Nobody at all should be surprised that Jason Kidd pointedly said, in today’s Finals media availability, that Jaylen Brown was the best player on the Celtics.
Nobody with even a toe in the NBA water is unaware of the constant debate over Jayson Tatum’s ranking in the NBA hierarchy and yet, Kidd tried to be slick with his not so subtle troll job.
“Well, Jaylen’s their best player, so just looking at what he does defensively, he picked up Luka [Doncic] full court, he got to the free throw line. He did everything and that’s what your best player does. He plays both sides, defense and offense, at a high rate and he’s been doing that the whole playoffs,” Kidd said Saturday afternoon. “We’re talking about the Eastern Conference [Finals] MVP, it seems like he’s continued where he’s left off.”
When told about Kidd’s comments, Brown shrugged and responded, “I have no reaction. It’s a team game and we’re trying to focus on that. Everybody has their own opinions.”
Tatum echoed those sentiments and expanded, “no reaction. This is a team sport. We understand that we wouldn’t be here without JB on our team and we could say that for a lot of guys, right? We’ve all played a part in getting to where we’re at and we understand that people try and drive a wedge in between us. It’s a smart thing to try and do, but we’ve been in this position with guys trying to divide us or saying that one of us should be traded or one’s better than the other. It’s not our first time at the rodeo.”
Al Horford just laughed and said, “man, I see what he’s doing.”
It’s just the latest in a line of clumsy maneuvers by Kidd.
Turn your clocks back to Friday, February 26, 2010. Dallas trails Atlanta 95-97, with about a minute and a half left. The Mavericks’ point guard, one Jason Kidd by name, comes trucking up the court, and he notices that Mike Woodson, Atlanta’s head coach, is standing on the court.
Now this is a no-no, but it’s also one of the most widely ignored no-nos in professional basketball. Kidd sees Woodson on the court and makes a beeline for him. Woodson, realizing at the last second that as soon as Kidd touches him, it’s an automatic, no-questions-asked absolutely guaranteed technical foul, jumps backward, but it’s too late. Kidd swings out his left arm and smacks Woodson.
Mavs are awarded a free throw and retain possession.
They eventually go on to force overtime and win.
Was it a legit play?
Sure, kind of, I guess.
It certainly fits the letter of the law, and it probably taught Woodson to be a bit more careful about where he puts his feet, but take a look at the video. Kidd isn’t doing anything but trying to get that technical, there’s no basketball play here. If Woodson manages to get off the court, Kidd is up a creek. After the game he said as much.
Fast forward three years and change, and Kidd is now coaching the Brooklyn Nets. They’re down two to the Lakers with 8.3 seconds left and the Nets are all out of timeouts. No matter, Kidd, cup of pop in hand, seemingly runs into Tyshaun Taylor (after instructing him to bump him), spilling his drink all over the court.
During the ensuing cleanup, the Nets are able to draw up a play in case Meeks misses one or both free throws.
Afterwards, it becomes quite clear that Kidd orchestrated the stunt in order to steal a time out and he’s fined $50,000 by the NBA.
Less than a year later, Kidd tried to use his relationship with new Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, who had formerly been part of the Nets ownership group, to leverage team president responsibilities from Brooklyn. This after just one year on the job, and a pretty underwhelming year at that.
The Nets called his bluff, and the next thing you know, Marc Lasry’s agreed to hire Kidd without telling anyone, not the Bucks’ GM, nor their current coach, Larry Drew, nobody. The Bucks’ GM, John Hammond, found out that he had a new coach in a Saturday night media report.
Kidd’s comment today is just another ham-fisted bit of manipulation, about as transparent as any of his past attempts at gamesmanship.
