With his playoff debut as a head coach just days away, Jason Kidd sat down with BrooklynNets.com reporter Lenn Robbins for an exclusive one-on-one.
Before jumping into basketball, the two talked about where J-Kidd would like to improve his golf game, and about his dream to play Augusta National, the site of The Masters.
Coach Kidd also talked about the unmatched work ethic that two of Brooklyn’s newest veteran additions, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, have brought to the team. Over the course of the interview, he also touched on another new key addition, Shaun Livingston.
Robbins managed to catch a glimpse inside the mind of Brooklyn’s first-year coach when he asked about meditation and how that guides him on the court.
Q. How has meditation helped you as a coach?
A. I can use the Philadelphia game (a 4-point win in which the Nets gave back most of 21-point lead) as an example. I wasn’t panicking about the score, or what was happening, I just needed to find out who could handle the situation. As a player, I always felt confident that if I was caIm, my teammates knew, “He’s going to do something to help is win.” As a coach, my hands are really tied. I got to believe in my players. If they see I’m calm, they’ll believe I trust them, which I do.
Jason was also grilled about how he was able to coach his way through a rocky start to the season. However, J-Kidd said he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Q. Has this been an enjoyable first season as a coach? Is there anything you would have changed?
A. No. People might think it’s crazy, but if we got off to a great start and everything was good, there would be a lot of things we wouldn’t know. We wouldn’t know Mason
[Plumlee] could play at a high level. We wouldn’t know we could use Shaun and Deron [Williams]. I’m happy it went this way. We were challenged early. As a coach, I was challenged. As coaches, we were challenged. The players were challenged. And as a team, we responded. I couldn’t have asked for a better first year to learn this job.Find out more about Coach Kidd’s thoughts on the 2013-14 season, his outlook for the playoffs, how he met his wife Porschla and even who he’d like to play him in a movie by reading the full interview with Lenn Robbins at BrooklynNets.com.
