From beginning to end, the Jason Kidd ride was short, but always entertaining. From beginning to end, here’s the highlights of his brief Nets coaching career.
June 12th, 2013: The Nets officially announce the hire of Jason Kidd as their head coach.
— devin kharpertian (@uuords) June 13, 2013
June 13th, 2013: Kidd’s introductory press conference at Barclays Center. With dozens of cameras snapping and a basketball in Jason Kidd’s hand, one photographer yelled “Coach! Over here!” towards the recently retired point guard.
Kidd, after a split second, looked in his direction, grinning. “Coach,” he said. “It’s coach from now on.”
June 14th, 2013: In an interview with Dan Patrick, Kidd says he wants the Nets to be a “50-win team.” Including playoffs, the Nets won 49 games in the 2013-14 season.
June 27th, 2013: After much public pandering, reports indicate that Lawrence Frank will join Jason Kidd’s staff as the lead assistant coach. Later, we learned that the contract was possibly the highest in NBA history for an assistant coach.
September 4th, 2013: The New York Post reported that Jason Kidd will buy a slice of Jay-Z’s remaining shares in the Brooklyn Nets. Jay-Z was forced to sell when he decided to get into the agent side of the business, due to a potential conflict of interest.
October 4th, 2013: The NBA officially suspended Jason Kidd for two games following a guilty plea to a DUI charge in July 2012. Joe Prunty coaches the first two games in Kidd’s absence, a decision that irks Nets assistant Lawrence Frank.
October 17th, 2013: The Nets retired Jason Kidd’s New Jersey Nets jersey in the Barclays Center rafters. We remarked on the irony of it all.
November 3rd, 2013: Jason Kidd coaches his first game ever after serving his two-game suspension. The Nets lose 107-86.
November 15th, 2013: After a rough start, ESPN’s David Thorpe calls Jason Kidd “The worst coach in the NBA.” Four days later, a scout told Howard Beck of Bleacher Report that Kidd “doesn’t do anything,” and that Lawrence Frank is the one making most of the decisions.
November 19th, 2013: Someone makes this.
November 26th, 2013: The Nets won a game. Jason Kidd couldn’t believe it.
November 27th, 2013: CUPGATE! The greatest moment in sports history. The NBA fined Kidd $50,000, or 12,500 sodas at Barclays Center.
December 3rd, 2013: Jason Kidd announces before a game against the Denver Nuggets that he will demote lead assistant Lawrence Frank to doing “daily reports,” a stunning change from the mentor-student role they’d built. Later reports indicated a rift was growing between them for quite some time. We noted Kidd came off as ruthless, desperate, and brilliant all at once.
December 21th, 2013: The Nets lose Brook Lopez for the season with a broken foot, making Kidd’s first season look snakebitten and leaving the team in disarray.
December 26th, 2013: Following a loss that dropped the Nets to 9-19, an exasperated Jason Kidd calls out his team in the locker room for a lack of effort and heart, according to an ESPN report.
December 27th, 2013: Kidd suspends center Andray Blatche from the team for four games, hiding the suspension under “personal reasons,” due to Blatche’s lack of preparedness and conditioning. Blatche returns to the team on January 4th.
January 2nd, 2014: Kidd stops wearing ties. The team surges.
January 16th, 2014: As the Nets begin their 2014 turnaround, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov backs Kidd as coach, noting that he was getting more “comfortable” in the role.
January 21st, 2014: Kidd gives us the double-dribble dance.
February 3rd-April 1, 2014: These are the good times. Jason Kidd wins Eastern Conference Coach of the Month after the team went 10-3 in January, their best record in the month in franchise history. He wins the same award for March two months later, becoming the first coach to win twice in his rookie season since Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau.
April 17th, 2014: Kidd does an exclusive interview with Lenn Robbins, the team’s in-house beat reporter, and tells us he wants Vin Diesel to play him in a biopic. This marks the beginning of the end.
April 20th, 2014: The regular season ends, and the Nets finish with a 44-38 record, five games worse than the previous season but considered a success after their tumultuous 10-21 start.
April 24th, 2014: Nets GM Billy King says the reassignment of Frank was his own idea, not Kidd’s.
May 1st, 2014: Kidd criticizes the officiating following Game 5 of the first round of the playoffs, calling out the crew for not giving the Nets enough calls. He was fined $25,000 for the incident.
May 4th, 2014: The Nets win their first playoff series in Brooklyn in exhilarating fashion in seven games. Jason Kidd celebrates with the team.
May 14th, 2014: The Nets season ends, in a second-round loss to the Miami Heat in five games. Kidd’s final postseason record in Brooklyn: 5-7.
June 21st, 2014: A rumor leaks from the Nets organization that the Nets are looking at a trade that would send Jarrett Jack to the Nets for Marcus Thornton. Later, it’s discovered that Kidd believed Jack was an upgrade over Thornton, and wanted the team to trade for Jack instead of Thornton at the trade deadline. The Nets and Cavaliers ended up completing the Thornton-for-Jack trade anyway after Kidd’s departure, in a deal that let the Cavaliers clear enough cap room to sign LeBron James.
June 25th, 2014: Billy King says he has no expectations that the team’s coaching staff will undergo any changes.
June 27th, 2014: The Nets unveil their new practice facility, with Kidd on hand, in Brooklyn. Kidd calls the organization “first class.” The team’s official release to the public says “with a healthy Lopez and Williams, and a second season under coach Jason Kidd, the Nets believe they have the talent and continuity to be an elite team.”
June 28th, 2014: The New York Post reports that Kidd went above GM Billy King’s head, demanding a job overseeing basketball operations in addition to his role as head coach from the front office. When denied, Kidd was given permission to speak with the Milwaukee Bucks about their vacant head coaching job, and was not expected back with the Nets in any capacity. “The Russians are done with him,” one report says.
June 30th, 2014: The Nets & Bucks come to an agreement to send Kidd to the Bucks as their head coach for two second-round draft picks. Bucks coach Larry Drew is fired. Kidd’s tenure as Nets coach lasts a total of 382 days.
Final record: 44-38
Playoff record: 5-7
Ties worn: 31* (*-approximate)
Assistant coaches demoted: 1
Coups staged: 1
