June 15, 2023 • 34 mins
In the first episode of "Something To Prove: The Story of the 2002 & 2003 Nets," we dive into the remarkable one-season turnaround of the Nets from 26 wins to a trip to the NBA Finals. We explore how general manager Rod Thorn changed the face of the franchise by acquiring point guard Jason Kidd, setting the stage for a transformative season. Through interviews with key figures of the team and beyond, we get insights into the chemistry, leadership, and unexpected success that propelled the Nets to new heights.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
If it's a girl Phoebe and if it's a boy Feebo.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Because you at home decide who will become the next
American Idol?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Was up MTV.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Welcome to my career, led by heroes of a new
millennium and a new Jersey the new kid of Child,
a spark a revival jay Be. Most section that the
acquisition of Jason Kidd catapulted this Nets franchise from twenty
six wins a year ago to a best record in
the Eastern Conference, best.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Record in New Jersey Net history, and I think the
best season Jason Kids ever had the MVP of the
Eastern Conference. Here, Jason Kidd has played even better in
the playoffs and he stepped up. The Jason Kids will
to win is setting the tone for the New Jersey Nets.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Jersey Nets will continue one of the most remarkable one.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Season turnarounds in NBA history.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Twenty six wins last year to a trip to the
NBA Finals.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
An amazing story. The New Jersey Nets are in the
NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
It was a season that nobody saw coming. It had
been twenty five years since the Nets turned out the
lights on the Rebel Basketball League they had once ruled
winning the final ABA Championship in nineteen seventy six. Their
time of the NBA to that point had been filled
with false starts. Teams have promise that flamed out. At
the end of the two thousand and two thousand and
(01:35):
one season that didn't even have that. The Nets had
finished twenty six and fifty six, their sixth losing record
in the last seven seasons. There was little reason to
think that anything would change anytime soon. Then General manager
Rod Dorn went to work and changed the face of
the franchise in a single summer. He put all the
(01:56):
right pieces in place to make the most of a
blockbuster tree for that ultimate leader, a floor general who
just made everybody better point guard Jason kid. It aired
up to a franchise record fifty two wins during the
two thousand and one two thousand and two season, doubling
their total from the season before. The Nets earned the
(02:17):
top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, reached the NBA
Finals for the first time in history, and then made
it back in two thousand and three. They went on
to win three straight division titles and four in five seasons,
making the playoffs for six straight years. This is Bill
Raftrie and back in two thousand and one, I was
(02:38):
going to my twentieth season broadcasting New Jersey Nets games.
My play by play partner was Iron Eagle, the bird
who's still leading the Nets broadcast today.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
They changed the whole perception of the franchise. The Nets
had had some success prior and absolutely had some great players,
but they could never sustain it. They were flat if
you look back on it, you know, I just think
it showed that the team could be a winner and
that the team could find an audience.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Big Man Aaron Williams was going to his seventh season
in the NBA and second with the Nets in the
fall of two thousand and one.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Probably my two favorite years playing in the NBA, especially
the first year. No one expected us to win, just
the way that we all came together as a team
and the chemistry. They are all great guys, every last
one of them are great guys. And it's not too
often you can say that about teams. You know, you
always have a couple of guys who are knuckleheads, but
literally from one to fifteen to all the guys are
(03:39):
really great guys, and I think that contributed to our success.
One's a lot more fun than losing. Whenever you're winning,
that makes things better also, But it was just it
was just fun playing with those guys who was an
honor playing with those guys some of the best years
of my life for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And Chris Carrino, who had just finished his twenty second
season as the Nets radio play by playboy, it was
just a rookie about to take the ride of his life.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I was just excited because it was my first year
as the full time radio voice of the team. I'd
been the backup play by play guy, the pregame host,
the postgame host, that kind of thing for years before that.
But I was super excited to be the voice of
the Nets. It probably didn't matter if we won ten
games or fifty games. I was walking into that season
with renewed enthusiasm. I remember meeting Jason Kidd at training
(04:30):
camp and introducing myself and I said, you know, it's
my first year as well here and it's out. Well,
he goes, I guess we're going to go through this together.
Little did I know at the time how much we
were going to go through together in that first year.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The first step on the path that the finals came
in June of two thousand, where the Nets brought in
Rod Thorn charge of basketball operations. Thorn was an NBA
lifer as a player, coach, and executive. He was the
man who drafted Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls. During
the fourteen seasons he spent with the NBA's league office.
(05:14):
After leaving the Bulls, Thornton had gotten calls about running
a team again, but he always took a pass.
Speaker 8 (05:22):
We had a nice lifestyle in New York, in Ryan,
New York, and just felt that my future lay in
the NBA, in the NBA office. I always considered that
why can't the Nets be good? They're in New York
in an area that players liked to play, and they
(05:44):
had not been very good for a while. But my
feeling was, there's no reason the Nets can't be on
equal footing with the Knicks, let's say. So when that
opportunity came, I didn't have to move number one and
number two. I felt it was a great opportunity. So
I sort of winded my way from Rye, New York,
(06:08):
to New Jersey and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
As they said, I knew Rod from his days back
as an assistant coach to Kevin Lockery when the Nets
won the ABA Championship in nineteen seventy four, and I
knew he was in a stuke guy, but he didn't
realize what he was capable of doing. Gms can get
judged quickly and harshly. Sometimes it's tough to make a
deal other people aren't looking to help you out. But
(06:33):
I think he had a great ability to evaluate talent
and more importantly, to put a team together. It's one
thing to be able to evaluate talent, but to fit
it together too. He was very good at that. Tim
Kapstro came on board as the NETS radio analyst in
the fall of two thousand and two after the first
trip to the finals.
