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As Charles Barkley warned JJ Redick, “You come at the king, you better not miss.”
The first-year Lakers coach learned that the hard way as Sir Charles torched Redick for his critical comments about the NBA’s broadcast partners, dubbing him a “dead man walking.”
The NBA’s weak TV ratings during the opening months of the 2024–2025 season are a hot topic, with everybody from commissioner Adam Silver to WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark weighing in. In December, Redick offered his own theory: the NBA’s TV partners (TNT and ESPN/ABC) are not waving enough pom-poms to celebrate the game.
“If I’m a casual fan and you tell me every time I turn on the television that the product sucks, well, I’m not going to watch the product,” Redick said last month. “I don’t think we have done a good job of storytelling, of celebrating the game.”
Barkley always keeps receipts. During TNT’s Thursday night coverage of the Celtics-Timberwolves game, the star of Inside the NBA put Redick on blast. (He also indirectly took a shot at Jason McIntyre of FS1’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, who’s also been critical of NBA TV coverage).
“He said something about we’re the reason people ain’t watching this crappy product we got,” Barkley said. “Yeah, us, like we out there jacking up a hundred threes a night. JJ, I don’t know Jason Monroe, I don’t know who that is, but JJ, you come for the king, you better not miss. Because I can get you, brother. Because remember I got your Lakers games. You can’t hide them flaws they got. You’re just a dead man walking.”
Barkley then went on to reference previous coaches the team “got rid of”—including Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham. “You came out there thinking you were going to change things with that same ugly girl you went on the date with. … The Lakers stink. He came in there thinking, ‘I can make this thing work.’ Hell you can. Put some makeup on that pig. The Lakers stink, man,” Barkley added.
Here’s my take: Barkley’s right and Redick’s wrong. The NBA’s obsession with three-point shooting has hurt the flow of games.
Plus, it’s not Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson’s job to be cheerleaders. What are they supposed to do? Jump up and down screaming, “I love this game!” while the Magic miss nearly 70% of their three-point shots? They’re there to analyze the hoops action in front of them. To call it like they see it. That’s why they’re the best studio show in sports media history.
Ironically, Redick was a fearless NBA analyst during his run with ESPN. He was always willing to throw down with Stephen A. Smith on First Take. But he can act like the most insufferable sports personality outside of Aaron Rodgers. In this case, the Lakers coach is talking out of both sides of his mouth. Like a meteor, Redick rose from a new hire to ESPN’s No. 1 game analyst in only three years because he was honest with viewers. Memo to JJ: Sports fans, like everybody else, are tired of being gaslit. Don’t believe what you see with your own lying eyes. Believe what I tell you. Because I’m the expert—and you’re not.
The NBA’s strong TV numbers on Christmas Day raises the question whether the ratings story is more of a temporary blip than a real problem. The league slate of Christmas Day games averaged 5.34 million viewers, up 87% from a year ago. Just as importantly, the league’s boffo Christmas number shrank its year-over-year viewership decline to just 3% from 18%.
Redick might be regretting his decision to give up ESPN’s No. 1 NBA game analyst job to coach the aging Lakers, who are 19–14 so far this season. And with Charles being Charles, ESPN is licking its chops that Inside the NBA is moving to its airwaves next season.
I thought McIntyre had the best response on X/Twitter to being called out by the Round Mound of Rebound. “One minute of highlights and NBA league partner Barkley spends the entire time attacking JJ Redick and three-pointers,” he tweeted. “If your ringless king tells you the product sucks, why should you watch? – Jason Monroe.”
