Mind the Game is a basketball podcast hosted by American basketball player LeBron James and coach JJ Redick. It was produced by their respective media production companies, Uninterrupted and ThreeFourTwo Productions. At the time of the podcast's debut on March 19, 2024, James was an active player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), while Redick was retired NBA player and then a sports podcaster and NBA broadcast analyst for ESPN.
On June 24, just a few months after the podcast's debut, Redick was introduced as the head coach of Lakers and stated he would not continue podcasting in the role. It is unclear if Mind the Game will continue without Redick.
Development and release
Hosted by LeBron James and JJ Redick, Mind the Game is produced by James' and Redick's media production companies, Uninterrupted and ThreeFourTwo Productions, respectively. While the series is James' first venture into podcasting, Redick had been in the space for years prior. Redick was first approached in the summer of 2015 to join NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski's then new website, The Vertical, as a writer.[2] Still an active player at the time, Redick declined, thinking he would not able to balance writing with his playing workload. That October, Wojnarowski pitched the idea of Redick hosting a podcast instead.[2] In February 2016, Redick became the first active NBA player to host a weekly show when he launched his podcast with The Vertical, part of Yahoo! Sports' network.[2][3] Redick hosted 40 episodes of his podcast for Yahoo! Sports, as well as a singular one produced by Uninterrupted.[4] Redick was also the subject of The Process, a short documentary film produced by Uninterrupted in 2017.[5]
Redick also met media producer Tommy Alter, who suggested the former host a podcast for The Ringer. Alter's production credits include The Shop, a talk show-formatted web series starring James.[2] Redick went on to host for three seasons, the final of which was co-hosted by Alter.[2] In 2020, following his stint with The Ringer, Redick co-founded ThreeFourTwo Productions along with Alter and the two began hosting The Old Man and the Three podcast.[2][4]Bleacher Report reported that ESPN analyst and former NBA player Jay Williams stated that Mind the Game "was broadly in the work for years as an idea and predated [Darvin] Ham's tenure" as head coach of the Lakers.[6]
Mind the Game premiered on digital streaming platofrms on March 19, 2024, with its video format being released on an eponymous YouTube channel.[7][8][9][10]
In June 2024, Redick signed on to be the head coach of James' Lakers. During his introductory press conference on June 24, Redick stated that he was "done with podcasting", including his appearances on Mind the Game.[11] At the time, the podcast released nine episodes.[11] On the future status of Mind the Game, Sports Illustrated writer Eva Geitheim stated "it's unclear if James will continue the podcast on his own, bring on a new co-host, or end the podcast altogether".[11] Meanwhile, ESPN writer Dave McMenamin referred to the podcast as "shuttered".[12] Redick did however add during his introductory press conference that there would be closure of sorts for Mind the Game, stating "we'll just do something for all of the people that listened and we'll have a small little video".[13][14]
Content
Mind the Game featured James and Redick discussing and analyzing the game of basketball, primarily in an "X's and O's" fashion.[15][16] James Caspian Kang of The New Yorker described that in the video form of podcast, James and Redick are "shot in an intimate style with a lot of wine bottles littered around the set".[16] Episodes feature Redick explaining basketball jargon so that the audience can later follow along when he and James "meticulously" analyze particular plays, which included some of James' from throughout his career.[16] Redick's explanations are delivered in solo monologues and in the video version of the podcast, his explanations are accompanied by on-screen definitions and he is featured drawing up the actions he describes.[17]
Reception
After the first episode of Mind the Game was uploaded, Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated called the podcast "a must listen".[18] Traina wrote that since Redick already proved himself a "tremendous podcaster" in the space and added that James' foray into podcasting was successful, calling him "a natural" and praising his mixture of "X's and O's with fun and lightheartedness".[18]
Writing on the series after its first five episodes premiered, Kang wrote that "The show's gambit is to bring star power and the perspective of real insiders to analytical commentary, renegotiating the sportswriter's balance between geeky shoptalk and the audience's love of narratives".[16] Marcus Thompson II of The New York Times wrote positively of James' and Redick's work on the podcast, opining that although "it drips with pretension at times" and "occasionally delves into condescending tones", audiences should "be patient" with the show as the hosts "eventually descend to proletarian realms".[17] Thompson II added that "Most of the episodes are actually spent right where you want them: talking ball, breaking down plays and players, rehashing memories. You don't even notice the swirls and sips because it's too captivating when [James] slides into his zone of explanation".[17] Thompson praised the chemistry between James and Redick, calling the latter a "worthy floor general" for the show and writing that:
Vulnerability, clearly, is to be coaxed out of [James]. The show could certainly use more of it. But Redick squeezes out enough to avoid predictability.
It's [James'] analysis of it all, the triumphs and the struggles, that offers the show's greatest gems and makes it a compelling digestion.[17]
Stephen A. Smith, the host of ESPN's First Take talk show stated that "numerous coaches, Black coaches, called me expressing how they took issue with that podcast taking place".[6] Smith also opined that James' decision to launch the podcast in the middle of the 2023–24 NBA season while the Lakers' then head coach Darvin Ham was on the "hot seat" was an "egregious thing".[6] Smith added that many of the coaches who contacted him felt that it "hurt" Ham's standing as the Lakers' coach.[6] Ham was fired from his position following the Lakers' elimination from the 2024 NBA playoffs and Redick emerged as a widely reported candidate for the vacancy; ESPN analyst and reporter Andraya Carter stated that Mind the Game reflected Redick's ambitions to be an NBA coach.[6]
The first episode of Mind the Game received over 1.3 million views on YouTube in its first day, attracting 227,000 subscribers in the same period.[19] By the time Redick was hired as the Lakers' coach, the episode received nearly 4 million views.[15] Each of the nine episodes received over 700,000 views at the time of Redick's hiring.[11]
