAhW8c3bH
— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 18, 2024
Redick is thrilled about the prospect of teaming up with James to talk basketball, as he remains in awe of the way the Lakers star sees the game:
“The way he talks about the game, the way he communicates the game, it’s beautiful,” Redick said.
James’ business partner at Uninterrupted, Maverick Carter, spoke about why they decided to not doing any major sponsorship push and simply produce the show as is with the two companies:
“We don’t have to wait or partner with anybody if we have an amazing idea,” Carter said. “Those guys were just ready to go. They were ready to get in the room, and we didn’t want to overthink it, over-produce it.”
The first episode of “Mind the Game” debuts on Tuesday on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Episodes run once per week and are 45 minutes to an hour in length.
Teams still hopeful of landing LeBron James by drafting Bronny James
One of the last things LeBron James’ wish list is playing with his son Bronny in the NBA, although he has to make it to the league for that to happen.
Unfortunately, Bronny’s season did not go as expected, which puts in question if he will enter the 2024 NBA Draft or go back to school in hopes of improving his stock with a healthy season.
Following the recent conclusion of the Trojans’ season, Bronny’s decision is expected to be made soon, and the possibility of teams drafting him in order to sign LeBron is still out there.
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