Speaker 9 (06:54):
Rod has good a feel if anybody I've ever witnessed
as far as understanding what wins in the game of basketball.
He could tell you immediately after a game exactly what
it went on for four quarters. His intelligence, his IQ
was through the roof. He knew the formula for success
in this game, and he could see it. He orchestrated it,
(07:17):
he put it together, and he had great success because
of it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And he also knew when it wasn't going well.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
Also, he could tell before everybody else when it wasn't
going to be perfect, just an unbelievable eye for talent
and character and ability and what it takes to win
in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Thorn arrived in New Jersey with two decisions on deck
that would shape the future of the franchise. He had
to decided what to do with the number one pick
in the NBA dram but first he needed a new
head coach.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Screen by Kareem Byron around his stop twenty foot jumper.
Speaker 7 (07:51):
That's good, good thing they brought him along.
Speaker 10 (07:53):
He's got five of the television network.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Here Scott again behind the three point line.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Another three attend the Byron.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Scott has made three three, three.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
The Lakers are in front by one.
Speaker 7 (08:03):
Here comes Scott out in front.
Speaker 10 (08:04):
He's got a top of the key twenty one Twitter.
Speaker 9 (08:06):
That's good.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
You got to keep him olog.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
For our schools.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I've ever he's in the middle.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Every backs up takes the ball of Scott. He's indeed
his five foliot jumper.
Speaker 9 (08:13):
That's a beautiful shot over joe Lyne who stands in
the air.
Speaker 7 (08:15):
And six really jumped into him. Out of battle of
to Scott.
Speaker 11 (08:18):
He fires for three.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
He got it his fourth of the game.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
You a goat with acquit or not.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Coach kept hopping in by Byron Scott.
Speaker 11 (08:27):
How did Scott do that?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Byron Scott's playing career had ended just three years earlier,
and he had been coaching for just two seasons as
an assistant in Sacramento, but he had a championship resume
from his day's plane with the Showtime era Los Angeles Lakers.
He fit what Thorn was looking for.
Speaker 8 (08:46):
We interviewed five or six different candidates, and Byron I
had an initial like for. I had always had a
fond memory of him as a player, great player with
the Lakers as their too guard and had been an
assistant for a couple of years with Sacramento at the time.
(09:07):
But I met him at Chicago right during the time
that the Chicago camp was going on and just had
an affinity for it. I wanted somebody that I felt
I could work with. I wanted somebody, not necessarily somebody
who was, you know, had a big track record in
the NBA while way or the other, and I felt
(09:28):
that Byron had the ingredients to be with some time
and some experience to be a very good head coach.
Speaker 9 (09:36):
Here's Tim capstraw Byron Scott, his coolness under pressure and
the way he would stand there with his arms folded
and there could be all sorts of craziness going on.
And he prided himself on being the coolest guy in
the room and the coolest guy in the arena. He
handled everything like he had seen it all before because
(09:57):
he did. He was a showtime Laker. He was a
great player on a great team, and it was hard
to impress him. I thought he had that edge about
him that really helped the organization.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
As for the draft, it was the second time in
franchise history the Nets had a number one draft pick.
A decade earlier, they had taken Derrit Coleman first overall
out of Syracuse. The top of the two thousand draft
was heavy with forwards, but the top prospect came with
a concern.
Speaker 10 (10:27):
Is the absolute worst nightmare The postseason begins as the
game's best player on the country's best team sees his
college career come to an immediate end. As Kenyon Martin
of the top ranked Cincinnati Bearcats went down in a
heap this afternoon with a broken right fibula and a
ligament damage in his ankle. Three minutes into the Bearcats
Conference USA Tournament opener against Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Kenyan Martin collected a pile of player of the Year
awards after his senior year at Cincinnati. He led the
Bearcats to the top of the Associated Press rankings at
average twenty five points and thirteen rebounds a game. But
martin season ended when he broke his leg in the
Conference USA Tournament.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
He was probably not going to be ready to play
when the season started the following year. So we looked
at several players at that position as we were first
and you know, the first pick in the draft, as
I recall strong Miles Swift was one of the.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
Guys that we looked at.
Speaker 8 (11:27):
We looked at. Miles ended up going to the Clippers
among others. But at the end of the day, our
feeling was that Kenyon had the biggest upside, and our
doctors told us they thought that with time, his injury
would be no problem, and therefore we decided to select him.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We took the first pick in the two thousand NBA Draft, the.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
New Jersey Nets select Kenyan Martin from the University of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
So Thornton's Gott's first Nets team had the draft's top pick,
the number two pick from the nineteen ninety seven draft,
and Keith van Horn and a point guard Stefan Marbury
coming off in all NBA season, and they went out
and finished sixth in a seven team division. Here's Aaron Williams.
Speaker 7 (12:18):
I just think the chemistry was never really there. I
think we had some injuries that year. I think we
were just trying to find the pieces to fit going forward.
