Top 5 Idiotic Jason Kidd Moments
by Jake Brown
@JBSportsRadio
Jason Kidd had a brilliant NBA career. He won an NBA championship in 2011 with the Mavericks. He won two Olympic gold medals. He was a ten-time All Star. He is second all-time in assists. He's third all-time in triple doubles. The numbers speak for themselves. He's a lock to make the NBA Hall of Fame.
Let's put that aside for now, because Kidd's most recent actions have taken a major toll on not only his legacy with the Nets, but with the entire NBA. Kidd has decided to bolt Brooklyn and head to Milwaukee. After just one year as a head coach with the Nets, Kidd will now coach the Bucks and is expected to have a role in the front office in the near future. The Nets would not allow Kidd to do both, and therefore he chose to get what he wanted in Milwaukee.
This makes us all think of the most idiotic, ignorant moments of Kidd's career. Let's break it down in chronological order.
1. Kidd bolts Brooklyn for Milwaukee - June, 2014
This story tops them all. Kidd transitioned from player to coach immediately. He signed a four-year, $10.5 million contract to man the sidelines in Brooklyn. The Nets went 44-38 and made it to the Eastern Conference Semifinals, where they lost 4-1 to the Miami Heat. Then Steve Kerr and Derek Fisher went out and got big money deals that Kidd was not too fond of. Now, Kidd has decided to leave the Nets so he can coach the Bucks, and have a role in the front office. The Bucks?! The same team that had the worst record in the NBA. The same team that has not escaped the first round of the playoffs in more than a dozen years. Not only that, the Bucks had head coach Larry Drew there. Kidd went in and took Drew's job because of his close relationship with Bucks co-owner Mark Lasry. Can you imagine what is going through Drew's mind right now? Kidd's legacy with the New Jersey and Brooklyn Nets is pretty much up in shambles at this point. It's pretty sad for a guy whose jersey hangs in the rafters at the Barclays Center. They put it up in a meaningless pre-season game, and coincidentally now it hangs there with no meaning to Nets fans.
2. Kidd has player hit him to spill soda to draw up play - November, 2013
If people were questioning whether Kidd can be a successful head coach, a 10-21 start to the season kept people in doubt. In the midst of the dreadful start, the rookie head coach made a boneheaded, amateur move. In a late November game against the awful Lakers, Kidd ran out of timeouts in the final minute of the game. In a bizarre sequence of events, the rookie head coach told his rookie backup point guard Tyshawn Taylor to knock into him with a soda in his hand. Taylor did just that to spill Kidd's drink and give the Nets time to draw up a play while they cleaned up his mess. He was fined $50,000 for the incident. This was just another one of the many blunders Kidd has made in his 22-year career in the NBA.
3. Kidd signs with Knicks...then gets arrested for DWI - July, 2012
Kidd left the Mavericks for a second time and signed a three-year, $9 million deal with the Knicks. From the Mavericks to the Suns to the Nets back to the Mavericks to the Knicks. Kidd has been around the block, but he came to the Big Apple to finish off his playing career. Days after the contract became official in July of 2012, Kidd decided to celebrate excessively. He got wasted at a nightclub in the Hamptons. The point guard known for his court vision decided he would test his drunken vision on the roads. He crashed into a pole and was arrested for driving while intoxicated. He was suspended two games for the incident. The two games were at the start of his coaching career with the Nets. So I guess it's safe to say it was a disastrous beginning on the sidelines and a tumultuous ending for Kidd with the Nets.
4. Kidd charged with domestic violence assault - January, 2001
In January of 2001, while playing for the Phoenix Suns, Kidd was charged with domestic violence assault after he hit his wife at the time, Joumana. He was fined $200 and ordered to take anger management classes. His record was later expunged. This was just the start of all different stories between the two that would eventually lead to their divorce in 2007. His wife reported that he was having extramarital affairs with several different television reporters, strippers, and others. He would say goodbye to the Nets in 2008 and head back to Dallas where his career began.
5. Kidd fought with Mavs teammate Jim Jackson over singer Toni Braxton - 1996
There's the famous saying that goes "bros before hoes." That was irrelevant to Kidd at the start of his NBA career. Despite Kidd and Jim Jackson denying it, rumors circulated around that the two teammates with the Mavericks fought over singer Toni Braxton. The story goes that Braxton went to an Atlanta hotel to pick up Kidd, only to end up leaving with Jackson. Kidd demanded that one or both of them get traded. The Mavs went with the latter and sent them both packing. This was just the beginning of a drama-filled career for the superstar guard.