Only a day after being publicly tipped by former Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, Jason Kidd will replace him in Dallas; 48-year-old Kidd was drafted No 2 overall by Mavericks in 2004; he was most recently an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers
Friday 25 June 2021 20:06, UK
The Dallas Mavericks have hired Hall of Fame member Jason Kidd as their new head coach and tabbed Nike executive Nico Harrison as general manager, multiple outlets reported Friday.
Harrison is close to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and the two worked together to identify Kidd as head coach, ESPN reported.
On June 17, Rick Carlisle resigned after 13 seasons as head coach, a day after longtime general manager Donnie Nelson was let go after 24 seasons with the franchise.
GM Harrison has relationships with players throughout the NBA because of his time with Nike, and ESPN said he developed a tight relationship with all-NBA guard Luka Doncic as he helped him to navigate his role as a Nike endorser.
On Thursday, the day the Indiana Pacers hired Carlisle to coach their team, he endorsed Kidd for his old job.
"It's hard to put an exact finger on it," Carlisle told ESPN about a Kidd-Mavericks pairing. "It's just a feeling that I had that it would be mutually beneficial. My hope is that Jason Kidd will be the next coach of the Mavs because he and Luka (Doncic) have so many things in common as players."
As a player, Kidd was a 10-time All-Star and spent part of his career with the Mavericks, who selected him No 2 overall in the 1994 draft, then traded him in 1996. Kidd returned to play in Dallas from 2008-12 and helped them win the 2011 NBA title.
Kidd also had playing stints with the Phoenix Suns, then-New Jersey Nets, and New York Knicks. The point guard retired after the 2012-13 campaign and ranks No 2 in NBA history in assists (12,091) and steals (2,684).
As a coach, Kidd joined the Nets for their second season in Brooklyn, the same year the team acquired Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in an attempt to speed up their window to compete in the East. They went 44-38 in the regular season, beating the Toronto Raptors in a seven-game opening round before bowing out to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat in five.
A power struggle ensued in the front office, with Kidd aiming to add basketball-decision making responsibilities on top of the coaching role; it ended with him heading off to Milwaukee, where he coached the Bucks to a 139-152 record across 3-plus seasons, most notably leading the conversion of Giannis Antetokounmpo to Milwaukee's primary ball handler. The Bucks twice reached the playoffs (2015, 2017), each time exiting in the first round with a six-game loss.
After a year away from the sidelines, Kidd joined the Lakers in 2019, when they brought him on as Frank Vogel's lead assistant.
