Fifteen years ago, Jason Kidd was a perfect point guard. Perhaps no one played the position with such skill and will since Magic Johnson. He could handle the ball with perfect precision, rebounded like a power forward and whipped the ball through impossible portals to players only he knew were open.
Before the NBA morphed into a 3-point shootout, when it was still prudent to get under the basket before you shot the ball, Kidd could make a fast break out of anything, grab the ball off the rim and gallop down the sideline, head up, his eyes darting for the sliver of space he needed for that bounce or chest-pass to a teammate under the rim. Kidd had such mastery of the ball it looked like an appendage, somehow born a part of his physique.
So it's not surprising that Kidd was just selected to enter the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this past weekend, leading a resplendent class that also includes Grant Hill, Mo Cheeks, Ray Allen and Steve Nash. Kidd retired with 12,091 assists -- second only to John Stockton in NBA history and almost 2,000 more than Magic and Nash. Though Kidd was known for the breakneck speed of his offensive game, his defense was underrated, finishing second (again to Stockton) in steals, with 2,684. To illustrate how complete Kidd's game was, he also averaged 6.3 rebounds per game and left his playing career with more total boards (8,725) than Willis Reed and Alonzo Mourning, and over 2,000 more than Johnson (6,559), who was about a half-foot taller. Kidd's career line reflects the montage of gifts he brought to basketball: 12.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game.
MORE: Keidel: Inept Nets Can Thank Knicks For Escaping Intense CriticismIf that's not enough, if you haven't watched basketball over the last 20 years, or somehow missed every game Kidd played, he finished his career as a 10-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA, nine-time All-Defensive selection and co-Rookie of the Year in 1994-95. By any and every basketball metric, he is a no-brainer, first-ballot Hall of Famer. And Kidd is clearly the best player in Nets history since they joined the NBA in 1976. (You can decide if Julius Erving gets the nod overall for the two ABA titles he brought the Nets when they played on Long Island.)
It's unlikely you've ever read "glory years" and "New Jersey Nets" in the same sentence. But for a few, fleeting seasons, the Meadowlands were the epicenter of basketball in the NBA's Eastern Conference, with Kidd leading endless charges down the court, using all 94 feet of the hardwood, running the opponent into the ground with endless, pristine passing and seeing the game in dimensions not visible to his foes. Sadly, those two years when the Nets reached the NBA Finals in consecutive years -- in 2002 and '03 -- they played before a freckling of fans and even had a woeful turnout during their playoff runs. (Having lived five minutes from the arena, I saw it firsthand.)
It was hard to think of a more fun, freestyle brand of basketball from those years, with Kidd firing the ball downcourt to athletic wingmen Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson as Kerry Kittles drained jumpers and an aging Dikembe Mutombo provided his trademark defense in the paint, flexing his forefinger after a blocked shot.
Those squads won four Atlantic Division titles in five years, from 2002 and 2006. The Nets had not won a single NBA division crown before then, and haven't won one since. And the only player of consequence the Nets had to give up for Kidd was "Starbury" (Stephon Marbury), which was perhaps the NBA heist of the century, italicizing the genius of Nets president Rod Thorn, who, fittingly enough, joined Kidd in the Hall of Fame over the weekend.
Nets head coach Byron Scott, a fine guard in his own right who knew something about winning as, coincidentally, Johnson's teammate from those Showtime years in Los Angeles, let Kidd run the show for those ephemeral, fun times at Continental Airlines Arena. Kidd was a coach on the court. Unfortunately for Scott, Kidd seemed to think he was the unofficial head coach and got Scott bounced from the New Jersey swamp. Kidd gained a seedy rep as a coach killer, which may explain why someone of his transcendent talent spent his career with five teams (or six if you consider his two stints in Dallas). But before he became a player who betrayed coaches or a coach who betrayed the Nets, Kidd was basketball at its selfless best.
And while his halcyon years didn't yield a title, he did spend the sunset of his NBA career as a vital cog on a championship team, helping the 2011 Dallas Mavericks defeat the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, no small feat considering they beat LeBron James in his absolute prime and starving for his first ring. And for a great player known for making others shine on the court, it's fitting that the folks in Springfield took a moment to make Kidd shine. There's no debating he belongs in the Hall.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
