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Lakers' JJ Redick Reveals $50M Plan to Rebuild Beloved Neighborhood After LA Wildfires

The first-year head coach's Pacific Palisades home burned down in January.

Alex Kirschenbaum

Mar 29, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA: Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick reacts during the fourth quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
Mar 29, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA: Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick reacts during the fourth quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
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The 2024-25 Los Angeles Lakers under first-year head coach JJ Redick have faced an absolute whirlwind of activity this year — not all of it positive.

Prior to the club's blockbuster acquisition of five-time All-NBA superstar guard Luka Doncic in February, the Lakers and all of L.A. were devastated by a series of historic wildfires.

Redick, his wife Chelsea, and their sons Knox and Kai lost their Pacific Palisades rental home, as did most of their neighbors. Much of the community, including the kids' school, also burned down.

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Redick was on the road in Dallas at the time when he got word from his wife that the fires were headed for the Palisades. Redick's family quickly grabbed some essential belongings and camped out in a hotel in Marina del Rey, aware of the purview of the Palisades Fire. Redick arrived home at 3 a.m. that night from the road trip.

“People were just wailing in that lobby,” Redick told The Los Angeles Times' Dan Woike in an extensive interview.

Three hours later, he drove to the Palisades to try to salvage some items from the flames — jewelry and the kids' trophies and stuffed animals.

During the drive, he realized exactly how pervasive the fires were.

“He was hysterical,” Chelsea said. “And he was just like, ‘It’s gone. And tell everyone else theirs is gone too. No one’s house is there.’”

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Redick loved the Palisades, and felt like it was an instant match for him and his family when they were looking for a new community upon moving from Brooklyn to L.A.

“Being where I can see mountains and the ocean is I’m like in heaven,” Redick said of his family's decision to live in the Palisades when they arrived in Los Angeles last summer.

Now, he's looking to rebuild the neighborhood. He plans to rebuild the Palisades rec center, which was such an important resource to his kids when they first arrived, and reminded him of how central the gym was to his own hoops-centric youth. Although the center did not burn down, a lot of the structure was heavily impacted by the fires.

Redick's goal is to cultivate “a perpetual, fully functioning endowment,” to the tune of $50 million, that he's dubbing LA Strong Sports. The project will not just tackle the rebuild of the Palisades rec center and public areas in Altadena that were also impacted by the wildfires, but also to have seed money for future endeavors to build up L.A. communities.

Their foundation already has $10 million pledged. The Redicks themselves submitted "a significant donation," Woike reveals.

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“I’m not moving again. I’m not moving my kids again,” Redick told Woike while driving to visit his home for the first time since the fire. “We’re in it for the long haul. I would love to be the Lakers coach for the next 15 to 20 years. If I’m not the Lakers coach, I’m in it for the long haul in L.A.”

It's encouraging to hear that Redick hopes to stick around. He's been doing a great job with Los Angeles during his first season as a head coach. L.A. has a 45-29 record and currently occupies the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, having weathered the storm of several player injuries of late.

Most recently, the Lakers' new "Big Three" of LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves combined for 85 points in L.A.'s 134-127 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.

With an eye on improving the rec center first, Redick's foundation has collaborated with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, the Palisades' local government, and Rick Caruso's nonprofit, Steadfast LA.

“There are still details to work through about how this is going to work,” Redick said. “But I think that was the biggest thing, was getting support from the mayor.”

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For the latest Los Angeles Lakers news and notes, stay glued to Los Angeles Lakers On SI.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Basketball is Alex's favorite sport, he likes the way they dribble up and down the court.

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