There's really a learning year for us, kind of see
what you got, who's going to be here for the future,
who's not. But there's some really talented guys on the team,
but it just never came together for one reason or another.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
It was also the sixth time in seven years they
missed the playoffs. At that point, the Nets had played
twenty five seasons in the NBA and won just a
single playoff series back in nineteen eighty four. I was
there for most of those games. Even if the Nets
weren't winning, they were always interesting. Different coaches had pretty
(12:57):
decent runs. Chuck Day in particular had a pretty good run.
Larry Brown going way back when I first started doing
NETS games as well. But we had a number of
years in a row where we were not excelling. They
were always, in my mind, well coached, they competed. Here's
how Ion saw things for the Nets going into the
summer of two thousand and one.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
At that point, the Nets were trying to figure out
where they fit in. They had a couple of young pieces,
but didn't exactly know what the plan was moving forward.
Byron Scott was not a proven entity at that point.
Rod Thorn had a lot of credibility, and the general
feeling was that he had a plan in mind, but
(13:39):
you just didn't know. You didn't know what direction the
team was going in. You win twenty six games with
a first year head coach with a number one pick
that was banged up, you're not really sure what the
future looks like.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And Thorn knew he had a lot more work to do.
Speaker 8 (13:55):
During our first year. Well, we had a rough go
of it. We had some talent, had Stefan Marbury, who
was a young All Star type player. Kenyon started playing
for US after a time and showed promise, then got
injured and was out for a big part of the season.
(14:15):
When you looked at our team, you know, you try
to assess your team constantly, and as I'm looking at
the team, what I'm seeing is we don't defend, we
don't rebound. Our chemistry is not what you would like,
and although we had some talented players, they just didn't
(14:39):
go together in order to make you into a contending
type team. So my feeling was we need to make
some changes.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Thorn's game changing summer began on draft night with the
seventh pick, and that's real position to it a promising prospect,
but Thorn believed the Nets needed more than what one
player could bring. We swung a deal with Houston to
exchange his one first round pick for the three held
by the Rockets. It was one of those trades that
could not be announced until later in the evening, so
(15:10):
at first it appeared the Nets had selected Seaton Haul
forward Eddie Griffin, the kind of local pick that plays
well with the fan base. Instead, Thorn used Houston's pick
to take Richard Jefferson at number thirteen, Jason Collins at
number eighteen, and Brandon Armstrong at number twenty three.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
During the draft, we're watching the feed from the NBA,
and when it was announced that the trade was made
and Houston was getting Eddie Griffin, one of the announcers
who was doing the draft during a time out when
you know, you think you're not on, but you are
(15:49):
said that that is the worst trade I have ever seen.
I cannot believe that Nets did that. From our viewpoint,
we were hopeful that we were getting three gas that
could help us, and it ended up that we got
too that could help us.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Michael Korn was a former Nets player and broadcaster who
joined the coaching staff as an assistant in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 12 (16:12):
The funny part about that was dawn draft night, there
was a bad storm in New Jersey, well in Houston,
and the Nets we're talking.
Speaker 8 (16:19):
The phones went out, and.
Speaker 12 (16:23):
I remember being in that room. Everybody got nervous because
we really wanted to do the deal.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Here's Iron Eagle.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
I completely understood what Rod was thinking, which was they
need players, they need to fill out the roster. And
what he ended up doing is taking that number seven pick,
trading down using those picks to fill needs. Richard Jefferson,
no doubt, was someone who slipped in the draft. He
(16:50):
deserved to be picked much higher. If you did a
redraft of that year, Richard would be among the top selections.
That's how strong a career and consistent career he had,
and he ended up being the perfect fit for what
the Nets were trying to do. Jason Collins a player
that completely filled a need and fulfilled something that they wanted.
(17:13):
They needed a big, they needed physical, they needed smart,
and he filled the bill. This is the kind of
player that they were looking to build around.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Jason Collins got a heads up from his agent that
the Rockets were about to draft him, but that he
shouldn't count on going to Houston. He had family in
the New York area, So the California kid was fine
with Henny East, even though he knew then that's history
wasn't great.
Speaker 11 (17:40):
I knew that there was sort of this reputation that
the New Jersey Nets were sort of like, you know,
no disrespect to the Clippers or the Kings, but it's
sort of like a Bad News Bears kind of team
up until that point. I mean, they had some great
players in Buck Williams and obviously Doctor J back in
the day, but in their you know, immediate history before us,
(18:01):
they were sort of like the Bad News Bearers.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Drafting Collins was just a part of Thorn's plan to
solidify the center spot by committee. Later in the summer,
he made a move for the under the radar free
agent Todd McCullough was deep on the depth chart for
the defending conference champions, the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Over
his first two pro seasons, he had played about nine
(18:23):
minutes per game. But McCullough brought real size to the
roster seven feet tall and two hundred and eighty pounds,
and the talent that would make him a perfect fit
for this NETS roster was the touch and soft hands
that belied his size. Here's Rod Thorn.
Speaker 8 (18:40):
What we saw in Todd McCullough was a player that
could score. You could throw in the ball and he
could score. They had a soft touch. It was clever.
Not a defender, but a player who could score. We
just needed help there. And he had size, you know.
Todd was legit seventh feet and we had lighted him.
(19:04):
We thought he was a player that had an opportunity
to be a good player. So we ended up signing McCullough.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Didn't mind going from the finals team to a rebuilding
project if it came with a chance for more minutes.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
I felt like whatever the record was the year before,
whatever the environment was, I thought it was going to
be a fresh start for that team, and I knew
that they had drafted well, and so I wanted to
be a part of that. I was looking for a
little bit more of a role and to be a
starter and sort of be guaranteed some minutes and just
know that every night you're going to get a chance
(19:37):
to play. I was looking forward to getting some more playtime.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Here's iyon Eagle. Todd.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
He just was such a wonderful guy and great teammate
and a perfect fit for what they needed. Give Rod
Thorne a great deal of credit the vision he had.
