By james art Jason Kidd has been a maligned coach throughout his coaching tenure, as stops with the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks didn’t end well. He admitted to ESPN’s Tim McMahon that he was still learning how to coach and didn’t really learn how to put it all together until he joined Frank Vogel’s team with the LA Lakers, where the two won a championship together. Now that he’s leading the Dallas Mavericks with some high profile personalities, Dallas believes they have the perfect coach for their situation.
McMahon talked about a lot in Thursday morning’s article about Kidd, but the biggest revelation was how much he is respected by his players and how that puts him in a unique situation to lead the Mavs.
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Kyrie Irving had a disappointing end to his time with the Boston Celtics and Nets and was perceived as a toxic character in the locker room. When the Mavs traded for him for pennies on the dollar, no one thought it would work out well and that Luka Doncic would demand a trade soon.
By all accounts, Irving is an exemplary teammate, and much of that has to do with his relationship with Jason Kidd, who was one of Irving’s favorite players growing up in New Jersey. According to McMahon, when Irving was with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he sought out Kidd for dinner in Phoenix, and Irving asked every question he could think of.
“Kai’s a special dude,” Kidd told ESPN’s Tim McMahon. “He wants to understand the game at the highest level, he wants to be promoted to the highest level. And I don’t think he’s afraid of failure. When I say fail, lose or miss a shot, but we will be back and Kai wants to be coached. Kai wants to be helped to win a championship.”
The two guards stayed in touch afterward, with Irving even attending Kidd’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and that’s a big reason why Irving was successful in Dallas.
Assistant coach Jared Dudley, who played for Kidd in Milwaukee, praised Kidd’s handling of the situation, telling McMahon, “I’ll be honest with you, there’s only two or three coaches in the league that have the cachet and the personality to be able to coach Luka and Kyrie at the same time and no problem… You’ve heard all about Kyrie in the last few places he’s been. You haven’t heard anything since Dallas Dallas, or do you think 80% of it has to do with Jason Kidd?”
That connection with Irving and rebuilding his image was a big reason why the team was able to convince Klay Thompson to leave the Golden State Warriors and come to Dallas. They let Kyrie Irving be himself, and after a stressful few years in the Bay Area, Thompson believes the same will happen for him.
As the season opens Thursday night against the San Antonio Spurs, expectations haven’t been this high in Dallas in a long time, and a lot of credit goes to Kidd for managing the superstars the way he does.
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