The NBA is a league that point guards currently dominate. There’s Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, and Kyrie Irving, just to name a few. This hasn’t always been the case, though. Centers were the dominant force for most of the NBA, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s.
This is why it’s crazy to think that one of the most gifted passers the NBA has ever seen is a point guard who dominated the early 2000s. The point guard I’m referring to is none other than Jason Kidd. J-Kidd, as he is sometimes known, played 19 years in the league.
Before he became an NBA star, he was a little kid growing up in an upper-middle-class area of Oakland. This is where Kidd would discover the game of basketball and ultimately fall in love with the sport.
Jason Kidd Develops His Skills In The Streets
Jason Kidd was the oldest of six children for parents Steve and Anne Kidd. Kidd is biracial, as his father is African American and his mother is Irish American.
Kidd stated, in an interview with Marc J. Spears for Andscape, that he never dealt with racism growing up in Oakland:
“Oakland wasn’t like that. I never felt racism toward being a mixed kid. If there was, my parents did a really good job of protecting and shielding me from it where it didn’t affect me, nor did I hear it. I had cousins that were white and cousins that were black. I just looked at them as family.”
Kidd fit right in with the other kids in his neighborhood, especially older kids. He would play basketball with them at a recreation center, where his skills started to develop.
Soon, Kidd would take his game to the streets to play in intense pickup games with the local youth in Oakland. Kidd loved the game, and he quickly became addicted to winning:
“I was born in San Francisco, but we moved to Oakland when I was three. I began playing sports through one of my dad’s close friends at work. That’s how it started for me sportswise,” Kidd explained to Marc J. Spears in the interview for Andscape.
“I played soccer, and then I was introduced to basketball. I found myself at Rainbow [Recreation] Center off Seminary [Avenue]. I played with kids a little older than myself. I went to the playground playing at Grass Valley [neighborhood in East Oakland], playing kids that were older than myself.
I just tried to find ways to stay on the court. There was always a draft. I was always picked last, being one of the young guys. But I always built my status by trying to help the team win… For me, it was about competing, winning. For whatever reason, that gene was a very strong gene.”
Kidd continued to develop his skills on the basketball court, and he eventually met NBA legend Gary Payton, as Kidd played on an all-star team coached by Payton’s father. This is where Kidd would learn a valuable lesson from “The Glove”.
Kidd was a star player at Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School. People all around the city dubbed him the next great basketball player.
So, when Kidd first played “The Glove”, Payton wanted to humble the young high school star:
“Oh, there were tears,” Kidd told Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN in a 2018 interview. “My parents would ask me, ‘What’s wrong?’ I would be like, ‘I think I should pick a different sport because I am not very good at it.’ Gary wouldn’t let me score. [And] he would tell me you are not going to score, that I was soft and that I wasn’t good enough. And for a kid in high school that was built up to be this great high school player, it was very humbling and hard to swallow. So, it was borderline quit or man up and keep coming back to try to figure out a way to score.”
For many, this experience would make them quit the game of basketball and pick up a less aggressive hobby. For Kidd, it was a humbling experience that he used when he’d join CAL and play for the Golden Bears.
Jason Kidd Becomes A College Standout
Jason Kidd felt like a new man, and a basketball player after his friend Gary Payton showed him that he wasn’t as good as he thought he was. Kidd didn’t drop his head and quit and worked harder to become even better.
So, when Kidd enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, he was ready to show this new attitude and his new skills. Kidd didn’t wait around; he jumped out of the gates with a full head of steam.
As a freshman, Kidd averaged 13.0 points, 7.7 assists, and 3.8 steals per game while being named the National Freshman of the Year. More importantly, Kidd led CAL to the NCAA Tournament.
Kidd’s leadership helped the Golden Bears upset the two-time defending National Championship Duke Blue Devils 82-77 in the second round. CAL would eventually fall in the Sweet Sixteen against the Kansas Jayhawks.
The following year, after averaging 16.7 points, 9.1 assists, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.1 steals per game, Kidd led CAL back to the NCAA Tournament. He was also named the Pac-10 Player of the Year while being selected as a First Team All-American.
The Golden Bears would, unfortunately, lose in an upset in the first round to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Things would quickly look up for Kidd as he decided to leave school early and enter the NBA Draft.
Jason Kidd: From Co-Rookie Of The Year Winner To NBA Finals Appearances
The Dallas Mavericks selected Jason Kidd with the second overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft. Kidd would have an immediate impact on the Mavericks.
Kidd led the league in triple-doubles with four, and he helped the Mavericks win 23 more games from the previous year. Kidd was also named the Co-Rookie of the Year Award winner with Grant Hill.
For Mavericks fans, this was a blessing to get a player of Kidd’s caliber finally. The problem for Mavericks fans would be the fact their franchise traded to the Phoenix Suns during the 1996-97 season.