I'm not sure he signed Todd McCullough with the idea
that he could be a championship center, but he came
damn close to being one.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So the Nets had added two centers and a dynamic
rookie wing. They were bringing back Kenyan Martin and Keith
van Horn, plus reliable veterans in forward Aaron Williams and
guard Lucius Harris. There was another edition with Curry Kittle's
coming back from knee surgery that had sidelined him for
the entire two thousand and two thousand and one season.
Before the injury, Kittle shot forty percent from three point
(20:28):
range twice in his four seasons and set the franchise
record for three pointers made after the Nets drafted him
eighth in nineteen ninety six. But it was between the
draft and the mccullos signing that Thorn took his big
swing with a blockbuster trade for the second time in
franchise history. One trade changed everything for the Nets.
Speaker 8 (20:49):
All right, sensational move by Jason Jason.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
OLLI come back the other way, goes in traffic, gets
hammer go five of six from three, can't head to Harris.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
He runs it down, lays it up and am and
he just comes up with something new almost every night.
Kid the jumper that win it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
He got it, job done, and he does two of them.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
I'm telling you, Kid throws it up.
Speaker 11 (21:20):
How did he do it?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Ull circus shot. Jason Kidd was the West Coast counter
to the Brooklyn bred Marbury, a Bay Area playmaking prodigy
who had gone second in the nineteen ninety four NBA
draft and had shared Rooking the Year honnors with Grant
Hill in Phoenix. Kid was living up to all the promise.
(21:42):
He had just led the NBA and assists for three
straight years and been named to the old NBA first
team each year. He was twenty seven years old, right
in his prime, but the Suns felt stalled. They had
won just one playoff series in the last six seasons.
They were looking either shake things up and that made
Kid available. Here's Rod Thorne.
Speaker 8 (22:05):
Over the course of several months, we had several conversations,
but nothing that led to anything. And then finally it
became apparent to me that they were going to move
Jason Kidd. So the talks heat it up, and when
we were made the decision that we would give up
(22:26):
step On Marbury and a trade for Jason, that really
got the talk seated up and again over the course
of a couple of weeks, we ended up making a
trade with Phoenix. Jason Kidd's talent level and his skill
level were what I thought we really needed. We couldn't guard,
(22:48):
we had poor chemistry, we couldn't rebound. Jason Kidd does
all of those. So in getting Jason, we got a leader,
we got someone who had ex experience, We got someone
who came in and the first thing he said was
we're going to make the playoffs when he was introduced
(23:08):
by the press conference. We're going to make the playoffs.
He was used to making the playoffs. His skill set
fit in remarkably well with what we had. I knew
we were going to be better, but did I have
any inclination that we would be as good as we
became that next year. I would say that was a
(23:29):
fond hope, but one that was probably unattainable.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
At that time.
Speaker 8 (23:35):
He gave us everything that we needed.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
The trade became official on July eighteenth, two thousand and one.
In that sense, Stefan Marbury, Johnny Newman, and Samala Samaki
to Phoenix for Kid and Chris Dudley in August, and
that's Wave Dudley and the Sons. Wave Newman Samachi never
played a game for the Sons either after we was
traded to Chicago and Wave. This was Marbury for Kid
(24:01):
straight up, and nobody was sure what was going to
work out. Here's Chris Carino.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
The Sons were eager to move on from Jason Kidd.
The Nets were eager to move on from Stefan Marbury.
It was like the perfect trade partner set up. It
was a new beginning for each of those guys. Obviously
we knew Jason Kid was a great player. This team
was a twenty six win team didn't really have any
other stars on it. Marbury couldn't push him over the top,
(24:30):
so I think there was some skepticism as to how
good Jason Kidd could make this team.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And Iron Eagle.
Speaker 6 (24:36):
It was really a perfect storm in many ways. I
think Kid needed a change of scenery. The Nets desperately
needed someone to take the reins and take control and
set the bar really high. It was mutually beneficial they
got a player in the prime of his career that,
at that point I think was viewed as an exceptional town.
(25:00):
But the questions around him were based on whether or
not he could really lift the level of play of
everybody around him. And what he did in New Jersey
is he lifted an entire franchise and I had not
seen it done before.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
We knew that.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
If someone could come in and really lead that the
team had a chance to be something, but they just
had never found that player. He provided that and so
much more. They leaned on him in every possible way,
and again, timing is everything. At that point in his career,
(25:43):
he needed the Nets as much as the Nets needed him.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Kinna just finished his seventh NBA season. He'd been traded
once before halfway through year three. He understood the business.
He was a pro. As far as actually finding out
about the deal, well, you can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 13 (26:02):
I think I was going through a drive through I
want to say taco bell when I heard about the
trade from Robin Pound, who was our strength coach, our
strength and conditioning coach, saying, hey, did you hear the
news about you being traded? And I told him I hadn't.
He asked me where I was and I said, I'm
just about to order some taco bell. I said, let
me call you back and find out what's going on.
(26:24):
That was the first time I heard about the trade.
