Jason Kidd is in Las Vegas to watch the Bucks Summer League team. ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk spoke with Kidd about Tim Duncan’s retirement. Turns out, Kidd was very close to signing with the Spurs. Kidd was a free agent in 2003, following the Nets second-straight Finals appearance. (They were swept by the Lakers in 2002 and lost to the Spurs, 4-2, in ’03.) The ESPN story about Kidd re-signing with New Jersey mentions that he was heavily recruited by San Antonio, but Kidd revealed that he had told Gregg Popovich and the Spurs that he would sign with the Spurs before changing his mind on his flight home.
Kidd, signed a then-rich 6-year, $103 million deal with the Nets, but admitted yesterday that he still has nightmares about not signing with San Antonio. Kidd had 6 more All-Star appearances in his career and was traded to Dallas during the 5th year of that contract where he finally won a title in 2011.
The most interesting thing about this is that at the time the Spurs nearly stole Kidd from New Jersey, they already had a 20-year old Tony Parker who had just helped them win a championship, averaging 15.5 points, 5.3 assists and 0.9 steals in the regular season. What would the Spurs have done with Parker if they had signed Kidd? Figure it out, duh. Via CBS Sports:
“I thought that Jason Kidd being there,” Popovich said, “being the mentally tough person that he is and with his skills, that would be the greatest education for Tony Parker. And Tony can go play 2. Let him play the 2 position. He was a scoring guard at the time, anyway. Not a great shooter, but we could figure it out and let Jason be the point. As Jason gets older, let him move over to 2, let Tony take 1. Brilliant, brilliant. This is great. Let’s go get this thing done. Tony did not love that idea at all, but we still tried to do it.”
I guess it’s no surprise that the Spurs – who won 3 more titles over the next decade – have been trying to follow the superteam blueprint for a while now.
from The Big Lead http://ift.tt/29Or4xy
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