Metta World Peace wonders why he wasn’t offered Lakers head coaching job

On Monday afternoon, the Los Angeles Lakers officially introduced podcaster and former NBA sharpshooter JJ Redick to be the next head coach of the franchise following the firing of Darvin Ham and his staff earlier this year. Redick’s only head coaching experience prior to this is leading an elementary school basketball team, but his work both in the NBA as well as in broadcasting recently–combined with a podcast he launched with Lakers star LeBron James–made him a viable candidate for the position in the eyes of the Los Angeles brass.

Of course, hiring a candidate with no experience for the most heavily scrutinized job in sports is going to raise some eyebrows, and perhaps no one’s eyebrows were raised higher than those of Metta World Peace, a former Lakers player known as Ron Artest in those days who hit one of the biggest shots in franchise history in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals vs the Boston Celtics.

Recently, Artest took to the “All Facts No Breaks with Keyshawn Johnson” podcast to wonder aloud why he wasn’t considered for the job, but also to give his support to Redick and the Lakers.

“It’s definitely a great opportunity, I was putting my name in the hat for a bunch of head coaching jobs, I’ve been coaching nine years actually at Cal State LA, we went to the tournament,” said World Peace, via All Facts No Breaks with Keyshawn Johnson on YouTube. “They tried to not put my name in the hat you know. I see the media and they already got their names because I actually have on paper experience coaching and going to the tournament on paper. People know it but then I saw a lot of people just like stray away from that because he’s coming.”

World Peace also broke down how he believes that Redick will quickly be able to apply the experience he gains at the helm with the Lakers.

“It’s no different than running a company or running a firm,” said World Peace. “Just hire the right CEO, hire the right CFO, stay out the way, so I think he’ll probably even learn a little bit more coming in because he’s gonna have to lean on more experience and that’s a blessing because you’re in the head coach’s seat, and then once you get it and you understand it now you’re really taking off.”

Will the Redick hire work out?

Redick is one of the biggest coaching wild cards we’ve seen in the NBA in a long time. Listening to him speak about the game proves that Redick is very analytically savvy and aware of how the game is played in the modern era; however, there is some concern that his rather casual demeanor and down to earth attitude might prevent him from actually coaching his players–particularly LeBron James–when things aren’t going according to plan.

In any case, the Lakers added a 2024 version of Redick during Wednesday’s draft in the form of Dalton Knecht and will get their new season underway in October.