Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James recently made a new addition to his skill set. After making his entry into the entertainment industry through Space Jam and other collective works, the basketball player has now launched his very own podcast ‘Mind The Game’. With former NBA player JJ Redick joining in as co-host, the collaboration has made many people curious about the origins of the same, which Redick seemed to be more than happy to talk about.

On the 27th, the 39-year-old athlete appeared as a guest during the recent episode of Andrew Schulz’s show ‘Flagrant’. Herein, he highlighted how he has known the Lakers legend for over 25 years now but weren’t exactly close friends. The decision to do the podcast came after a mutual discussion.

“We saw each other in December with the folks on his side and just had a conversation and that just kind of got the ball rolling,” said Redick. When Schulz asked if LeBron picked Redick for the podcast or vice versa, the latter left the listeners in a mystery by stating “there’s no good answer to that”.

The ‘Mind The Game’ podcast has found considerable success since its launch. Since the eight days that it debuted, the first episode has managed to garner over 3.1 million views on YouTube. The second episode crossed the 200,000 mark within half a day of release. While many people have come out to praise the discussion that took place during the show, others have not hesitated in questioning LeBron’s choice of a co-host. Fortunately, Andrew Schulz was quick to shut one of them down.

Andrew Schulz defended LeBron James for choosing JJ Redick as co-host

During a recent episode of Charlamagne Tha God and Andrew Schulz’s show ‘Brilliant Idiots’, the duo highlighted a recent comment made by activist Dr. Umar Johnson on social media. Johnson was seen highlighting the respect he holds towards LeBron James but, at the same time, criticizing him for going “outside the community” when choosing JJ Redick as co-host. “This move makes no sense at all. What has this man (Redick) done for you or us to earn this opportunity?”. Johnson added.

Charlamagne proceeded to provide a counter to Johnson’s opinion by stating “If LeBron James was going to start a podcast, strictly about basketball, there is nobody I would want to see him do that with more than JJ Redick”. Schulz agreed and said that the ‘Mind The Game’ podcast is not something that would try to appeal to the “casual basketball fan”. Rather, judging from the discussion during the first episode, the target audience would probably revolve around deep basketball enthusiasts. And who better to do such a discussion with than someone who has spent over 15 years playing for the NBA?

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