Eight years after leading the New Jersey Nets to the NBA’s championship round, J-Kidd is headed back to the Finals with the team that drafted him.

This year’s trip to the league championship is the third for No. 2, who went twice with the Nets. But the 2011 Finals offer Jason a chance to win the title that has eluded him, and further cement his legacy among the NBA’s elite all-time point guards.


Jason Kidd’s third trip to the NBA Finals offers a chance to right past postseason wrongs.

According to Nick Coman of NESN, a Finals win would put J-Kidd atop that list. Coman writes that Jason’s play on both sides of the ball, creating for his teammates on offense while shutting down some of the NBA’s best on defense, has been a revelation. The fact that Jason is excelling at this point in his career only furthers the point:

One, of course, must put this performance into context. Kidd is doing this in the twilight of his career — one that has seen him be the league’s most complete point guard for a decade and a half. Nobody who has ever played the position has been as good of a rebounder. Nowitzki ranks 64th all-time in career rebounds. Kidd is 65th, light-years ahead of every other point guard. Nobody to play the position has ever been as good of a defender, indicated by his nine NBA All-Defensive Teams. His five first team All-NBA teams are more than Stockton, Nash and Thomas combined.

Kidd’s greatness, though, has been defined by his evolution as a player. In his early years, Kidd played with as high of a tempo as has ever been seen — and with a captivating flair and swagger. He eventually grew into a dominant all-around player, scoring efficiently, dominating defensively, rebounding like a forward and distributing and spacing the floor to perfection.

According to Coman, it’s that ability to evolve and adapt that sets Jason apart among his peers and that will, with a ring on his finger, make him the best point guard of all-time:

"Over the course of his career, he has been every type of point guard, and he has mastered them all. Even without a title, one could easily argue that he is the greatest ever at the position.

With one, though, there’s simply no argument.

The NBA playoffs have a way of creating legends each and every year. That’s exactly what is at stake for Nowitzki. If he does in fact achieve such, though, he’ll have another legend to thank for it — the greatest point guard ever."

This season’s finals represent a unique opportunity for each of the Mavs to alter their legacies, as no member of the team has won a championship.

"All of us have unique stories," Jason Terry explained. "Shawn Marion, Peja, Coach Carlisle, Jason Kidd being

[to the Finals] twice and not getting it done. So, I think that’s what is driving us and that is why we’re going to try to get it done this year for all of those guys."

HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPION
Jason’s story began a long way from the Miami hardwood where he will begin his latest quest for a ring Tuesday night.

It started in California’s Bay Area, where, as a high school freshman, J-Kidd was already showing signs of his NBA potential, writes Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle:

The one quality that always defined him: presence. Bay Area basketball insiders have known this since Kidd’s days at St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, where he led the school to two straight state championships.

"He did some things in the eighth grade that even amazed college coaches," said his coach, the late Frank LaPorte, a few years back. "Nobody could believe he was a freshman. He was already the talk of the town."

High school teammate Joe Nelson, a former major league baseball pitcher, said Jason was the main attraction back in those days:

"In California high school basketball, Jason was the draw," Nelson told the San Francisco Chronicle. "High school basketball players who didn’t have a game that night would come to watch Jason play. That’s the biggest compliment you can give to a person, when your peers are thoroughly open-mouthed watching you play.

"I played in the big leagues. I played with some of the greatest athletes in the world, and without question, Jason is the best athlete I’ve ever seen in my life."

Nelson said that even his teammates would get caught watching Jason do his thing on the court:

There’s a joy that comes with playing with Jason. I can’t tell you how many guys – myself included – got hit in the face with passes that were on the money because they weren’t ready. That’s happened at every level Jason’s ever played – that happens because we like watching him, too.

Nelson, who now works for the Boston Red Sox, still loves watching J-Kidd play and plans to tune in for the Finals to root his former teammate to NBA glory.

"If there was anything that I would hope for Jason, it would be that he would get a championship. It’s the only thing he doesn’t have in his vault, (but) … I won’t think of him as any less of a player if he never wins an NBA championship. … I won’t look at Jason’s career like, "Oh, he never won a title." I’ll look at Jason’s career and go, "I got a chance to play with one of the greatest players who ever put on high-tops" – and nobody can ever take that away."

THE COLLEGE YEARS
Jason’s decision to stay home for college and attend the Universty of California – Berkeley shocked many, but from the moment J-Kidd stepped onto the floor in Berkeley, he was a sensation.

