azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
The days and years have caught up to Jason Kidd.
He'll be 35 years old in March, and he can see the sunset of his NBA career. It will end, most likely, with every honor accorded a player except the one he wants most — champion.
These days, Kidd is captain of the Titanic. The New Jersey Nets are 15-25 after their 113-105 loss to the Suns Sunday, and the only thing buried deeper in the Garden State is Jimmy Hoffa.
Richard Jefferson is out for the season with a wrist injury, Kenyon Martin is in Denver, and Vince Carter is doing what he always does — getting his numbers without helping his team.
Some players would give in to the hopelessness. Carter recently admitted he didn't always play hard while he was with the Toronto Raptors, and Tracy McGrady committed the same sin in Orlando.
There is no quit in Kidd, though.
Every night he pushes the ball, pushes his teammates, pushes himself, even though he'll probably miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1995-96 season, his second in the league.
On Sunday, Kidd had 23 points, eight assists and eight rebounds in 43 minutes of play. Typical numbers from an atypical player.
“There's no one else like Jason Kidd,” Nets coach Lawrence Frank told New Jersey-area reporters last week. When Kidd does retire, he should be remembered as one of the greatest point guards in NBA history. He may not have a championship ring to validate that judgment, but he led two less-than-stellar Nets teams to the NBA Finals, only to be vanquished by the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.
The true measure of a point guard is whether he makes the players around him better, and few have done that as well as Kidd.
Even now, in his 11th season, Kidd remains the standard by which point guards are judged. Only Steve Nash belongs in the same sentence, their brilliance defined by their unselfishness as opposed to, say, Stephon Marbury.
Here in the Valley, however, Kidd still wears the black hat.
He was booed during player introductions Sunday. He was booed when he hit a 3-point shot. Fans cheered loudly when he was whistled for a foul.
“I didn't hear them too much,” Kidd said. “Applause, boos, it's just another arena and another city for me.”
For some, it seems, Kidd will forever be defined by the domestic violence incident with his wife, Joumana, in January 2001.
When the Suns traded him after the season it was believed to be because Jerry Colangelo didn't want a “wife-beater” in his employ.
In truth, Phoenix dealt Kidd because it didn't want to commit huge dollars to a 31-year-old point guard, preferring instead to go with the younger Marbury.
But the truth wasn't as sexy as the real story, however, so Kidd left as the bad guy.
Fences might have been mended sooner had Kidd desired. Instead, he ripped club president Bryan Colangelo because he heard of the trade not from the
Suns but on the radio. On a return engagement to America West Arena, he flipped off Suns fans as he walked off the court after a game. There was also his incessant and unnecessary criticism of former Phoenix coach Scott Skiles.
Kidd wouldn't let it die, so either have Suns fans.
But four years have passed. The bitterness — from both sides — needs to subside.
“It's time to bury the past and appreciate him for the contributions he made while he was a Phoenix Sun,” said Jerry Colangelo.
Phoenix was still suffering a hangover from the Charles Barkley years when it traded for Kidd in December 1996. He led the Suns to the playoffs that year and in each of the next four seasons and became, in the process, the league's pre-eminent point guard.
“The time I had here was great,” Kidd said.
So it was, and to honor Kidd, the Suns should extend a permanent peace offering upon his retirement.
He belongs in the Ring of Honor.
Some fans will object, their hot button still pushed by the domestic violence incident.
But if a player's personal life was the measure, Walter Davis wouldn't have been honored, and perhaps Barkley's number wouldn't hang from the rafters.
Kidd was a great Sun.
He deserves to be up there, too.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=35216
The days and years have caught up to Jason Kidd.
He'll be 35 years old in March, and he can see the sunset of his NBA career. It will end, most likely, with every honor accorded a player except the one he wants most — champion.
These days, Kidd is captain of the Titanic. The New Jersey Nets are 15-25 after their 113-105 loss to the Suns Sunday, and the only thing buried deeper in the Garden State is Jimmy Hoffa.
Richard Jefferson is out for the season with a wrist injury, Kenyon Martin is in Denver, and Vince Carter is doing what he always does — getting his numbers without helping his team.
Some players would give in to the hopelessness. Carter recently admitted he didn't always play hard while he was with the Toronto Raptors, and Tracy McGrady committed the same sin in Orlando.
There is no quit in Kidd, though.
Every night he pushes the ball, pushes his teammates, pushes himself, even though he'll probably miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1995-96 season, his second in the league.
On Sunday, Kidd had 23 points, eight assists and eight rebounds in 43 minutes of play. Typical numbers from an atypical player.
“There's no one else like Jason Kidd,” Nets coach Lawrence Frank told New Jersey-area reporters last week. When Kidd does retire, he should be remembered as one of the greatest point guards in NBA history. He may not have a championship ring to validate that judgment, but he led two less-than-stellar Nets teams to the NBA Finals, only to be vanquished by the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.
The true measure of a point guard is whether he makes the players around him better, and few have done that as well as Kidd.
Even now, in his 11th season, Kidd remains the standard by which point guards are judged. Only Steve Nash belongs in the same sentence, their brilliance defined by their unselfishness as opposed to, say, Stephon Marbury.
Here in the Valley, however, Kidd still wears the black hat.
He was booed during player introductions Sunday. He was booed when he hit a 3-point shot. Fans cheered loudly when he was whistled for a foul.
“I didn't hear them too much,” Kidd said. “Applause, boos, it's just another arena and another city for me.”
For some, it seems, Kidd will forever be defined by the domestic violence incident with his wife, Joumana, in January 2001.
When the Suns traded him after the season it was believed to be because Jerry Colangelo didn't want a “wife-beater” in his employ.
In truth, Phoenix dealt Kidd because it didn't want to commit huge dollars to a 31-year-old point guard, preferring instead to go with the younger Marbury.
But the truth wasn't as sexy as the real story, however, so Kidd left as the bad guy.
Fences might have been mended sooner had Kidd desired. Instead, he ripped club president Bryan Colangelo because he heard of the trade not from the
Suns but on the radio. On a return engagement to America West Arena, he flipped off Suns fans as he walked off the court after a game. There was also his incessant and unnecessary criticism of former Phoenix coach Scott Skiles.
Kidd wouldn't let it die, so either have Suns fans.
But four years have passed. The bitterness — from both sides — needs to subside.
“It's time to bury the past and appreciate him for the contributions he made while he was a Phoenix Sun,” said Jerry Colangelo.
Phoenix was still suffering a hangover from the Charles Barkley years when it traded for Kidd in December 1996. He led the Suns to the playoffs that year and in each of the next four seasons and became, in the process, the league's pre-eminent point guard.
“The time I had here was great,” Kidd said.
So it was, and to honor Kidd, the Suns should extend a permanent peace offering upon his retirement.
He belongs in the Ring of Honor.
Some fans will object, their hot button still pushed by the domestic violence incident.
But if a player's personal life was the measure, Walter Davis wouldn't have been honored, and perhaps Barkley's number wouldn't hang from the rafters.
Kidd was a great Sun.
He deserves to be up there, too.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=35216
