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 he was still learning how to coach and didn’t really learn how to put it all together until he was on Frank Vogel’s LA Lakers staff, where they won a championship together. Now that he’s in charge of the Dallas Mavericks with some high-profile personalities, Dallas believes they have the perfect coach for their situation.
McMahon talked about a lot of things in Thursday morning’s piece about Kidd, but the biggest revelation was how revered he is by his players and how that puts him in a unique situation to lead the Mavs.
Kyrie Irving had a disappointing end to his tenure with the Boston Celtics and Nets and was seen as a toxic character to have in a locker room. When the Mavs traded for him for pennies on the dollar, no one thought it would work well and that Luka Doncic would ask for a trade before long.
By all accounts, Irving has been a model teammate, and a lot 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, with Irving asking every question he could think of.
Kai is a special dude,” Kidd told ESPN’s Tim McMahon. “He wants to understand the game at the highest level, wants to be pushed to the highest level. And I don’t think he’s afraid of failing. When I say failing, losing or missing a shot, but we’ll come back and learn from that. Kai wants to be coached. Kai wants to be helped to win a championship.”
The two cerebral guards maintained a connection after that, with Irving even attending Kidd’s Hall-of-Fame induction ceremony, and this has been a big reason why Irving has had success in Dallas.
Assistant coach Jared Dudley, who played for Kidd in Milwaukee, praised how Kidd has handled the situation, saying to McMahon, “I’m going to be honest with you, there’s only two or three coaches in the league that have the cachet and personality to be able to coach Luka and Kyrie at the same time and have no problems… You heard all about Kyrie in the last couple places he’s been. You haven’t heard one thing since he’s been in Dallas. Do you think that’s just Dallas, or do you think 80% has to do with Jason Kidd?”