Over at SB Nation’s California Golden Blogs, the writers took the Mavs’ run as a chance for a two-part retrospective series on Jason’s Cal career. Ohio Bear relays his account of Jason’s freshman year at the University of California:

"It was a tumultuous year for Cal basketball. Expectations were high in Berkeley because of the wealth of talent, albeit young talent, on the Bears’ roster and Kidd was considered the Jesus in Sneakers of his time. In a controversial move, Athletic Director Bob Bockrath fired Coach Campanelli midseason after a 10-7 start due to verbal abuse of players. But after assistant coach Todd Bozeman took over the team, Cal went on a tear, due in no small part to the play of Kidd."

The Bears finished their Pac-10 season strong and made it to the NCAA tournament where they knocked off LSU and Duke before falling to Kansas in the Sweet 16.

"Kidd was the reason Cal won its first round game against LSU — the "pretzel shot" off the backboard for the gamewinner was typical Jason Kidd.

And so was the performance against Duke in the second round, in particular the play late in the game where Jason picked up a loose ball underneath, wrestling it away from a couple of Blue Devils, and went up for an "and 1." (Verne Lundquist on the play-by-play: "OH MY. OH, GOODNESS!") That play showed the type of strength Jason had: then-Washington State coach Kelvin Sampson once quipped about Kidd: "He’s not a point guard. He’s a pulling guard."

To read more of California Golden Blogs’ retrospective of Jason’s freshman season, click here:

The Bears lost several players to graduation following Jason’s freshman year, but with J-Kidd leading the charge they weren’t expected to miss a beat.

Another highly touted recruiting class was headed to Berkeley as well. Among those recruits was Randy Duck, who relays a story to the San Francisco Chronicle of his first encounter with J-Kidd:

"I came from Texas and I hadn’t really known who Jason Kidd was," Duck said.

(Duck then told the story of playing against Kidd in an open-gym game. Duck was doing well until he started talking some smack to Kidd, who quickly shut down Duck.)

"(Kidd) proceeded to score about 12 points in a row. And he kind of gave me a pat on the back as I was leaving the court, like "Yeah, good one." People go, "Oh, now you know who Jason Kidd is." I said, "Right. OK. I get it now."

In Jason’s sophomore year, the Golden Bears were ousted in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But one moment from that season will always stand out to the Berkeley faithful: The Super Bowl Sunday (January 30, 1994) upset of No. 1 UCLA, as Ohio Bear relays:

"Cal was ranked 6th in the preseason polls, but didn’t quite live up to that lofty ranking. But Kidd delivered more than enough "oooh" and "aaahh" moments. My most enduring memory is probably the UCLA game at the Oakland Coliseum on Super Bowl Sunday 1994. UCLA came into the game ranked #1 in the country. But for a 3 or 4 minute stretch in the second half, with the game in the balance, Kidd reduced UCLA to the equivalent of the Washington Generals. Kidd dominated with rebounds, steals, coast-to-coast layups, dazzling dimes — you name it, he did it in that game. It was an incredible performance.

There was about a 3 minute stretch of the UCLA game in 1994 at the Oakland Coliseum that was epic. It was all Kidd all the time — a drive and dish here, a steal here, a rebound and coast-to-coast there, etc.

I don’t remember if Cal was leading at the time the onslaught started, but when it was over, Cal had broken the game open and led by double digits. I was not in attendance, but was sorry I wasn’t there.

Toward the end of the barrage, after Kidd had made another play (I want to say it was a steal), ABC Sports play-by-play announcer Mark Jones said:

"It’s Jason’s world right now and we’re just living in it."

It was such a "nailed it" description."

For more of the retrospective of Jason’s sophomore season at California Golden Blogs, click here.

J-Kidd would depart Cal for the NBA after his sophomore season without a championship, but still left a lasting impression on the program. Duck told the Chronicle he’s still in awe of what Jason can do all these years later:

"The things that he does, a lot of them can’t be taught. You can’t say, ‘Hey, I want you to be able to decipher four or five plays ahead of the game,’" Duck said. "For him to be doing it at this age (38); I’m 36 and I couldn’t even imagine playing another season right now – at any level: high school level, college level, pro level. My body wouldn’t accept it. There’s no way. And he’s playing against the best of the best. It’s a huge, huge accomplishment."

ON TO THE NBA
Jason’s 17-year NBA career is a journey in itself.

It began with his selection, with the second pick in the 1994 NBA Draft, by the same Dallas Mavericks franchise that he will lead into the Finals on Tuesday.

