During January 2025, wildfires ravaged much of the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. Among the thousands of people affected and displaced by this disaster was Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick, who lost his and his family’s home in the fires 20 months ago.
Since moving there in the summer of 2024, Redick has embedded himself in the Palisades community and signed up to coach his sons’ basketball team at the Palisades recreation center, which also burned down in the fires.
Earlier this week, a groundbreaking ceremony to unveil a new Palisades Rec Center — featuring indoor basketball and pickleball courts, and outdoor courts and playgrounds — was held, with Redick, who was critical to these rebuilding efforts, in attendance. LA Sports Strong, a foundation he co-founded, hosted various fundraisers to ensure the recreation center would come back to life and re-emerge as a pillar of the Palisades.
“This place was very special to us. It was special to our kids,” Redick said. “… My kids were here every day. I was here almost every day. This has always been sort of the hub of the Palisades.”
The fires devastated the Los Angeles area. The Lakers were forced to postpone games against the Hornets and Spurs and went nearly a week without playing.
A number of players, including both LeBron James and Anthony Davis, were forced to evacuate their homes. Redick was not the only Lakers staffer to lose his home, either. It was a tragedy that had a lasting impact on Redick and his family.
“It didn’t really get normal again for a long time,” Redick said in January, via Dan Woike of The Athletic. “And I think a lot of people are still going through that. And that was the angst that we felt as a family. I know my boys felt it for months and months after. And it wasn’t until we felt settled again. And even that took two to three weeks of, ‘Oh, OK, we can actually turn off that valve of anxiety that we’ve had for the last 10 months.'”
The response from Redick and his family, though, has been to make Palisades their home and help rebuild it. Wednesday’s groundbreaking was an encouraging start to that process.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
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