Recapping J.J. Redick’s Media Availability

J.J. Redick, who just returned from his honeymoon with his new wife Chelsea, was made available to the media Monday afternoon. Redick, who signed an offer sheet with the Chicago Bulls worth $19 million over 3 years had his offer matched by the Orlando Magic Friday and will reprise his role as the backup shooting guard.

Although Redick was excited about his potential opportunity to start for what should be a very good Bulls team, he is happy to be back with Orlando and has no qualms with coming off the bench.

After the jump, you can read more from Redick’s media availability.

• Redick said he had just finished working out when he was made available to the media.
• Redick said he is “very excited to be back here and to get another shot at making a championship run.”
• If Redick was not going to remain with the Magic, he wanted to make sure he signed with a good team, which he thought he did in inking an offer sheet with the Bulls.
• Redick said the Bulls and Celtics were most interested in him but the Celtics cooled after they found out Kendrick Perkins was going to need surgery and would be out in the beginning of the season. They instead signed Jermaine O’Neal for the mid level exception.
• Redick viewed going to Chicago or returning to Orlando as “win-win.”
• When asked about what his “gut feeling” was last week, Redick said it changed “about seven times” and as the week went on he believed Orlando would match the offer.
• Redick’s agent called him Wednesday after talking to Otis Smith and told Redick “it was pretty much a done deal that they were going to match.”
• Redick was in Rome when he heard he’d get an offer from the Bulls, in Florence when he signed with the Bulls and in Barcelona when he found out he would be returning to Orlando.
• Redick didn’t talk to Otis Smith for the whole month, but often talks to Stan Van Gundy.
• “Unfortunately I talked to the guy once or twice a week during my honeymoon,” Redick said. “I don’t know why.”
• Redick said he has a great relationship with everyone in the Magic organization.
• Redick sees himself as a starter but is comfortable coming off the bench.
• Redick has learned a lot about Vince Carter and said “he’s still a really good shooting guard.
• Redick did admit that “he’d be lying” if he said he didn’t want to be a starter, but said he values his role on the team and “obviously the Magic value my role on this team.”
• Redick said what most of us think – “Otis seems like he always has some stuff up his sleeve.”
• Redick said the Magic were “fired up” about all the hoopla the Heat were getting. He said he couldn’t repeat some of the words his teammates used and cited Rashard Lewis as being specifically fired up.
• Redick thought it wasn’t just the Heat bringing in LeBron James and Chris Bosh that will make them tough to beat but retaining Udonis Haslem and bringing in Mike Miller will do a lot for them as well.
• Redick did say the Heat really haven’t proven anything – “The Lakers are the NBA champs, the Celtics are the Eastern Conference Champions and we’re the division champions.”
• Redick already viewed the Heat as a rival, citing Van Gundy being their former coach as the main reason.
• Redick said he and his wife kept a blog called The Great Adventures of Chelsea and J.J. and then said it’d probably be published “when the rap album comes out.”
• Redick told the media Ryan Anderson over blew the whole rap album but said “don’t count it out” when asked if there was a still a chance it would be made.

I asked Redick about his former Duke teammate Chris Duhon joining the squad. Below is the full transcript.

How often have you been able to keep up with Chris Duhon since you entered the league?

“Chris and I, we’ve kept in touch. We see each other in the summer at Duke. I think he’s supposed to be getting married soon too. I’ve paid attention to what he does – I pay attention to what all the Duke guys do, especially the ones I’ve played with.”

How do you think you guys going fit in with each other playing together with the second unit?

“I think it’ll be great. I really do. Chris and I kind of had a natural chemistry with each other at Duke on the court and I’m looking forward to playing with him again.”

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor on the Fansided Front Page. Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily and you can get the HTD app here