Kidd would bring his magic to Phoenix by helping the Suns win 16 more games in his first full season compared to the previous year.
Kidd would go on to lead the league in assists for the Suns during the 1998-99, 1999-00, and 2000-01 seasons. Despite this, Kidd was once again traded, this time to the New Jersey Nets, on June 28, 2001.
Kidd would find himself as the undisputed leader of the New Jersey Nets, and he was ready to lead his new squad to the promised land. The Nets finished with the best record in the East with a 52-30 record.
Kidd went on to average 19.6 points, 9.1 assists, and 8.2 rebounds per game. More importantly, Kidd led the Nets to their first NBA Finals in franchise history.
Kidd played well in the Finals, finishing with averages of 20.8 points, 9.8 assists, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.3 steals per game. Despite his excellent play, Kidd’s Nets would be swept in the Finals.
This was a low for Kidd and Nets fans across the world. Luckily for them, they wouldn’t have to wait long to see another NBA Finals.
The next season, the Nets finished with a 49-33 record, the best in the Atlantic Division. The Nets entered the playoffs as the second seed in the East, and they were looking to repeat their success in the playoffs from the previous year.
The East gave the Nets no problems as they went 12-2 in their three series. This time, the Nets faced off against Tim Duncan and his San Antonio Spurs.
After the Nets’ dismal performance in the 2002 NBA Finals, which resulted in a sweep, Kidd would make sure his troops were ready to give the Spurs a real fight in the 2003 NBA Finals. After losing Game 1 in San Antonio, the Nets bounced back with an 87-85 victory in Game 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C-UIvIEAYM
The Nets would not be swept. In fact, they’d push the series to six games. Unfortunately for Jason Kidd, his Nets would come out on the losing end once again, losing 88-77 in Game 6.
Kidd averaged 19.7 points, 7.8 assists, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game in the 2003 Finals, but his performance was once again overshadowed by a lack of team help. This would be the last time Kidd led the Nets to the NBA Finals.
Kidd would play four more full years in New Jersey before requesting a trade from the Nets in 2008. The Nets granted his request by trading Kidd to Dallas.
Kidd was back on the team that drafted him, and this time he’d be teamed up with superstar Dirk Nowitzki. After three disappointing seasons in his return to Dallas, the Mavs finally made it to the NBA Finals in the 2010-11 season, where they faced off against the newly formed ‘BIG 3’ of the Miami Heat.
LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami, and the Heat was looking to start a dynasty. Kidd and the rest of his teammates had other ideas.
The Mavericks stunned the Heat, beating them 4-2 in the Finals and winning the franchise’s first title. Nowitzki was named the Finals MVP, which he deserved.
Kidd, who was the leader of the Nets when they reached two Finals, took a back seat in these Finals. He still averaged 7.7 points, 6.3 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game.
Kidd’s leadership helped the Mavericks relax during stretches of the games where it looked like Miami may blow them out. After 17 years in the league, Kidd was finally an NBA champion.
Kidd would play two more seasons in the league. One more in Dallas before finishing his career in New York as a member of the Knicks in the 2012-13 season.
Head Coach Jason Kidd
Jason Kidd retired from the NBA on June 3, 2013, with career averages of 12.6 points, 8.7 assists, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game. Kidd may have retired as a player, but he wouldn’t stay out of the league for long.
On June 12, 2013, Kidd was hired as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. This made Kidd the third player since the NBA-ABA merger to make his debut as an NBA coach the year after retiring as a player.
Kidd’s coaching career would get off to a rocky start. He’d miss the first two games of the season after being suspended for pleading guilty to a DWI charge that occurred from an incident in July 2012.
Kidd finished with a 44-38 record as head coach of the Nets in his first year. He led the Nets to the second round, where they lost 4-1 to the Miami Heat.
The following season saw the Nets trade their coach to the Milwaukee Bucks. So, Kidd would now be tasked to coach the Bucks, who were filled with young talent, including second-year Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Kidd would go on to coach the Bucks for three full seasons before getting fired in January 2018 after the Bucks were 23-22 at the start of the 2017-18 season.
Kidd would be hired as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he’d stay for two seasons, including the 2019-20 season, where the Lakers won the championship inside the Disney bubble. Kidd left the Lakers after the 2020-21 season to become the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks.
This past season, in his first year as head coach of the Mavericks, Kidd led the Mavericks to the playoffs, and they upset the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in seven games in the Semifinals round.
The Mavericks bowed out against the Golden State Warriors in five games in the Western Conference Finals, but despite this, Kidd had a great first year. Things seem to be moving in the right direction in Dallas, thanks to Kidd.
The culture in Dallas has changed back to its former winning ways, and if Kidd continues to develop the talent around star Luka Dončić, then the Mavericks and head coach Jason Kidd have a bright future ahead of them.
