Jason Kidd impressed Brooklyn Nets management with his pitch in a meeting Monday with the team, and is now the favorite to become the team’s next head coach, according to Fred Kerber of the New York Post:
Kidd is viewed as the leading candidate for the job and met with GM Billy King yesterday to pitch his position.
It was a “good meeting,” according to someone close to the situation.
“Jason really believes he is ready for the next step, to be a head coach,” another person familiar with Kidd’s thinking said. “He wants it.”
The Nets are expected to finalize a decision this week. If it is Kidd, team brass want to provide him an experienced staff, and former Nets head coach Lawrence Frank, axed by the Pistons, is the obvious choice for lead assistant.
After 19 seasons as a player, Kidd retired last week from the NBA, second all-time in assists and steals and third all-time in three-pointers. One of the caveats of the Nets signing him on would be top-level assistants with head coaching experience, to help Kidd with the learning curve of being a head coach. Kidd reportedly pitched Lawrence Frank, former New Jersey Nets coach and most recently Detroit Pistons assistant, as his assistant coach, but Frank has reportedly not signed on yet.
Kidd would be a marketer’s dream — he’s an NBA legend, specifically a New Jersey Nets legend, and would be a headline-grabbing hire in New York. But is he the right candidate? If he’s the hire, only time will tell.
New York Post — Jason Kidd favorite for Nets coaching job after ‘good meeting’