Shortly after that, Brian Colangelo called me and said that
they had traded me to the New Jersey Nets. It
was just kind of a surreal moment because I didn't
know what the thing. But it wasn't my first trade,
so I wasn't mad. I just wanted to figure out
who was on the Nets and who was being traded
(26:44):
to the Suns, and I think I started really trying
to think about how the season was going to go
in New Jersey. I wasn't upset. I was more excited
about the challenge of leading a team to the playoffs.
I wasn't really concerned about the record, the past record.
I was just trying to figure out how we could
be five hundred.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
He took them a lot further than that. He took
them to two finals, four division titles, and six playoff appearances.
It's the greatest run of success in the next forty
seven seasons in the NBA, and it started before the
season began. It didn't start on the court, it started
in Jason Kidd's mind. Here's iron eagle.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
New vibe around the team. You could tell that Jason
was business like. He was very focused, but he was
also measured. He gave off a sense of confidence, but
it wasn't arrogance by any stretch. Any of those media
sessions prior to the season, Jason talked about winning, and
(27:47):
he talked about a team that he thought had a
chance to win. But he didn't talk about that next level.
He didn't talk about a metamorphosis. He just talked about
what it was going to take steps needed for this
team to become competitive and to be a factor in
the NBA. So I credit him for bringing a certain
(28:09):
mindset to the team.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Jason Collins had seen Kid play for the first time
ten years earlier, when he was twelve years old. They
were playing for the same AAU organization in California. Kid
was five years older.
Speaker 11 (28:23):
We went to go see them play and it was
just incredible. It was like like my eyes got big
because I was like, the only point guard I had
ever seen play like that was Magic Johnson before, and
Jason was so fast, so skilled, and I was just
thinking to myself, it'd be really cool if I had
to play with him one day. So then getting drafted
and then you know, getting traded, and then my dream
(28:46):
came through, you know, playing in the NBA and then
also get to play with Jason Kidd.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
And that's other News center Tom McCullough reached out to
a friend for a scouter report on his new point guard.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
I knew about Jason Kidd, and I knew what a
great passer he was and what a great competitor. Steve
Nash and I had been teammates on the Canadian national team,
and I knew what it was like to play with
a point guard like that, and I knew that Jason
and Steve knew each other, and so I called Steve
and I said, hey, you either signed with the next
to that point where I was about to and I said,
I think maybe I had. I said, hey, what's it
(29:19):
going to be like for me to play with Jay Kidd?
Speaker 12 (29:21):
You know?
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Is it going to be as good as I think?
And He's like, imagine playing with a way better version
of me every night.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
What Jason Kidd was capable of doing was extraordinary. He
was a coach on the floor, which is something a
lot of people say, but he managed a team like
a choreographer good. He got all the pieces in the
right spot, and there was nobody better on the fast break. Defensively,
he was so strong and great at getting around ball screens.
In his first season in New Jersey, Kid finished second
(29:50):
to San Antonio's Tim Duncan in the MVP race in
one of the closest votes in the two decades the
media have been voting on the award. He was named
to the All NBA f First Team and All Defensive
First Team the next two years. He led the league
in assists in his six and a half seasons with
the Nets. Kid was an All NBA three times, All
(30:11):
Defensive Team six times, and was selected for five All
Star games. His number five hangs in the rafters at
Barkley Center, and he was inducted into the Hall of
Fame in twenty eighteen. Here's Rod Thorp.
Speaker 8 (30:26):
His innate toughness, his physicality gave us something that we
didn't have before, and combined it with Kenyon Martin, who
was a tough guy and a physical, hard nosed guy,
gave us a presence on the court that we just
didn't have before. And Jason could guard anybody but a
(30:49):
center on the court. There were many games late in
the ballgame when you need to stop, Jason might be
Gardener four, he might be Gardener one, he might he
could go to anybody. He was a tremendous defensive player, slash, rebounder, passer.
It was incredible the games we won when we had
(31:11):
to make stops, and that guy would get us to stop.
He played through pain with the way he played. He
was banged up a lot, kept playing, always played. He
played close to forty minutes every game. Nowadays, nobody plays
forty minutes. If you average thirty six minutes a game,
it's like, boy, that guy really plays a lot of minutes.
(31:32):
He played every night. He was there every night.
Speaker 7 (31:35):
He was ready.
Speaker 8 (31:36):
He was not a vocal leader, but the kind of
leader that people want to follow.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
When you're talking about Jason his leadership. I remember watching
a workout and Kenya Martin was struggling with his jump
shot and they were walking off the floor and I
think Bird was with me. Usually we would be able
to shoot round or practice. And I heard Kenyon lamenting
the fact that he couldn't make a jump shot, and
Jason said, you're the first to leave. That's all he said.
(32:04):
From that day on, Kenya Martin worked and became a
decent mid range jump shooter. He didn't miss words, and
he didn't use many words, and obviously he led by
the way he played too. He was just a great
extension of the bench. Kid just changed everything about the
way that that's played. He elevated everybody around them, partly
(32:24):
with his skill set and partly with the example. He said.
Here's Tim Capstraw.
Speaker 9 (32:31):
The single greatest competitor I have ever watched in my
entire life, and it's not even close. His will to win,
his ability to motivate teammates with just the look in
his eyes was second to none of any athlete I
have ever ever witnessed unbelievably brilliant player. The competitive instincts
(32:51):
were off the charts, and again, how he could make
others around him better was his greatest attribute. He made
them so much better by the way he played. They
played at a higher level. And the pieces of that
entire two thousand and two two thousand and three team
fit just perfectly with him being the leader, the orchestrated
(33:13):
and a guy pushing it and making all the plays
and Chris Carino.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Jason had this vibe about him. He was not a
very vocal guy, not a loud guy. He's a soft
spoken individual, but he had a look about him. He
had this thing and I think Jason still has it
where you don't want to let him down. No one
played the game harder than Jason. And when you saw
him out there on the floor as a net for
(33:38):
the first time, you realize that he wasn't going to
be the raw, raw vocal leader, but he was going
to set the tone. That team played very hard, played fast,
and nobody played harder or faster than Jason.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Kip next week, with a style all the wrong, the
two thousand and one two thousand and two Nets took
the NBA by surprise and played their way into the
number one seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
If it's a girl Phoebe and if it's a boy Feebo.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Because you at home decide who will become the next
American Idol?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Was up MTV.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Welcome to my career, led by heroes of a new
millennium and a new Jersey the new kid of Child,
a spark a revival jay Be. Most section that the
acquisition of Jason Kidd catapulted this Nets franchise from twenty
six wins a year ago to a best record in
the Eastern Conference, best.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Record in New Jersey Net history, and I think the
best season Jason Kids ever had the MVP of the
Eastern Conference. Here, Jason Kidd has played even better in
the playoffs and he stepped up. The Jason Kids will
to win is setting the tone for the New Jersey Nets.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Jersey Nets will continue one of the most remarkable one.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Season turnarounds in NBA history.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Twenty six wins last year to a trip to the
NBA Finals.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
An amazing story. The New Jersey Nets are in the
NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
It was a season that nobody saw coming. It had
been twenty five years since the Nets turned out the
lights on the Rebel Basketball League they had once ruled
winning the final ABA Championship in nineteen seventy six. Their
time of the NBA to that point had been filled
with false starts. Teams have promise that flamed out. At
the end of the two thousand and two thousand and
(01:35):
one season that didn't even have that. The Nets had
finished twenty six and fifty six, their sixth losing record
in the last seven seasons. There was little reason to
think that anything would change anytime soon. Then General manager
Rod Dorn went to work and changed the face of
the franchise in a single summer. He put all the
(01:56):
right pieces in place to make the most of a
blockbuster tree for that ultimate leader, a floor general who
just made everybody better point guard Jason kid. It aired
up to a franchise record fifty two wins during the
two thousand and one two thousand and two season, doubling
their total from the season before. The Nets earned the
(02:17):
top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, reached the NBA
Finals for the first time in history, and then made
it back in two thousand and three. They went on
to win three straight division titles and four in five seasons,
making the playoffs for six straight years. This is Bill
Raftrie and back in two thousand and one, I was
(02:38):
going to my twentieth season broadcasting New Jersey Nets games.
My play by play partner was Iron Eagle, the bird
who's still leading the Nets broadcast today.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
They changed the whole perception of the franchise. The Nets
had had some success prior and absolutely had some great players,
but they could never sustain it. They were flat if
you look back on it, you know, I just think
it showed that the team could be a winner and
that the team could find an audience.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Big Man Aaron Williams was going to his seventh season
in the NBA and second with the Nets in the
fall of two thousand and one.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Probably my two favorite years playing in the NBA, especially
the first year. No one expected us to win, just
the way that we all came together as a team
and the chemistry. They are all great guys, every last
one of them are great guys. And it's not too
often you can say that about teams. You know, you
always have a couple of guys who are knuckleheads, but
literally from one to fifteen to all the guys are
(03:39):
really great guys, and I think that contributed to our success.
One's a lot more fun than losing. Whenever you're winning,
that makes things better also, But it was just it
was just fun playing with those guys who was an
honor playing with those guys some of the best years
of my life for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And Chris Carrino, who had just finished his twenty second
season as the Nets radio play by playboy, it was
just a rookie about to take the ride of his life.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I was just excited because it was my first year
as the full time radio voice of the team. I'd
been the backup play by play guy, the pregame host,
the postgame host, that kind of thing for years before that.
But I was super excited to be the voice of
the Nets. It probably didn't matter if we won ten
games or fifty games. I was walking into that season
with renewed enthusiasm. I remember meeting Jason Kidd at training
(04:30):
camp and introducing myself and I said, you know, it's
my first year as well here and it's out. Well,
he goes, I guess we're going to go through this together.
Little did I know at the time how much we
were going to go through together in that first year.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The first step on the path that the finals came
in June of two thousand, where the Nets brought in
Rod Thorn charge of basketball operations. Thorn was an NBA
lifer as a player, coach, and executive. He was the
man who drafted Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls. During
the fourteen seasons he spent with the NBA's league office.
(05:14):
After leaving the Bulls, Thornton had gotten calls about running
a team again, but he always took a pass.
