JJ Redick wasn't thrilled to find out that the New Orleans Pelicans shipped him to the Dallas Mavericks at the trade deadline.
Redick revealed Wednesday on the latest episode of his "The Old Man and the Three" podcast that he requested a trade from the Pelicans shortly before the 2020-21 season in order to be closer to his family, based in Brooklyn.
According to Redick, David Griffin, the team's executive vice president of basketball operations, agreed to eventually grant his request, but the executive reneged by sending him to Dallas, even farther away from his family.
"Griff basically says to me, 'Come down for a month. If you still want to be traded, I give you my word, I'll get you to a situation that you like,'" Redick said. "We've had subsequently four conversations - again, my agent talks to him, but I'm talking to Griff directly. That's how I wanted to handle this. Griff and I had a personal relationship. And, obviously, he did not honor his word.
"And again, that is not a slight on Dallas at all. ... My understanding all along was that I was going to get a buyout. And, if I was going to be traded, it was going to be a team in the Northeast where I was closer to home and I was able to see my family for the last two or three months of the season."
Redick said the ordeal shattered the trust he and his representatives had in Pelicans management and warned other players about confiding in the franchise's front office.
"I don't think you're going to get honesty from that front office, just objectively speaking," he told co-host Tommy Alter. "That's not an opinion, I just don't think you're going to get that. I don't think what happened with me is necessarily an isolated incident, either.
"But I do think across the league, front offices act in their own best interest, I get that, I understand that. ... But in terms of this front office, yeah, it's not something where I would expect, certainly the agents that worked on this with me, to ever trust that front office again."
While the Mavericks weren't his preferred destination, Redick, who's still rehabbing a heel injury, was upbeat about joining the squad.
"It's a good basketball situation, and for someone who has not played basketball in over three weeks, I'm just excited to hopefully get healthy and be back on the court and hooping with those guys in Dallas," Redick said.
