JJ Redick is officially a basketball analyst now since retiring from the NBA this season and, today, he’s catching flak like one.
Redick made the mistake of talking about his top-3 current NBA players on the Old Man and the Three while catching up with Joel Embiid. He very obviously was not prepared to do that, but fell into the conversation with Embiid after calling him a top 3 player.
Embiid asked who the other two players were. Redick responded with Kevin Durant and Jokic. Embiid asked where Giannis Antetokounmpo was and Redick said he was “in the next tier.”
Now, look. Anytime you make a top-3 list, somebody is going to be left off. That’s just the way things are. That’s how they go. There are only 3 spots to place people in and, honestly, there are about six or seven guys who could be considered for that spot.
But after Giannis dropped 40 on Embiid and 44 on Kevin Durant in consecutive games? That just looks like a bad take. That dude has been smoking the rest of the league.
So, with that, Redick rightly hopped on Twitter to apologize in a thread.
I am not mad at the reaction- it’s justified. I’m mad at myself. Joel caught me off guard while I was trying to give him a compliment. I could have articulated better- the top 4 or 5 players are all “top 3”. Hard to rank (this isn’t tennis) bc there are too many great players
— JJ Redick (@jj_redick) April 1, 2022
It’s my bad.
— JJ Redick (@jj_redick) April 1, 2022
Good on Redick for not being stubborn and doubling down on his take. Besides, it wasn’t necessarily a bad one. There are lots of great players in the NBA right now. Giannis might be the best one on one night. On another, it could be someone else.
Fans were totally understanding of Redick’s mistake here. It was honestly good to see.