Jason Kidd is a Basketball Hall of Famer, a 10-time NBA All-Star, an NBA champion and an NBA 75th Anniversary Team member. The Dallas Mavericks coach said he earned the biggest honor of his career by coaching his team to the 2024 NBA Finals, which starts Thursday in Boston (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
Looking back, the only major blemish Kidd has endured was being fired on Jan. 22, 2018, as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. While the firing was quite humbling for a basketball icon who had only known success, Kidd opted to look toward the future instead of dwelling on his first true failure.
“Coaching is not easy in this industry,” Kidd told Andscape. “There is always movement. There are only certain coaches who are cemented in their place — well-deserved, with Pop [Gregg Popovich], Spo [Erik Spoelstra]. After that, there has been a lot of movement. You just hope that you can win and do the right thing for as long as you can …
“The thing about being let go or fired was I wasn’t up to their standards. So, that’s how I thought about it. Then I thought what is the best way to get better.”
Kidd got a call on that day in 2018 from Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who told him that he was going to be fired and that he was willing to help him save his job. Believing that such a decision was on the horizon, Kidd thanked Antetokounmpo and told him there was nothing he could do. Shortly after, Bucks general manager Jon Horst and team president Peter Feigin officially gave Kidd the decision at a pizza restaurant.
Kidd was 139-152 overall as the Bucks coach and led the team to playoff appearances in 2015 and 2017. He also coached the Brooklyn Nets during the 2013-14 season before being traded as a coach to Milwaukee. The Bucks had a 23-22 record at the time of his firing. The 19-year NBA veteran point guard was never waived as a player, so it was essentially the first firing of his career.
“I thought I did a really good job of taking a bad organization or franchise that wasn’t very good and making them respectable,” Kidd said. “That’s where my mind was being fired or let go or dismissed. That’s just part of coaching.”
During the 2018-19 season, Kidd wasn’t on a basketball sideline for the first time since he started playing basketball. To grow as a coach, he visited Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs and the Mavericks and then-coach Rick Carlisle. Kidd planned to visit then-Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder, but that didn’t happen.
“Just seeing Rick do his thing and then also seeing Pop being Pop was really eye-opening,” Kidd reflected.
During a trip to Boston during his layoff, Kidd also had dinner with then-Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving. Kidd was familiar with Irving since the latter’s AAU days with Nike. Irving was a longtime fan of Kidd’s while growing up. They bonded on sharing the same basketball trainer and the same March 23 birthday.
Years later, Kidd would end up coaching Irving with the Mavericks. Irving affectionately calls Kidd, “Big Bro,” out of respect.
“I always heard stories about him from my conditioning coach and he would just tell me similarities and also some of the differences that we had, and if I ever got a chance to play for him, that would be kind of the first person I wanted to go all out for,” Irving said. “We had some communication behind the scenes. But it was very sparse and it was just big brother-little brother type of thing.”
“I knew Ky. So, knowing someone always helps the situation,” Kidd said.
Kidd began his coaching career immediately as a coach with the Nets during the 2013-14 season. During the 2019-2020 season, he returned to the NBA bench as an assistant coach under Frank Vogel with the Los Angeles Lakers. With NBA players LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading the way in the NBA bubble during the coronavirus pandemic, Kidd was on the bench when the Lakers won the 2020 NBA championship.
While initially humbled, Kidd learned a lot from Vogel during two seasons with the Lakers.
“That was one of the best times of coaching for me, being an assistant coach under Frank,” Kidd said. “And that staff was really good … I’ve always given Frank his flowers for helping me understand better and seeing what things to worry about and what things not to worry about.
“What I learned from Frank was that the stars are going to be stars. There are a lot of things going on, but just really focus on what you can control. And I thought Frank did an incredible job with that.”
Three years after Kidd was fired, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks won an NBA championship in 2021. Kidd was happy for the Bucks, his other former players and Milwaukee.
“I coached one of the best players in the world when you talk about Giannis. That’s how I looked at it,” Kidd said. “There were no hard feelings. I’m happy for Milwaukee winning a championship, but I’m also happy to give Giannis that foundation to help him become who he is.”
On June 28, 2021, Kidd became an NBA coach again when he was hired by the Mavericks, the franchise that drafted him in 1994 and where he won his only championship as a player in 2011. Kidd was hired after Carlisle resigned after 13 seasons and leading the franchise to the 2011 title. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said former stars such as forward Dirk Nowitzki and assistant general manager Michael Finley convinced him to hire Kidd. “Mike Fin [Finley], Dirk and those guys said, ‘He’s the guy,’ ” Cuban said.
Kidd’s big challenge upon arrival as the Mavericks new coach was to find a common bond with All-Star Luka Dončić.
It was no secret that Dončić and Carlisle didn’t see eye to eye. The Mavericks believed that because Kidd was a former NBA star and had coached Antetokounmpo, James and Davis, that he could relate to Dončić. From the beginning, Kidd believed it was important to find a common bond with Dončić, who is gifted in offense, and he hoped to bring the best out of him on both ends of the floor.
“It was great to have this opportunity to win here,” Kidd said. “I was drafted here and trying to get it back to where it was. And I thought being with Luka, I would have that opportunity. It was no different than what was going on in Milwaukee, to have a young star, but Luka was a lot farther along than Giannis was at the time when I got here.”
Kidd and Dončić met at an NBA Cares event in Chicago during the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend that was attended by President Barack Obama. Kidd and Dončić were coloring bookmarks when Obama approached and said, “You’re doing fantastic.” Obama walked up to Dončić and shook his hand. Obama then hugged Kidd and jokingly told Dončić: “Don’t listen to him when it comes to shooting.” Kidd responded that Dončić was already a much better shooter than him.
“It was fun,” Kidd said of his first time meeting Dončić. “The key was talking to him” after he was hired by Dallas.
During his first season coaching Dallas, Kidd led the Mavericks to the 2022 Western Conference finals. Dallas, however, didn’t make the 2023 postseason after opting to lose in its final two regular-season contests to aid its draft hopes. The Dončić-Irving pairing initially didn’t work last season either. Kidd believed they needed more time. The Mavs’ 38-44 record last season also led to questions about Kidd’s job security.
Kidd’s belief ended up being correct. The Mavericks finished the 2023-24 season with a much-improved 50-32 record. The Dončić-Irving partnership worked much better in the second season and they’re now being considered one of the NBA’s greatest backcourt duos. What also sparked the Mavericks was a midseason trade for center Daniel Gafford and forward P.J. Washington that improved the defense from one of the NBA’s worst to one of the best.
The Mavericks entered the NBA postseason as the fifth seed in the Western Conference. With Kidd guiding Dallas, the franchise made the NBA Finals for the third time in franchise history.
Dončić gave Kidd a lot of credit for the Mavs’ success.
“He understands me and Kyrie’s role because he’s been in that role,” Dončić said. “He helps us a lot. He kept everybody together. We were up and down a lot, especially during the season. There were a lot of ups and downs, but he kept us together.”
A year ago, Kidd’s job was in question. On May 6, the Mavericks signed Kidd to a multiyear contract extension. Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont stated that he was excited to have Kidd “continue to lead our team throughout the coming years with this well-earned contract extension.” Twenty-four days later, Kidd coached his first team to the NBA Finals as the Mavs eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games during the conference finals.
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