Kidd Requests Trade From Nets [Archive]

duncan228

01-29-2008, 04:24 PM

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/nba/01/29/kidd.nets.ap/index.html

Kidd requests trade from Nets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Jason Kidd says he wants to be traded from the slumping New Jersey Nets.

"We tried to make this work. We've found out it doesn't," Kidd told ESPN The Magazine on Monday. "It's time for us all to move on."

The Nets, losers of nine in a row, were scheduled to play the Milwaukee Bucks at home Tuesday night. Kidd attended the team's morning shootaround but did not talk to reporters.

Nets president Rod Thorn did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday.

Trade speculation has followed Kidd since last February when the Nets reportedly were close to making a deal that would have sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Last month, Kidd sat out a game against the New York Knicks with a migraine, a move suspected by some to be a one-day walkout to try and force a trade or new contract.

At a news conference, Kidd denied those were his motives, saying, "I am having one of my best seasons -- why would I want to be asked to be traded? And as a team, we are doing better than last year."

New Jersey was 9-10 at the time. Since then, the team has dropped 16 of 25 games to fall to 18-26.

Kidd is under contract through the end of next season and will make $19.7 million this year and $21.3 million next year.

The Nets' lackluster play and Kidd's apparent dissatisfaction haven't stopped him from steadily moving up the NBA's all-time records lists.

He leads the league in triple-doubles this season with 11 and has 98 for his career, third behind Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson. He passed Johnson for fourth place on the career list for rebounds by a guard earlier this month, and also became the sixth player to reach 9,000 assists.

Kidd was acquired in a trade with Phoenix in 2001 and led the Nets to the NBA finals in 2002 and 2003.

duncan228

01-29-2008, 06:54 PM

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/steve_aschburner/01/29/kidd.nets/

Careful what you wish for
Kidd wants new home, but Nets control the cards now

Jason Kidd slipped on his San Antonio Spurs practice jersey, then turned toward the flat-screen TV in the room, where some talking head was dishing the latest NBA scuttlebutt. "How 'bout that New Jersey point guard, wanting out again?'' Tim Duncan, always the joker, teased him.

Robert Horry and Bruce Bowen, suiting up nearby, laughed, and Kidd did too because they all understood: That could have been Kidd stuck in the swamps of Jersey, unhappy, seeking a trade. Then the moment passed, because the Spurs had their own issues to address, like sputtering along near .500 since early December. And Kidd was starting to feel some responsibility for Michael Finley's recent shooting slump ...

Actually, that could have been Jason Kidd. Had he chosen to sign with San Antonio in July 2003, when he was a free agent and thus able to control his whereabouts for the foreseeable future, he might be laboring to get the Spurs back on top in the Western Conference, in position for their fourth championship in six years (and his third in four).

Instead, Kidd re-signed with the Nets, agreeing to a six-year-deal worth $99 million to maintain a pretty nice status quo: two consecutive trips to the NBA Finals, a front office eager to please him, a market preferred by his wife, Joumana, even a local golf instructor who clicked so well with his little boy.

That's why the game's best pure point guard chose to stay where he was, for another six seasons. Not three. Not four. Six.

"After great thought and consultation with the important people in my life, I have decided that I want to remain a New Jersey Net,'' Kidd said at the time.

And now? This is what Kidd had to say in a report posted on ESPN.com Monday night, 4½ seasons into that six-year deal: "We tried to make this work. We've found out it doesn't. It's time for us all to move on.''

Jason Kidd had his chance. He had his chance to move, analyzed the situation, made a decision and, like the grown man and businessman he is, signed his name to the paperwork. Then, for the most part, until a regrettable night in early December when he allegedly pulled a one-man, one-game strike, the veteran point guard lived up to the terms. Kidd steered the Nets to four more postseason appearances, three into the second round, and a 179-149 regular-season record in that span in the squeezably soft Eastern Conference.

Oh, there was drama, from Alonzo Mourning's kidney failure just 12 games into his partnership with Kidd in 2003-04 to the point guard's perceived power struggle with coach Byron Scott before Scott was fired midway through that season (worth noting: The Nets were 22-20 at the time, and Scott's current team in New Orleans is 31-12). Off the court, Kidd's failing marriage grabbed headlines, too. And he mastered the art of "does he or doesn't he?'' trade-demand waffling on the East Coast long before Kobe Bryant made it fashionable out West.

