LOS ANGELES — JJ Redick knew exactly what he was doing. The Los Angeles Lakers coach stepped into a subtle moment and broke the awkward silence with the matter-of-fact delivery of a question. One designed to rile up the guys. Add some juice to the moment.
“Who’s the best player on the team?” Redick asked.
Hands flew up. Five players nominated themselves with raised arms. Another did so with a confident smirk. Redick grinned at the chaos he provoked as several Palisades Charter High School boys basketball team members claimed the crown.
“Are we serious?” sophomore point guard Jack Levey asked, his right hand raised above his head.
“Look at the stats,” senior wing Tommy Pickens said with a smile from his seat, his index finger held high.
The Palisades Dolphins were guests of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, hosted by the Lakers on Thursday. They watched the Lakers beat the Warriors from a suite. As a nightcap, they got to hang in a private lounge with Kerr and Redick after the game.
“Every team I was ever on, we all knew who the best player was,” Redick said, one arm folded across his gray hoodie that read Pali Strong in light blue letters. “I’m not saying it was me. I’m saying we all knew who the best player was. You guys, deep down … you know who the best player is.”
The best has taken on a new meaning for the Dolphins. Their school was part of the carnage of the Pacific Palisades fires last month. A couple of players lost their homes. All of them lost their sense of normalcy.
Steve Kerr and JJ Redick speak to the team after Thursday’s Warriors-Lakers game. Last month, fires disrupted their lives and their season. (Courtesy of Golden State Warriors)
But their team is a testament to what was discovered in the ashes, for they found a deeper brotherhood. They found their resilience. They found the spirit of community.
“I learned that they’re their family,” said coach Jeff Bryant in his first season leading Palisades. “And they are relentless. They’re brothers. And they’re going to fight the fight. There was a community once before. There will be a community again.”
And on this night, they found the empathy of a pair of NBA coaches.
Redick, in his first year on the Lakers bench, made the Pacific Palisades his home. He drove past the high school to work every day. The house the Redicks rented burned in the fires, forever engraving them into their new community.
Kerr graduated from Palisades High in 1983. He introduced his mother, Ann, to the team. They told them how at 90 years old she lost the home where she raised her children. More than half a century of memories incinerated.
“Her house is on Chautauqua (Boulevard),” said Kerr, sporting a navy and white Palisades Dolphins trucker cap. “That’s where I grew up. It’s been in the family since 1969.”
But both Kerr and Redick have stiff-armed sympathy. They have resources most victims of the fire don’t. So they shared some of them with the Palisadian hoopers.
If time with two popular NBA coaches wasn’t enough, the Dolphins players were each gifted Kobe Bryant signature Nikes and Warriors gear. They got some television time and media coverage. Their moment of shine had their text messages blowing up.
“Everybody knows us now,” senior wing Mikal Sims said with a confident smile plastered across his face. He’s 6-foot-2 with square shoulders and immaculate cornrows. The camera loves him.
“We were the big people on campus. Then, the campus burned down. Now we’re just the big people wherever we are.”
“They all inspire me with how they are handling it,” Palisades coach Jeff Bryant says of his players, pictured here talking with Steve Kerr. (Courtesy of Golden State Warriors)
With two games left in the regular season, the Dolphins are, somehow, still on a path to the playoffs. They were 9-5 when flames engulfed their city on Jan. 7. In the 12 games since their season resumed, the Dolphins are 8-4.
They even pushed Westchester, leaders of the Western League. Playing a home game at nearby Santa Monica High, the Dolphins put together a 19-0 first-half run to take control of the game. They eventually lost by 10 — their two conference losses are to Westchester, led by Tajh Ariza, son of NBA champion Trevor Ariza — but Palisades got a glimpse of its newfound edge.
“We played a great first half,” Levey, the point guard, said. “A great first half. That’s when I knew that, after the fire, we were still ready to go.”
And that only begins to illustrate their impressiveness. Because undergirding it all is their upended worlds. The fires no longer dominate the news, but still their lives.
They’re back to school online, which the COVID-19 pandemic revealed can be detrimental to students. Now, if they want to hang out as teammates, they travel about 15 miles from campus to Westfield Culver City to grab food together at BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse.
Many of the staples and comforts of their teenage lives have been burned away. Much of what they know as home, as life, is covered in soot.
“It’s adversity,” their coach said. “We stare it in the eye. We face it. They all inspire me with how they are handling it. They’re dealing with this every day. If they didn’t lose their home, they lost their community. The restaurants they go eat at after school. The grocery stores they go to. The gas station.”
Yet, they’ve found their groove while all around them smolders.
They don’t have a gym, so their practice schedule is unsettled. They find hardwood where they can, at scarcely convenient times. It’s not uncommon for them to practice at 8 p.m. in a neighboring school’s gym.
“It’s crazy. But everyone is showing up on time,” Levey said.
Wreckage from the Palisades fire sits next to the high school. The facility was badly damaged in the blaze that hit the L.A. area. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Levey is only a sophomore but a clear leader. He’s one of the team’s hardest workers. He runs the offense, feeds the talent around him and scores when necessary.
But his floor general duties also are used to organize his team off the court. He doesn’t even drive yet, but he helps make sure his teammates get what they need. He’s constantly communicating, making sure he spends time with everyone.
It’s made bonding so much different. Their trivial conversations have been accompanied by real ones. They’ve been forced to grow into more than just teammates by their need for one another.
Matin Farhangnia, a senior point guard, lost his home. Pickens moved to California from Michigan, leaving his mom and sister to move with his dad. This senior season was supposed to get him exposure on the court. It wound up exposing him to a new family off it.
The Dolphins’ response: To become even more of a team. To hold dear to their joy. To be liberal with their smiles. To cling to appreciation. Yes, fire destroys. But it also refines.
“We came together more,” Sims said. “The fires really brought detriment to a few of our players. So we really felt for them. We really had to come together. You know, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I really believe that. And we’ve been beaten down pretty bad. But right now, I feel like we’re stronger together.”
GO DEEPER
For Palisades High players, baseball offers normalcy amid a charred L.A. landscape
(Top photo of Steve Kerr and J.J. Redick with the Palisades Charter High School basketball team: Courtesy of Golden State Warriors)
