If speculations were to be believed, JJ Redick’s hiring included LeBron James‘ involvement. But the newly appointed LA Lakers‘ head coach has denied all such speculations and allegations in his media interview. Anyone may have bought this; anyone but Gilbert Arenas.

The ex-NBA star, however, believes this interview is a sign that Redick has already molded himself as per the franchise. “He can sit in the camera and lie to our face. I love it. That’s Laker Nation right there. We can look you dead in the eye and tell you some other sh*t… He’s already fitting in, and I’m loving it,” he said on the Gil’s Arena.

And not just him, but the whole Gil’s Arena crew seemed to disagree with the possibility of Redick not talking to Bron about the Lakers’ job. Notably, in his media interview, the Lakers’ newly appointed coach stated the King did not provide any advice to him for the job.

“LeBron and I did not talk about the Lakers’ job until Thursday afternoon about 30 minutes after I was offered the job. That was very intentional on both our parts,” he added. The 40-year-old further mentioned the reason for this to be that he did not want to go down the path of a hypothetical situation with someone whom he considers a friend and has a great amount of respect for.

For once, one could digest LeBron not having any influence in Redick getting the job. But to believe that they did not even discuss the job and James provided no assistance, seems hard to believe. Mostly because the two have had a close bond for quite some time now and even run the ‘Mind the Game’ podcast together. In fact, for a member of Gil’s Arena, the jointly run podcast was one of the primary reasons to suspect the 4x NBA champ’s involvement with Redick’s Lakers job. 

Gil’s Arena crew predicted LeBron’s involvement even before JJ Redick became a frontrunner for the job

This came during the podcast episode released in May this year and the specific member to make the comments was Rashad McCants. During the episode, McCants detailed the perks of Bron having Redick as the coach. In fact, he claimed the 20x All-Star was coaching JJ to be the coach.

For the reason behind this belief, Rashad stated a chain of likely events. “JJ and LeBron start a podcast. JJ says he wants to be a coach. LeBron knows Darvin’s a*s and his days are numbered. JJ gets hired by the Lakers. LeBron is still a player. JJ, get to coach LeBron. They bring in Bronny. The podcast thrives.”

The prediction could have been on point from almost every aspect had JJ Redick not announced to stay away from any sort of online content as long as he is coaching. And this includes the ‘Mind the Game’ podcast. Now it’s still unclear if the King will bring another co-host, continue it on his own, or end it altogether.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.