On Leaving the Sixers, JJ Redick Says "Sometimes the Economics of Things Don't Work Out"
JJ Redick, who is no longer a Sixer, dropped his “post-free agency special” podcast today.
The New Orleans Pelican officially signed his contract this week and had the following to say about Philly, beginning at the 7:40 mark:
I thought for sure I would retire in Philly. I thought that. That was even a conversation I had with Josh Harris. Sometimes the economics of things don’t work out. Even prior to those conversations, when I heard that New Orleans might be a possibility, there was a genuine excitement that I had about this. This was not just saying, ‘oh, I’m gonna go take whatever money.’ This was, ‘oh I think this is a great basketball fit, it’s a team on the upswing, there’s a lot of excitement around Zion and all of the young guys they got in the (Anthony Davis) trade.’ And obviously the other young guys they drafted looked awesome in Summer League as well, so I’m excited about that. The other component as well was Jrue Holiday. Jrue and I spoke before free agency and, is that tampering? They don’t even enforce it anymore (laughs). We’ll find out from the league office.”
There you go.
JJ would have retired here, but sounds like there wasn’t enough money on the table.
Some people thought he might be go the altruistic team route and take a huge pay cut since he made very good money during his first two Philly seasons (about $36 million total), but it didn’t work out that way.
Here’s the full audio, after the jump: