Who said retirement was all fun and games? There will be some games involved but I think there might be some work happening as well. Fresh off of his 19-year playing career, 40 year old Jason Kidd wasted no time finding work. Jason Kidd is now the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. It will be made official today at a press conference at 2:00 p.m. EST. The move, while not unprecedented, is still coming as a quite a shock to most people. With experienced former coaches out there waiting by their phones, it is somewhat of a surprise that Kidd got the nod in Brooklyn. Kidd, a former player for the Nets organization, will now coach some of the players he played with during his tenure with the then New Jersey Nets. Attached to this move are some questions that are very difficult to answer. What are the expectations for a coach with 0 experience? How long of a leash will Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov have with Kidd? Isn’t it nice that in this country you can get a
DUI, keep your contract to make millions as an NBA player, and become a head coach in the same NBA all in the same year? And most importantly, how will Kidd do as a head coach?

I have always thought that Jason Kidd would make a fine head coach some day. Little did I know that day would come just NINE DAYS after retiring as a player. What Kidd needs to realize is the time, effort, and dedication required to be a successful head coach in the NBA. Do you know what it’s like to have a new born child and you get about 12 minutes of sleep per night? Yeah, it’s something like that. The amount of preparation needed to be a successful coach is pretty astronomical, and for Jason’s sake I hope he fully understands that. The other thing to consider here is that Prokhorov didn’t take over the Nets to get bounced out of the playoffs in the 1st round. He is here to win a
Championship. How much time Kidd will be given to take the Nets to the promised land is yet to be seen, but the modern day NBA is a win now league. Just ask George Karl, Vinny Del Negro, and Lionel Hollins.

This move is a great PR move, and it is obviously something that will be talked about for some time. It is a compelling story because Kidd is coming straight off the floor to the bench. He is coming from the New York Knicks to the Brooklyn Nets. He is going to be coaching guys he played with in the past and against this year. And, he is a former Nets player (possibly the most famous in the New Jersey Nets franchise). For all of those reasons, this hire is a good idea. It is also nice to see someone think outside the box, and hiring Kidd definitely fits in that unconventional category. Now, I think given the right amount of time Kidd could become a great head coach (I’ve written that before), however in the win now world I don’t believe he’ll be afforded the time necessary to succeed in the future. He’ll probably get let go in 3 years after having not reached the NBA Finals, and then he’ll go on to succeed somewhere else down the road. That’s just the way it works now a days. Well Jason, as a Knicks fan, I wish you no luck whatsoever, and I hope the players revolt against you and turn the Nets into a circus (New York Jets style).

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