It has only been a week since Jason Kidd retired, ending a 19-year career that saw him put up incredible numbers with the Mavericks, Suns and Nets and redefine his career time and time again as he got older. He is a surefire hall of famer, a triple double machine and one of the great point guards in NBA history.
It does not seem like Kidd will have to wait long to find something to do in the NBA after his retirement. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports Kidd is pursuing the Brooklyn Nets' vacant head coaching position, returning to the franchise where he played his best in his career (h/t Brooklyn Balling).
The Nets are widely believed to be going after Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins and Pacers assistant coach Brian Shaw. Kidd though is very interesting.
Hiring Kidd would be in line with a trend around the league to hire coaches fresh from retirement with very little coaching experience. The argument, it would seem, is that these players can reach players and motivate them better because they are closer to them in age and can relate to the players on a personal level. The Xs and Os can be left to experienced assistant coaches.
For what it is worth, Kidd's former coach Lawrence Frank believes Kidd will make a good coach.
It is hard to figure out how serious Kidd is about pursuing this job or how seriuos the Nets are about possibly hiring Kidd.
There is some nostalgia factor with Kidd. He played his best years in New Jersey with the Nets organization, including leading them to the 2002 and 2003 Finals. He finished second in MVP voting in 2002 and was a three-time first team All-NBA player with the Nets. It would definitely be akin to coming home in many ways.
{youtube}iynWqJN0PDI{/youtube}
But Brooklyn also has a high-priced roster that fell short of expectations last year. And it does not seem like the Nets could make many moves to make any drastic improvements. That could be asking a lot for an untested, inexperienced coach. At least Shaw has a few years as an assistant coach.
It would be an interesting call to bring Kidd in as a head coach. They will be making a big decision with this coaching decision as the Nets continue the Brooklyn transformation.
