J.J. Redick Posting On Watch Collector Message Boards Is Adorable

We've learned some pretty unpleasant stuff about J.J. Redick in the last couple of days, but a clever reader was able to track down a not-totally-unpleasant tidbit about him by googling an email address we posted earlier. As it turns out, Redick is a "Risti," an admirer of Panerai-brand watches and their straps, which means that he participates in his own hyperspecific online forum just like everyone else on the planet.

Collecting luxury watches probably won't endear Redick to a lot of people, but the short thread–started by "JJ" on January 14th, 2012–is actually kind of delightful:

I'm fairly new to this forum- I discovered it back in June- and have only posted on here a dozen or so times (mostly wrist shots and a few pics of my small Panerai collection). Up until last week I had never met anyone from this community. However, I was headed to Northern California for my job this past Sunday so I decided to hit up Micah, who many of you know, because he made some straps for me and has always been very gracious and patient with all of my questions. Micah and I had just a few minutes to meet up but it was my pleasure to meet him and his beautiful wife and son. He was even kind enough to bring me a strap for my 372 (pictured below). After our meeting, I had to head up to Portland, OR for a few days (again for work) and Micah suggested I meet up with a couple of great Ristis in the Portland area, Howard L and Mike C. Howard, Mike, and I had a wonderful dinner at Wildwood restaurant in Portland. And Micah was right- two solid gents. It was great to meet them and share some pics of our watches and families. Looking forward to the next time I'm out on the West Coast.

This all checks out. The Magic traveled to Sacramento on Sunday, January 8th and played Portland on January 11th, "JJ"'s listed IP address is just outside of Orlando, and Redick is all about Panerai watches on social media. To their credit, none of the other Ristis seem inclined to blow Redick's cover, although one does get pretty coy about it:

Looking forward to having you over for real the next time that you're in town working your "magic".

A candid, humanizing, moment for Redick, in so much as you can count buying and discussing extraordinarily expensive watches as "humanizing." JJ also has some straps for sale, which may still be available.

h/t Nathan S.

Photo: Tony Gutierrez/AP