The Best Point Guard From The 90s-Early 2000s Is Being Inducted Into The Hall Of Fame
This is something I want to do over the next couple days as the Basketball Hall of Fame will induct the class of 2018 on the 7th. The class includes the likes of Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd and Ray Allen among others. So with that in mind I want to go back and talk about the careers of those guys, four guys that we all grew up with and remember playing.
Today we move on to Jason Kidd, who for my money, was the best point guard from the 90s and early 2000s. Before we cared about triple-doubles and fascinated over them, Kidd was the guy to load up on triple doubles. He was always an incredibly skilled and highly valued player – going back to his days in high school where he was one of the top prospects in his class. He was also a bit of a different dude as he stayed home to go to Cal – a team that wasn’t good – and he also styled his hair like this at one point:
Right away at Cal, you could see how damn important Kidd was and more importantly how damn good he was. He took a team that was 10-18 the year prior to the Sweet 16 as he set a NCAA record for most steals by a freshman. He also averaged over 7 assists per game and just a hair under 4 steals per game. The next year he upped his 3-point shooting from 28% to 36% while putting up over 9 assists and 6 rebounds per game. Just ridiculous stats for his two years at Cal.
Kidd was drafted by Dallas 2nd overall behind Glenn Robinson and one pick ahead of Grant Hill. Kidd was supposed to be part of the 3-headed monster in Dallas with Jamal Mashburn and Jim Jackson. All three players were under 25 years old and they had some pretty dope commercials for the 90s.
However, the trio just lasted 2 seasons together in Dallas. Mashburn was injured, playing just 18 games in the 95-96 season. However, the rumor that broke up the Mavs young core? Toni Braxton. The rumor is Braxton was supposed to be going out with Kidd only to back out and eventually go out with Jackson. That caused the riff between Jackson and Kidd and ultimately resulted in a lack of success. The guys have said that’s not the case, but Mashburn said while the story may not be true she did play a role in their split.
Regardless, it turned Jason Kidd to eventually be traded to the Suns, where he was teamed up with another member of this Hall of Fame class. During his first full year in Phoenix (1997-98), he started all 82 games and put up over 11 points per game and 9 assists. We also saw the Suns be one of the first teams to run a true small-ball lineup as they used Kidd, Nash, Rex Chapman and Kevin Johnson together with Antonio McDyess at the center spot.
It was during his time in Phoenix that we really saw Kidd breakout. Don’t get me wrong, he was good in Dallas, but it just felt like he could always do more. In Phoenix he was the assist leader for the league, led the league in triple doubles by a wide margin and was the only player to be top-50 in 10 different categories. They also happened to be pretty damn good, winning 50 games and making the playoffs every year he was there.
However, we saw another off the court problem with Kidd, this time way more serious. He was charged with domestic abuse and ultimately it led to him being traded to New Jersey. Again, it worked out for him as he joined Kenyon Martin, Vince Carter, Keith Van Horn, Richard Jefferson and Kerry Kittles throughout the years with the Nets. New Jersey ended up making a couple of NBA Finals while Kidd made a serious push for MVP, finishing just behind Duncan in the 2001-02 season.
In what seemed fitting, Kidd was traded yet again after 7 seasons in Jersey back to Dallas. It was there where we finally saw him get his ring and shed that ‘best player to not win a ring’ list that he always found himself on. While Kidd wasn’t scoring nearly like he did during his prime, he played an important role in that 2011 Finals. He played over 37 minutes per game and still slapped up a stat line of 7.7/6.3/4.5 while providing defense on LeBron to let the Mavs execute their gameplan.
Kidd will be remembered for his ability to impact the game without scoring. He was asked to be more selfish during his time in Phoenix and to go look to score. When he was at his peak, there wasn’t a better point guard in the game during his prime. He could do it all and even improved his outside shooting – his biggest weakness on the court. Combined with his size and defense, I’ll stan for him as the best point guard of that era in his prime.