Charles Barkley calls JJ Redick 'dead man walking' in rant over NBA ratings, Lakers season

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From left to right: Charles Barkley (photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images) and JJ Redick (photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

ATLANTA (KTTV) - NBA legend turned analyst Charles Barkley blasted JJ Redick, suggesting that the rookie head coach won't last long with the Los Angeles Lakers.

On Thursday, Barkley went on a rant against Redick during the TNT show, Inside the NBA, saying the 40-year-old is a "dead man walking" on the Lakers sideline.

"JJ, you better calm down," Barkley said during the show. "When you come for the king, you better not miss… I got your Lakers games. You can't hide them flaws they got. You just a dead man walking."

Barkley's rant came in response to Redick's comments last month when the 40-year-old Laker coach shared his thoughts on the NBA ratings debate, and whether the league's product is trending downward. Redick, who had a 15-year playing career before retiring in 2021, suggested that the criticism against the NBA may have stemmed from the league not being celebrated enough.

"I don’t think we… have done a good job of storytelling, of celebrating the game," Redick said during a Dec. 2024 media scrum. "If I’m a casual fan and you tell me every time I turn on the television that the product sucks, I’m not going to watch the product. And that’s really what has happened over the last 10 to 15 years. I don’t know why. It’s not funny to me."

Redick didn't explicitly blame Barkley or the Inside the NBA crew for not celebrating the game, but the "Round Mound of Rebound" took exception of the Laker coach's comments.

"[Redick] said something about we’re the reason people ain’t watching this crappy product we got," Barkley said on Inside the NBA. "Yeah, like we're out here jacking up 100 [three-point attempts] a night."

Barkley then made fun of Redick for leading the Lakers team that sits 6th in the Western Conference standings with a 19-14 record – well below Laker Nation's high standards.

"[Redick] came out there thinking [he] was gonna change things with that same ugly girl you went on a date with," Barkley said, with the TNT crew chuckling in the background of Thursday's show. "[Redick] came in thinking ‘I can make this thing work.’ Hell, you can. Put some makeup on that pig. The Lakers stink, man."

The NBA Hall-of-Famer suggested that Redick's predecessors were under bigger scrutiny and all got fired despite putting together impressive coaching performances – like Frank Vogel leading the Purple and Gold to a 2020 NBA championship and Darvin Ham winning the league's first in-season tournament.

"They got rid of Frank Vogel – who did a good job. They got rid of Darvin Ham – who did a good job," Barkley said of his "dead man walking" comment.

This story was reported in Los Angeles.