Luka Doncic Jokes About Having To "Carry" JJ Redick When They Were Teammates In Dallas
Oct 15, 2025
Once upon a time, Luka Doncic and JJ Redick were teammates on an NBA squad. That squad, of course, was the 2020–21 Dallas Mavericks, which leaned on Doncic as their franchise player.
Memories of this time as teammates were brought up after the LA Lakers lost 113-104 to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday. When a reporter brought up Doncic and Redick’s stint in Dallas, the Slovenian guard couldn’t help but crack a joke about his current head coach.
“Obviously, I had to carry JJ when he was my teammate. He couldn’t move at all,” Doncic said with a sly smile. “So I had to carry him big time.”
To understand Doncic’s joke about Redick’s lack of mobility, one has to trace the timeline of Redick’s NBA career. By the time he was traded to the Mavs, he was in his 15th NBA season. The former Duke Blue Devil ended up playing just 13 games for Dallas, and in the offseason that followed, he announced his retirement.
Like Doncic, Redick had taken a trip to the NBA Finals in his career. This career milestone happened in 2009 when Redick was part of the Orlando Magic. That year, the Magic brought plenty of firepower on offense, with Dwight Howard dominating the paint and shooters like Redick and Rashard Lewis on the perimeter.
However, the Magic would come up short on the biggest stage in the NBA. Ironically, the team that beat them was the Los Angeles Lakers, which Redick is now set to coach for the second season.
From the looks of it, Redick’s dynamic with Doncic is about to change as the five-time All-Star will take on a bigger responsibility in the wake of LeBron James’ sciatica ailment. For at least the first few weeks of the 2025–26 season, Doncic will go from one half of a deadly duo to the main man of the purple and gold squad.
Doncic played that very role when he was in Dallas, so this should be nothing new to him. But this time around, the reserve guard that he used to swing the ball to is now coaching at this pivotal stage in his career.