Speaker 8 (05:22):
We had a nice lifestyle in New York, in Ryan,
New York, and just felt that my future lay in
the NBA, in the NBA office. I always considered that
why can't the Nets be good? They're in New York
in an area that players liked to play, and they
(05:44):
had not been very good for a while. But my
feeling was, there's no reason the Nets can't be on
equal footing with the Knicks, let's say. So when that
opportunity came, I didn't have to move number one and
number two. I felt it was a great opportunity. So
I sort of winded my way from Rye, New York,
(06:08):
to New Jersey and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
As they said, I knew Rod from his days back
as an assistant coach to Kevin Lockery when the Nets
won the ABA Championship in nineteen seventy four, and I
knew he was in a stuke guy, but he didn't
realize what he was capable of doing. Gms can get
judged quickly and harshly. Sometimes it's tough to make a
deal other people aren't looking to help you out. But
(06:33):
I think he had a great ability to evaluate talent
and more importantly, to put a team together. It's one
thing to be able to evaluate talent, but to fit
it together too. He was very good at that. Tim
Kapstro came on board as the NETS radio analyst in
the fall of two thousand and two after the first
trip to the finals.
Speaker 9 (06:54):
Rod has good a feel if anybody I've ever witnessed
as far as understanding what wins in the game of basketball.
He could tell you immediately after a game exactly what
it went on for four quarters. His intelligence, his IQ
was through the roof. He knew the formula for success
in this game, and he could see it. He orchestrated it,
(07:17):
he put it together, and he had great success because
of it.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And he also knew when it wasn't going well.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
Also, he could tell before everybody else when it wasn't
going to be perfect, just an unbelievable eye for talent
and character and ability and what it takes to win
in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Thorn arrived in New Jersey with two decisions on deck
that would shape the future of the franchise. He had
to decided what to do with the number one pick
in the NBA dram but first he needed a new
head coach.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Screen by Kareem Byron around his stop twenty foot jumper.
Speaker 7 (07:51):
That's good, good thing they brought him along.
Speaker 10 (07:53):
He's got five of the television network.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Here Scott again behind the three point line.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Another three attend the Byron.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Scott has made three three, three.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
The Lakers are in front by one.
Speaker 7 (08:03):
Here comes Scott out in front.
Speaker 10 (08:04):
He's got a top of the key twenty one Twitter.
Speaker 9 (08:06):
That's good.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
You got to keep him olog.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
For our schools.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I've ever he's in the middle.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Every backs up takes the ball of Scott. He's indeed
his five foliot jumper.
Speaker 9 (08:13):
That's a beautiful shot over joe Lyne who stands in
the air.
Speaker 7 (08:15):
And six really jumped into him. Out of battle of
to Scott.
Speaker 11 (08:18):
He fires for three.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
He got it his fourth of the game.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
You a goat with acquit or not.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Coach kept hopping in by Byron Scott.
Speaker 11 (08:27):
How did Scott do that?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Byron Scott's playing career had ended just three years earlier,
and he had been coaching for just two seasons as
an assistant in Sacramento, but he had a championship resume
from his day's plane with the Showtime era Los Angeles Lakers.
He fit what Thorn was looking for.
Speaker 8 (08:46):
We interviewed five or six different candidates, and Byron I
had an initial like for. I had always had a
fond memory of him as a player, great player with
the Lakers as their too guard and had been an
assistant for a couple of years with Sacramento at the time.
(09:07):
But I met him at Chicago right during the time
that the Chicago camp was going on and just had
an affinity for it. I wanted somebody that I felt
I could work with. I wanted somebody, not necessarily somebody
who was, you know, had a big track record in
the NBA while way or the other, and I felt
(09:28):
that Byron had the ingredients to be with some time
and some experience to be a very good head coach.
Speaker 9 (09:36):
Here's Tim capstraw Byron Scott, his coolness under pressure and
the way he would stand there with his arms folded
and there could be all sorts of craziness going on.
And he prided himself on being the coolest guy in
the room and the coolest guy in the arena. He
handled everything like he had seen it all before because
(09:57):
he did. He was a showtime Laker. He was a
great player on a great team, and it was hard
to impress him. I thought he had that edge about
him that really helped the organization.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
As for the draft, it was the second time in
franchise history the Nets had a number one draft pick.
A decade earlier, they had taken Derrit Coleman first overall
out of Syracuse. The top of the two thousand draft
was heavy with forwards, but the top prospect came with
a concern.
Speaker 10 (10:27):
Is the absolute worst nightmare The postseason begins as the
game's best player on the country's best team sees his
college career come to an immediate end. As Kenyon Martin
of the top ranked Cincinnati Bearcats went down in a
heap this afternoon with a broken right fibula and a
ligament damage in his ankle. Three minutes into the Bearcats
Conference USA Tournament opener against Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Kenyan Martin collected a pile of player of the Year
awards after his senior year at Cincinnati. He led the
Bearcats to the top of the Associated Press rankings at
average twenty five points and thirteen rebounds a game. But
martin season ended when he broke his leg in the
Conference USA Tournament.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
He was probably not going to be ready to play
when the season started the following year. So we looked
at several players at that position as we were first
and you know, the first pick in the draft, as
I recall strong Miles Swift was one of the.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
Guys that we looked at.
Speaker 8 (11:27):
We looked at. Miles ended up going to the Clippers
among others. But at the end of the day, our
feeling was that Kenyon had the biggest upside, and our
doctors told us they thought that with time, his injury
would be no problem, and therefore we decided to select him.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We took the first pick in the two thousand NBA Draft, the.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
New Jersey Nets select Kenyan Martin from the University of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
So Thornton's Gott's first Nets team had the draft's top pick,
the number two pick from the nineteen ninety seven draft,
and Keith van Horn and a point guard Stefan Marbury
coming off in all NBA season, and they went out
and finished sixth in a seven team division. Here's Aaron Williams.
