Although Dallas Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd has no hard feelings toward his former team, the New Jersey Nets, he made them infamous in last night’s 117-101 Dallas win.

With the loss, the Nets now hold the NBA record for the worst start ever at 0-18.


Jason dished out 10 dimes in the win over his former team (Getty Images).

The Nets must have felt the sting of letting J-Kidd go when he poured in 16 points, dished out 10 assists, pulled down eight rebounds and swiped five steals. No. 2 was just two rebounds short of a triple-double, a feat he became famous for while donning a Nets jersey.

"It doesn’t pain me," Jason told the Newark Star-Ledger, after engineering the Mavericks’ 117-101 rout of the Nets, which set the record for most consecutive losses to start a season. "I wish those guys luck to turn this thing around. There were whispers this was coming. You could see it coming, but you know, they’re going to turn it around."

DARK DAYS
After a string of successful years with J-Kidd at the helm, New Jersey has fallen onto hard times.

When the Nets dropped to 0-16 last week, head coach Lawrence Frank was fired and Kiki Vandeweghe was hired in his place. Former Mavericks coach Del Harris has been named the new assistant coach and will try to help Vandeweghe turn the Nets around.

Jason once led the Nets, but now as he guides the Mavs to one of the league’s best records, it’s harder to relate to the team he used to be such a big part of. Still, he could see the writing on the wall before he departed, as he told the Dallas Morning News:

"You could see the dominoes start to go the other way. We didn’t recover from losing K-Mart (Kenyon Martin), but we still fought and tried to win. But now, there’s nobody there that was part of that team except Rod (Thorn, their president), and he doesn’t play."

THE GOLDEN DAYS
Times weren’t always so tough for the Nets. J-Kidd was a key leader on the team from 2001-2008. He led the Nets to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 and New Jersey made it to the playoffs in every full season he played. His leadership helped turn a struggling team into serious contenders for the title. In his six and a half seasons with the Nets, they went 322-275.

But it all came to an end two years ago when Jason was involved in an eight-player trade and was sent back to the Mavericks, the team that chose him as the No. 2 draft pick back in 1994.

Although it was difficult to leave his teammates and the team he helped rebuild, he was enthusiastic about returning to Dallas. The Nets, however, traded away possibly the best player they ever had. Jason appreciated the support of the fans on Wednesday, even as he returned with different colors on, as quoted in the New York Daily News:

"The fans were great, they’ve always been great here for me in the tri-state area. They all said that they missed me. I miss them, too, because this was a great place to play when I was here," Kidd said.

MOVING ON
J-Kidd noted that he tried not to think too much about the notorious record the Nets were about to set. He has respect for his former franchise and doesn’t think that record reflects them as athletes:

"I got too many things to worry about with my own team. The big thing is, once I was traded, I stayed in touch with those guys as friends but I didn’t pay too much attention about where the franchise was at. They’re young and they have some talent. But things being good at one point and now being bad, they’ll get it back going in the right direction."

Jason also expressed his compassion for New Jersey and he knows that the players over on the other side had a lot more on their minds than just the game, as he told the Star-Ledger:

"It’s unfortunate. But you’ve got to play the games that are scheduled. They’re going through some changes on their side and they’ve just got to stay with it and stay positive. Things will turn eventually. They got a new owner maybe coming in. There’s talk of them going to Brooklyn, so there’s a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t even have to deal with basketball that they got in this streak."

NEXT UP
J-Kidd and the Mavs continue their road trip and head to Memphis to face the Grizzlies Friday night at 7 p.m. on Fox Sports Network Southwest.

RELATED STORIES
Kidd can’t shed a tear for Nets (Dallas Morning News, Dec. 2, 2009)
http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/kidd-cant-shed-a-tear-for-nets.html
NJ Nets set NBA record for worst start to season, fall to 0-18 with 117-101 loss to Dallas Mavericks (NJ.com, Dec. 2, 2009)
http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2009/12/nj_nets_set_nba_record_for_wor.html
Mavericks at Nets Boxscore (NBA.com, Dec. 2, 2009)
http://www.nba.com/games/20091202/DALNJN/gameinfo.html?ls=gt2hp0020900263
Former NJ Net Jason Kidd not affected by team’s current struggles (NJ.com, Dec. 2, 2009)
http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2009/12/former_nj_net_jason_kidd_not_a.html
Ex-New Jersey Net Jason Kidd says team’s fall began when stars left (NY Daily News, December 3, 2009)
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/2009/12/03/2009-12-03_exnew_jersey_net_jason_kidd_.html