1) Spillgate.
We didn’t know much about Jason Kidd at this point. We had a basic sketch of the kind of coach he’d be. We knew he didn’t know how to tone down his game-winning celebrations yet, and that he’d struggled to fit a bunch of new pieces together around Brook Lopez the post force. But we hadn’t yet seen the conniving sneakiness that made Kidd such a pivotal player in his playing career, his ability to make an alley-oop dunk out of two seconds on the shot clock.
Not until this moment. This glorious, perfect moment, where he and Tyshawn Taylor worked perfectly in unison to credit his team a bonus time-out.
“Cup slipped out of my hand. I was getting Ty. Sweaty palms. I was never good with the ball. In the heat of the battle, you’re trying to get guys in and out of the game, and the cup fell out of my hand.” -Jason Kidd
“Hit me.” That’s all it took. In two seconds, Kidd became a coach that day. Not someone who wanted to look like a coach, or was busy trying to convince a skeptical media and a hopeful fanbase that he was a coach. But a real coach, who bent the rules with a win-at-all-costs mentality. The cost? His dress shirt.
When Taylor hit him, Kidd accidentally spilled a drink on the court, forcing the ballboys to clean it up and getting a bonus time-out with the move to draw up one final play with his team down 96-94 with 8.3 seconds left.
”Naw, I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t even know he was holding nothing. Like, coach is drinking soda on the sidelines! I’m like, ‘What? What you doing?’ It might ice a free throw shooter and be a time-out when you don’t have one, but that wasn’t the thought process. I was just coming out and he was in my way. Coach, get out my way, bro.” -Tyshawn Taylor
It was a terrible acting job. He did exactly what someone does when they have to lie and hadn’t thought through the second level of the lie yet: he stood around the cup, looking “confused,” fooling no one.
It didn’t matter that the play he drew up with the bonus time-out was a simple high pick-and-roll that he could’ve just called out. It didn’t even matter that they lost the game. What mattered is that Kidd had finally entered the coaching lexicon, drawing upon the wisdom of Del Harris and Kevin Loughery to try to propel his team to victory.
Kidd, who usually drank water after the game, enjoyed a Coca-Cola at the podium during his post-game press conference.
Underrated moment: Lawrence Frank staring down the cup like he’d just seen Kidd commit a crime. Frank was banished from the bench a week later.
Before we get into out list, Here’s our honorable mentions for most YouTubable Nets Moments:
Honorable Mentions:
Andrei Kirilenko tackles referee
Referee Admits He Messed Up Deron Williams’s Foul Call
Kevin Garnett Breaks Front-Row Seat
Jason Collins Commits Historic Offensive Foul
Andray Blatche Video-Bombs Joe Johnson
Mirza Goes From Goat To Hero
Deron Williams breaks Chris Paul’s Ankles
Kevin Garnett’s Steal Seals Win Vs. Celtics
Paul Pierce Plays Catch With Raptors Fans
