On Jason Kidd

I don't remember much basketball from the nineties, so my first memory of Jason Kidd is when he was leading the New Jersey Nets to back to back Finals appearances in the early part of this century. And mostly what I picture in my mind is him feeding Vince Carter alley oops and kickouts to Kerry Kittles and Keith Van Horn for wide open threes. I missed his first stint with the Mavericks and his time with the Suns.

I looked up his highlights on Youtube, though, and once I got past the bleached hair, I found a more athletic Jason Kidd than I remembered. But that isn't what caught my attention.

The main thing that stands out from when you watch Kidd in his early years and then in his prime in New Jersey is his relentless penetration of the paint. Whether by driving or pinpoint passes, Kidd got into the teeth of the defense, constantly pushing the ball closer and closer to the rim. Everyone remembers the no-look passes, but I think him racing the ball up the court and somehow making sure the ball got to the hoop was more impressive.

This was the time when everyone called him Ason Kidd, because he had no J. And they were right. Kidd couldn't shoot. But that makes what he did even more impressive. Despite the fact that opponents were sagging back, daring him to shoot, he was still use his athleticism and size to get to the hole. Kidd was a wizard when it came to attacking the paint, and that should be his defining legacy of the nineties.

We also shouldn't forget, however, that he shot about six hundred three pointers his first two seasons, despite hovering around only thirty percent from downtown. He shouldn't have been shooting that much. But hey, his hair was the color of mustard and there was no internet at the time, so we'll leave it alone.

Then came his time in New Jersey. This was peak Jason Kidd. He ran the break perfectly, He made guys like Richard Jefferson, Kerry Kittles, and Keith Van Horn look really good. Those guys made a lot of money because of Kidd.

His shooting improved, but barely. Mostly he got his point by doing what he did in Dallas and Phoenix--getting the ball into the paint by any means necessary. He got the Nets to the Finals two years in a row, and did it with a roster that is underwhelming when you look back at it. Don't get me wrong, those guys I mentioned above were good. But Kidd made them special, and they never got back to that level again once they weren't on his team.

What followed were some fun years with Vince Carter once he arrived from Toronto. But the Nets were never a serious contender, and after a few years, Kidd wanted out to chase a ring.

When the Dallas Mavericks acquired Kidd, I thought the trade was a wash. Dallas gave up some young assets, most notably Devin Harris, But Kidd could get the ball to Dirk Nowitzki in good positions and run a team efficiently. I didn't think Kidd would put the Mavericks over the top by himself, but he was a good piece to have.

Rick Carlisle and Kidd clashed at first. Carlisle is controlling on offense and hard on point guards. But eventually he learned to trust Kidd to run the offense, which was a smart move. Nowitzki is especially dangerous in transition, most notably on trailing three's.

Two things developed in Kidd's game in Dallas that made him a key piece to the Mav's championship run in 2011. First, he began shooting spot-up three's with accuracy. He could camp out at the wing or top of the arc and wait for a kick out off a drive or a double-team on Nowitzki. Teams couldn't ignore him and it caused defenses to stretch.

Second, Kidd began to leverage his strength to defend larger players, allowing the Mavs to switch more often. One of the images that stands out in my mind during the Finals that year was Kidd defending LeBron James and doing it well.

It was really fun to watch the transformation of Kidd from a run-and-gun point guard who made his living on the break to a deadly catch-and-shoot point guard who could defend any position one through four.

It didn't surprise me that Kidd went into coaching, not even when he was made a head coach in his first year of retirement. That chapter of his career has yet to be written, but if he approaches it with the versatility of his playing days, he'll do just fine.