Prior to Friday night’s game against the Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets head coach Jason Kidd finally spoke with the media openly about his strategy to spill a drink on the floor to earn his team an extra time-out in crunch time against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kidd was fined $50,000 for the trick.
From the team beat reporters in Houston:
Jason Kidd said, "The league fined me for something I probably shouldn't have done."
— Andrew Keh (@andrewkeh) November 30, 2013
Kidd: "It's about trying to win & those guys in that locker room. I tried to put those guys in position to get a basket or a good look,"
— Rod Boone (@rodboone) November 30, 2013
Asked Kidd during our pre game availability if he regrets his cup caper, especially in light of D'Antoni's displeasure. Short answer: No.
— Rod Boone (@rodboone) November 30, 2013
Jason Kidd was asked if he learned anything from Spillgate: "Nope."
— Andy Vasquez (@andy_vasquez) November 30, 2013
According to the Associated Press, Kidd said he learned the tactic from “just listening to other coaches or other owners talk about coaches and what they’ve done.”
Kidd added in pregame that “it’s over with. It’s done,” and he’s just trying to move on.”
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted out this video earlier today, which shows the same tactic employed against Dallas while Kidd was a player for the Mavs:
Kidd also saw the trick in the 2011 NBA Playoffs from the Thunder:
After Wednesday’s game, I asked Kidd to explain the spill, which he just called “sweaty palms” at the time.
