JJ Redick says Lakers want to play, 'give people hope' - ESPN

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick fought back tears Friday, grieving not only the loss of his family's home — reduced to rubble from the Palisades Fire that remains active and has already burned more than 20,000 acres — but his entire community that was wiped out this week.

Redick's wife, Chelsea, and their two sons, Knox and Kai, were one the thousands of families evacuated from their home Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of the unprecedented fires that began to ravage L.A. while Redick was on the road with the Lakers, preparing for their game against the Dallas Mavericks.

The team's flight back home after the Dallas loss arrived around 2 a.m. and the Lakers coach met his family at the hotel they had relocated to. After a few listless hours of sleep, he drove to the Pacific Palisades early Wednesday morning to check on the house he was renting as he searched for a more permanent home in his first year coaching the team.

«I was not prepared for what I saw,» Redick said. «It's complete devastation and destruction. I had to go a kind of a different way to the house, but I went through most of the [Palisades] Village and it's all gone. And I don't think you can ever prepare yourself for something like that. Our home, our home is gone.»

The Lakers game against the Charlotte Hornets, scheduled for Thursday, was postponed by the NBA. It will be rescheduled at a later date.

Redick and the Lakers gathered as a team for a light practice Friday, meeting for the first time since the fires in anticipation of hosting the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday — a game that Redick said he hopes will tip off as scheduled.

«We obviously are going to work with the NBA, the Spurs, the city and do what's right,» Redick said.