Some people know Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick for his time in the NBA, but before that he was one of the most hated athletes in college basketball history with the Duke Blue Devils.
In four years in Durham, North Carolina, Redick set ACC and NCAA records, culminating in winning all six major national college player of the year awards in his senior 2006 season.
JJ Redick Opens Up About the Troubles of Playing at Duke
Redick joined retired NBA players Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles in a Jan. 2023 edition of the “Knuckleheads Podcast” for “The Players’ Tribune,” diving deep into the struggles of being a Blue Devils star.
“He said to me, ‘we didn’t win a national championship because you weren’t worthy of being a champion.’
That’s one of the worst things and best things that’s ever been said to me.”@jj_redick shares how tough it was at Duke on #Knuckleheads. 🎥 https://t.co/d4qBO7GUDx pic.twitter.com/dXZGCeQdzs
— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) January 23, 2023
“When you grow up a Duke fan for 10 years, 8 years old to 18 years old, and you have this idea in your head of how cool it must be to play for Duke,” Redick said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was cool. But there was a lot of s*** that went with it.”
“There were times I wanted to quit. And then on top of that, you know, I had the hatred, I would call it hatred, the hatred from other student fanbases, people calling my cell phone, calling me the antichrist. Everywhere I went, people talked about having sex with my little sister, who was 12 at the time. It just became a lot.”
“And I’m 18, 19 years old, and I don’t have the ego structure, the confidence, the security in who I am to sort of deal with that. You know, I was out in the streets, I was living like I was a frat kid. I probably looked like a frat kid, too. And it was detrimental to everyone around me.”
“And so after my sophomore year, that’s when coach [Mike Krzyzewski] had a series of meetings with me in April. And in one of those meetings, he said to me, ‘we didn’t win a national championship.’ So yeah, I had a good season, like whatever. But he said to me, ‘we didn’t win a national championship because you weren’t worthy of being a champion.’ That’s one of the worst things and best things that’s ever been said to me.”
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“I mean, that cut me deep, and for the rest of my career, that was sort of my goal. It was like, ‘I can’t let a coach ever tell me that I’m not worthy to win, that I’m not worthy of being a champion.’ Yeah, like I didn’t win a national championship, I didn’t win an NBA championship, but I know what I put into it, like I was worthy.”
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