Jason Kidd took the Mavericks to a pair of Western Conference finals in his relatively short stay in Dallas. The list of other Mavs coaches to take two squads on deep playoff runs would be … zero.
Consider that he was co-Rookie of the Year (with Grant Hill) in 1995, set to drag the Mavericks out of the malaise that had followed the Aguirre-Blackman-Harper years. It’s not his fault that the best parts of his pro career were achieved in Phoenix or New Jersey. He never asked to be traded away.
When Kidd returned, he was a 17-year vet and key ingredient in the Mavericks’ only championship. Dirk Nowitzki is the most beloved athlete in this city. I firmly believe that he ranks ahead of even the most popular Cowboys. I have no problem with it, either. But the most remarkable part of that 2011 title run, for me, has always been the fact that Kidd — at an age where most guards have retired — covered Kobe Bryant for a large portion of the second-round series against the defending champs. And the Mavs never paid a price for it because he was still a willing, physical defender at 38.
I still find it curious how there have been stories in the last 24 hours — both local and national — about how getting rid of Kidd finally allows the Mavs to emerge from the Luka disaster. It wasn’t his, anyway, but does anyone want to mention the Brunson disaster that’s ongoing? That was all Cuban and Nico and their getting cute with the math of Jalen’s deal. Now he’s got his team in the conference finals for the second year in a row, and he fully won Game 1 Tuesday night in a record-setting comeback on his own.
Kidd coached Brunson to the level that a roster with Luka on it would allow. But I still remember him talking to Brunson for maybe half an hour after the last practice before the Utah series. That’s the one in which the world saw that the Mavericks had another star at point guard and a rising star just about everyone besides Cuban and Harrison could see was bound for New York as soon as possible.
I’m not suggesting Kidd was never at fault here during his five years. For a guy who was an all-pro passer, he had some weird ideas about offensive sets and inbound plays, and he could be as bad as Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson Tuesday (OK, maybe no NBA coach has ever been that bad) when it came to ignoring timeouts that could be used to stop opponents’ offensive runs.
Kidd accomplished a heck of a lot in his time here. No other Dallas point guard has won a championship and no other coach has taken a pair of teams as deep as the conference finals. Seems like that’s worthy of applause. Feels more like there’s a collective yawn as Kidd leaves town a third time unlikely to return in a Mavericks capacity ever again.