Jason Kidd Among 13 In 2018 Hall Of Fame Class

Jason Kidd speaks during the NBA Hall of Fame news conference on March 31, 2018, at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Photo credit USA TODAY Images
By WFAN.com

Jason Kidd, the dynamic point guard who led the New Jersey Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals appearances in the early 2000s, is headed to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Kidd is one of 13 inductees who'll be enshrined in September in Springfield, Massachusetts, the Hall announced Saturday. Other NBA players who received the call were Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Maurice Cheeks and Charlie Scott.

Kidd played 19 seasons in the NBA for the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, Nets and Knicks. As complete a point guard as there has been, he ranks second in league history in assists (12,091), second in steals (2,684) and ninth in 3-point field goals (1,988).

"It's just very humbling, surreal, to have this opportunity to play a game that you love and to be honored with this class," Kidd said at a news conference Saturday in San Antonio, site of this weekend's NCAA Final Four. "I would like to thank the Hall of Fame for doing this. And again, this being a team sport, it's about my teammates and coaches, so hopefully I'm representing them well here today."

Honored and humbled to get the call to the @hoophall! I look forward to joining the all-time greats of the game in Springfield as a part of this incredible class. #18HoopClass

— Jason Kidd (@RealJasonKidd) March 31, 2018

The second overall draft pick by Dallas in 1994 out of the University of California, Kidd shared Rookie of the Year honors with Hill and was a 10-time All-Star and five-time single-season assists leader. 

After being traded from Phoenix in June 2001, Kidd led the Nets to Eastern Conference titles in 2002 and 2003, but New Jersey could not get past the Lakers and Spurs, respectively, in the NBA Finals.

He, however, finally won his championship ring at age 37 in his second tour with the Mavericks, when they beat the Miami Heat in the 2011 Finals. 

Just days after retiring with the Knicks in 2013, Kidd returned to the Nets as their head coach, but that ended in an ugly divorce after just one season when he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for two second-round draft picks. He spent 3 1/2 seasons in Milwaukee before being fired in January.

Kidd is not the only Hall of Fame inductee with local ties. Rod Thorn was the Nets' team president from 2000-10, assembling those Kidd-led NBA Finals teams and winning Executive of the Year in 2002. Cheeks, best known as a point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1980s and then as a head coach for three franchises, played briefly for the Knicks and Nets. Scott is a Harlem native who went on to star at the University of North Carolina before becoming a five-time All-Star in the ABA and NBA. Katie Smith spent the last of her 15 years in the WNBA with the New York Liberty and is now the team's head coach.

The other inductees include longtime college coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell, WNBA star Tina Thompson, NBA executive Rick Welts, black women's basketball and tennis pioneer Ora Mae Washington and European star and ex-Celtic Dino Radja.