But Jason spent only just over two years in Dallas before being sent to Phoenix in a December, 1996 trade. Once in Phoenix, J-Kidd led a quick turnaround, taking a team that had suffered two consecutive 40-win seasons to 56 victories in his first full season there. According to Current Sun  Grant Hill, Jason’s stardom led to the influx of talent at point guard.

"We’re at a moment in time where there is an unbelievable amount of great point guards in the league," Hill told the Arizona Republic. "A lot of them grew up watching Kidd and were influenced by him. So I think the word is respect. I don’t know if the fans in Phoenix are cheering for him, but I know I am."

Jason was traded away from Phoenix to the New Jersey Nets after four-and-a-half seasons in the desert, but still has the support of Suns owner Jerry Colangelo:

"Family is family. That’s how I see it," former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo told the Arizona Republic. "I cheer for the Suns, past and present. It’s important to remember what players did in terms of contributing to the franchise.

Jason continued his habit of helping teams turn around in his next home, New Jersey, as Brown Mamba of Chasing 23 writes:

Kidd’s other primary foray during his career (other than a few Cliff Robinson highlights with the Suns), took place with the New Jersey Nets. Again, Kidd played a critical role in turning around a young Nets team with two up and comers: Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson. These two players saw their market values reach all-time highs with J-Kidd, and then saw their stock plummet very soon after leaving him: both dropping in every single major category. Kenyon Martin through his career has averaged about 33% more points when playing with Kidd, and Jefferson 10% (a number that would have been worse had he not been entitled to jack up any shot he wanted while on a terrible Nets team)…"

"Kidd took a lowly Nets team through a 26 game improvement in his 1st year (the only tangible difference being that Kidd replaced "hometown boy and playground legend" Stephon Marbury) and eventually to two NBA Finals. This was a notably weak Eastern Conference, but still, Kidd was able to take the Nets through the best years of its franchise history."

Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes of Jason’s stunning body of work in New Jersey and how he was never rewarded with the championship he was seeking:

What he did with the Nets at the turn of the century was nothing short of spectacular. He transformed a desolate franchise into a team that was fun to watch, except big crowds never showed up to the Meadowlands. The Nets ranked 26th and 23rd in attendance those two Finals years. Bruce Springsteen sold out more nights at the Meadowlands than those Nets teams did.

Kidd also led a team that was raw and light on All-Star talent. The Nets’ starting five in 2002: Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Keith Van Horn, Kerry Kittles and Todd MacCulloch. The next season it was Richard Jefferson and Jason Collins for Kittles and MacCulloch. Aside from Kidd, the only All-Star in the bunch was Martin, who got his lone nod back in 2004.

Finally: You try beating Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, who were young, friendly and dominating back then. That was followed by Tim Duncan and David Robinson, who would retire following the series.

After six-and-a-half years leading a New Jersey revival, the Nets traded J-Kidd back to Dallas in 2008, allowing his career to come full circle.

Less than three years after that trade, Jason has the chance to turn his long journey into a championship run, making up for some of the missed chances in his career in the process.

Powell writes that now is Jason’s chance to rewrite that chapter of his story.

"Most likely, this is his last chance. And he knows it. You can tell by the way Kidd pushes his body in the postseason.

He played 36 minutes a night against a younger and quicker player in Russell Westbrook. His averages against OKC: 9.6 ppg, 8.6 apg and 2.0 turnovers per game.

He has led his teams to 14 straight postseasons. No active player has more playoff games without winning a title.

For someone who perfected the art of the assist long ago, he can’t allow this opportunity to pass."

NEXT UP
Jason and the Mavericks tip-off the 2011 NBA Finals on Tuesday night in Miami against the Heat. Game 1 is set to begin at 8 p.m. CST and can be seen on ABC. Below is the entire schedule for the best-of-seven championship series.

  • Game 1: Dallas at Miami, Tuesday, May 31st at 8:00pm CST on ABC
  • Game 2: Dallas at Miami, Thursday, June 2nd at 8:00pm CST on ABC
  • Game 3: Miami at Dallas, Sunday, June 5th at 7:00pm CST on ABC
  • Game 4: Miami at Dallas, Tuesday, June 7th at 8:00pm CST on ABC
  • *Game 5: Miami at Dallas, Thursday, June 9th at 8:00pm CST on ABC
  • *Game 6: Dallas at Miami, Sunday, June 12th at 7:00pm CST on ABC
  • *Game 7: Dallas at Miami, Tuesday, June 14th at 8:0pm CST on ABC

*if necessary

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