How Jason Kidd’s strive for greatness made the last chapter of his player career his greatest chapter
By Rashad Miller
In 2004,The USA men’s basketball team faced defeat at the hands of the Argentinian basketball team led by Manu Ginobili, thus losing their chance at bringing home the gold medal to the United States. They would win the bronze medal match against Lithuania, but players like Lebron James and Dwyane Wade felt that their efforts were in vain.
That is when USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo revamped the entire men’s basketball team by bringing in then-Duke men’s head basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski and three veteran players: the late Kobe Bryant, Michael Redd and a then 35-year old Jason Kidd. Nicknamed the ‘Redeem Team’, the USA men’s basketball team went on to win the gold in Beijing and return the program back to the prestige and dominance it established in 1992. I was able to sit down with the current Dallas Mavericks head coach about his beginnings with USA basketball, his experience in Beijing, and how it motivated him to win in 2011.
Kidd’s USA Basketball origins began when he was selected to be a part of the initiative that brought in not only professional players from the NBA to USA Basketball but the top college players in the country.
`“My first time being with USA Basketball was in college in ‘92. This was the first year that the NBA was allowed to participate, so they took some college players to play against the pros, but they also took another team over to Europe to participate. I would say I was on the ‘B team’ playing for Team USA in Europe in ‘92.”
Two years later, the guard out of the University of California at Berkeley would be drafted to the Mavericks as the second overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft. His stellar basketball IQ, offensive gifts, and taking the team from 13 wins the previous season to almost triple that his rookie year would earn him a Co-Rookie of the Year with Grant Hill. Two seasons later, the Mavericks would trade Kidd to the Phoenix Suns where he would become a then three-time All Star before heading to Sydney, Australia to represent USA Basketball again in 2000. He, along with other Hall of Fame guards like Ray Allen and Gary Payton, would go on to win the gold medal against France, he also led in assists throughout the tournament.
Four years later, the 2004 team wasn’t as fortunate as their past teams twenty plus years and that’s when the USA Basketball president called Kidd to bring not only leadership, but also experience. “I was at home in Scottsdale [Arizona] and Jerry [Colangelo] called me. I didn’t know it was actually for Team USA, I thought it was [for] something else. He asked me about the idea of playing and I thought, ‘ok, this has to be a joke’. He explained what he wanted me to do and why he wanted me to be a part of the team. I told him, ‘oh, that’s great, I can handle that.’ I was very honored that [Jerry] reached out and told him that I would participate. He told me his game plan and about Coach ‘K’ [coaching the team]. I was excited to have that opportunity [to play for USA Basketball] in ‘08.”
The elder statesman was well accomplished, including nine All Star appearances and leading the NBA in assists five times, but had not won that coveted Larry O’ Brien trophy even after two trips to the NBA Finals with the New Jersey Nets. Jason Kidd once again found himself on the same team that drafted him when he was traded to the Mavericks in the middle of the 2007-2008 season. He brought the work ethic and the mentality he learned during 2006 in preparation for the FIBA Americas tournament and Kidd explained how that experience helped him in the latter part of his career in Dallas.
“I think it definitely helped me understand where I stood and what I needed to do. I thought just being around greatness and around winners. I saw the work ethic. I saw what they were doing on a daily basis. So, I thought about being able to bring that back to Dallas and work and talk to other guys about what I saw and share it with them. It inspired me to win a championship. To be around [Dwyane] Wade, Kobe [Bryant], and LeBron [James], they were younger, but I thought, no matter what age, [I] still have some gas in the tank and that we could win [in Dallas].”
“[These were] the things that you thought about when you looked at D Wade, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Carmelo [Anthony], Michael Redd, Chris Bosh, and Dwight Howard. [They] were the best of the best and you knew the core of that group. When you talk about LeBron and Kobe, this is as ‘rare air’ as you get”, Kidd concluded.
The ‘Redeem Team’ would not only interact and congregate during practices and meetings, but go out to support the other US olympians participating in other events. As mentioned before, Kidd would share those experiences with the 2011 Dallas Mavericks and it became something the team would utilize to make them a stronger unit and eventual champions.
“What we did wasn’t [just] team dinners. It was every road trip. There was someone that was on the bus that would yell out a time to meet back on the bus. It was not mandatory. The bus would take a group to dinner and it just became bigger and bigger. You could kind of see this kind of unique thing happening where it wasn’t mandatory but you have more guys now wanting to come to the dinner. We got to know each other better and then we talked about basketball and different things about the game, which was really cool. When we took the court, we kind of knew what we were thinking without even asking. It became a special group. It was a family. We laughed a lot at each other or ourselves, which I think is underrated when you talk about being vulnerable and being able to laugh and not take it seriously and then I think just spending time with one another outside the arena.”
I asked what motivated him to continue to achieve such great accomplishments when most athletes at the time were winding down their careers and the 2018 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee would say that, “that’s always been my motivation at 13, 14, 21, at 35 and 38, is to win and to help the team win and whatever I can do that I can control. I [was] lucky to be able to be part of that ‘08 team to win a gold medal and then [three] years later to win a championship in Dallas with the team that drafted me and to be with Dirk [Nowitzki], Shawn [Marion], Tyson [Chandler], and Jason Terry. That was really a team, Dirk got a lot of the attention and he was our best player, but it was actually the team that won that championship. We needed everyone to do their part and it was just fun, but to finally win a championship at the highest level was always a dream of mine and to be able to fulfill that and check that box was great.”
Follow Rashad Miller on all social media @theuncoolurban for more sports content as well as his Youtube channel under the same name.