All of that pales, however, next to the sourness and passive-aggressive antics of this season. Besides the suspect migraine that made him a no-show for the Nets' game with New York on Dec. 5 -- reportedly Kidd's response when his request for a contract extension went nowhere -- there has been an alleged slowdown on the job. In five games prior to New Jersey's home date with Milwaukee on Tuesday, Kidd had averaged 10.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 7.8 assists, decent numbers for most players but well short of the 11.6, 8.6 and 10.5 he posted in November and December. And since he called in sick for that Knicks game, the Nets had gone 9-17, including nine losses in a row.

On Sunday in Minneapolis, before his team blew a 15-point lead in its worst defeat yet (and Kidd passed for just one assist in the final three quarters), the 34-year-old looked reporters in the eyes and said he wanted to stay in New Jersey. Barely 24 hours later, he was going national with his desire to leave.

Which is fine, we suppose, except that now it is the Nets' turn. It is team president Rod Thorn's chance to make a move, analyze the situation, make a decision and sign the paperwork. In a league that tries to discourage trades, facing rules designed to thwart them, Thorn already has his hands half-tied to find value for his team's best-known asset. The last thing he needs to worry about is whether Kidd will like the destination.

That comes up an awful lot in the NBA, and it's one of the things that turns off so many fans. If free agency is supposed to be the players' tool (and admittedly it isn't anything resembling "free,'' given various restrictions, salary caps and tax thresholds), trades are there first and foremost for the teams. To add a key piece for a playoff push, to rebuild for the long term, to dump a prickly personality or a burdensome contract.

Yet when Minnesota initially tried to send Kevin Garnett to Boston, Garnett balked, turning up his nose at what would have remained of the Celtics' roster at that time. Only after Danny Ainge dealt for Ray Allen did Garnett change his mind. Bryant claimed to want out of L.A., too, but only on his terms, going to the team of his choice as if it really was his choice.

Look, no one is naïve about where the power resides in the NBA's player/management dynamic. And frankly, it would be a lot more fun watching Kidd, if he has to leave New Jersey, making a real difference for a team that figures to play deep into May. Of his generation, perhaps adding only an in-his-prime Shaquille O'Neal could transform a team more than Jason Kidd; that's part of his cross to bear with the Nets, with Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter as running mates.

So shipping Kidd to Cleveland, Denver, Dallas or the Lakers would be fun for the rest of us. But it would be all work for Thorn, and not necessarily in the Nets' best interest.

First, there is the challenge of fitting what remains of Kidd's $19 million salary this season and his $21 million for 2008-09 into another club's pay scale. Then there is this in-season dilemma: Bad teams have no need for a player with that sort of price tag, while good teams are loath to give up pieces that have gotten them this far.

Keeping an unhappy Kidd carries its own risks, although in the East and with no convenient exits once the Feb. 21 trade deadline passes, he and his teammates in theory could get busy with another late playoff push (they were 28-35 last season before closing 13-6). So if Thorn trades Kidd, the deal has to be about New Jersey, not helping the player chase "his'' ring.

None of this is lost on the Nets' president, by the way.

"There is a quid pro quo,'' Thorn said Sunday. "You sign a contract. From the player's perspective, you need to play as hard as you can every night and do everything you can to help your team win. OK? If you do that, then you're fulfilling your part of the quid pro quo.

"And if that is the case, then I think, if a guy has done yeoman work for you, if you can get him someplace like it's worked out for Garnett, then you try to do it. But at the end of the day, you're going to trade somebody where you can make the best deal. If it's Memphis, it's Memphis.''

Thorn said Minnesota ultimately believed that Al Jefferson was the best player it could get in any package for Garnett. Never mind the wisecracks about Kevin McHale's alma mater or owner Glen Taylor wanting to take care of KG. The same goes for Thorn.

"If it comes to me trading one of my guys, I'm going to trade him for the best player I can get,'' the Nets' boss said. "If it works out it's a good thing for them, great. If it isn't, that's life, too.''

Kidd had his chance in the summer of 2003 and, at age 36, will get another in the summer of 2009. But right now, it is Thorn's.