New Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick has been the talk of the sports world after officially being announced in an introductory press conference by the organization on Monday. But just one day later, he received an enormous amount of negative press via an accusation against him.
In a now-viral tweet with nearly 20 million views on X, Halleemah Nash, an author, speaker, and Duke alumni, accused Redick of calling her a racial slur when he was at Duke.
“I’ve only been called the N-word to my face by a white man once in my life and it was on the campus of Duke University while I was doing work with the basketball team,” wrote Nash on X. “And today he was named the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. What a world.”
I’ve only been called the N word to my face by a white man once in my life and it was on the campus of Duke University while I was doing work with the basketball team. And today he was named the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. What a world.
— Halleemah Nash (@halleemah) June 25, 2024
This kind of allegation with this much attention obviously couldn’t have come at a worse time for him considering it was technically his first day on the job in his new role for the Lakers. And in a message to TMZ, one of Redick’s representatives denied the allegations on his behalf.
“No, it never happened,” the spokesperson told TMZ.
Redick has developed a positive reputation over the years during his NBA career and throughout his career in sports media at ESPN. So obviously, if any more information comes out to validate Nash’s claim, this would obviously be incredibly damaging to him.
Only time will tell if that ends up happening. But regardless, Redick clearly feels as if this was fabricated by Nash.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.