Speaker 7 (12:18):
I just think the chemistry was never really there. I
think we had some injuries that year. I think we
were just trying to find the pieces to fit going forward.
There's really a learning year for us, kind of see
what you got, who's going to be here for the future,
who's not. But there's some really talented guys on the team,
but it just never came together for one reason or another.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
It was also the sixth time in seven years they
missed the playoffs. At that point, the Nets had played
twenty five seasons in the NBA and won just a
single playoff series back in nineteen eighty four. I was
there for most of those games. Even if the Nets
weren't winning, they were always interesting. Different coaches had pretty
(12:57):
decent runs. Chuck Day in particular had a pretty good run.
Larry Brown going way back when I first started doing
NETS games as well. But we had a number of
years in a row where we were not excelling. They
were always, in my mind, well coached, they competed. Here's
how Ion saw things for the Nets going into the
summer of two thousand and one.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
At that point, the Nets were trying to figure out
where they fit in. They had a couple of young pieces,
but didn't exactly know what the plan was moving forward.
Byron Scott was not a proven entity at that point.
Rod Thorn had a lot of credibility, and the general
feeling was that he had a plan in mind, but
(13:39):
you just didn't know. You didn't know what direction the
team was going in. You win twenty six games with
a first year head coach with a number one pick
that was banged up, you're not really sure what the
future looks like.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And Thorn knew he had a lot more work to do.
Speaker 8 (13:55):
During our first year. Well, we had a rough go
of it. We had some talent, had Stefan Marbury, who
was a young All Star type player. Kenyon started playing
for US after a time and showed promise, then got
injured and was out for a big part of the season.
(14:15):
When you looked at our team, you know, you try
to assess your team constantly, and as I'm looking at
the team, what I'm seeing is we don't defend, we
don't rebound. Our chemistry is not what you would like,
and although we had some talented players, they just didn't
(14:39):
go together in order to make you into a contending
type team. So my feeling was we need to make
some changes.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Thorn's game changing summer began on draft night with the
seventh pick, and that's real position to it a promising prospect,
but Thorn believed the Nets needed more than what one
player could bring. We swung a deal with Houston to
exchange his one first round pick for the three held
by the Rockets. It was one of those trades that
could not be announced until later in the evening, so
(15:10):
at first it appeared the Nets had selected Seaton Haul
forward Eddie Griffin, the kind of local pick that plays
well with the fan base. Instead, Thorn used Houston's pick
to take Richard Jefferson at number thirteen, Jason Collins at
number eighteen, and Brandon Armstrong at number twenty three.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
During the draft, we're watching the feed from the NBA,
and when it was announced that the trade was made
and Houston was getting Eddie Griffin, one of the announcers
who was doing the draft during a time out when
you know, you think you're not on, but you are
(15:49):
said that that is the worst trade I have ever seen.
I cannot believe that Nets did that. From our viewpoint,
we were hopeful that we were getting three gas that
could help us, and it ended up that we got
too that could help us.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Michael Korn was a former Nets player and broadcaster who
joined the coaching staff as an assistant in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 12 (16:12):
The funny part about that was dawn draft night, there
was a bad storm in New Jersey, well in Houston,
and the Nets we're talking.
Speaker 8 (16:19):
The phones went out, and.
Speaker 12 (16:23):
I remember being in that room. Everybody got nervous because
we really wanted to do the deal.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Here's Iron Eagle.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
I completely understood what Rod was thinking, which was they
need players, they need to fill out the roster. And
what he ended up doing is taking that number seven pick,
trading down using those picks to fill needs. Richard Jefferson,
no doubt, was someone who slipped in the draft. He
(16:50):
deserved to be picked much higher. If you did a
redraft of that year, Richard would be among the top selections.
That's how strong a career and consistent career he had,
and he ended up being the perfect fit for what
the Nets were trying to do. Jason Collins a player
that completely filled a need and fulfilled something that they wanted.
(17:13):
They needed a big, they needed physical, they needed smart,
and he filled the bill. This is the kind of
player that they were looking to build around.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Jason Collins got a heads up from his agent that
the Rockets were about to draft him, but that he
shouldn't count on going to Houston. He had family in
the New York area, So the California kid was fine
with Henny East, even though he knew then that's history
wasn't great.
Speaker 11 (17:40):
I knew that there was sort of this reputation that
the New Jersey Nets were sort of like, you know,
no disrespect to the Clippers or the Kings, but it's
sort of like a Bad News Bears kind of team
up until that point. I mean, they had some great
players in Buck Williams and obviously Doctor J back in
the day, but in their you know, immediate history before us,
(18:01):
they were sort of like the Bad News Bearers.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Drafting Collins was just a part of Thorn's plan to
solidify the center spot by committee. Later in the summer,
he made a move for the under the radar free
agent Todd McCullough was deep on the depth chart for
the defending conference champions, the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Over
his first two pro seasons, he had played about nine
(18:23):
minutes per game. But McCullough brought real size to the
roster seven feet tall and two hundred and eighty pounds,
and the talent that would make him a perfect fit
for this NETS roster was the touch and soft hands
that belied his size. Here's Rod Thorn.
Speaker 8 (18:40):
What we saw in Todd McCullough was a player that
could score. You could throw in the ball and he
could score. They had a soft touch. It was clever.
Not a defender, but a player who could score. We
just needed help there. And he had size, you know.
Todd was legit seventh feet and we had lighted him.
(19:04):
We thought he was a player that had an opportunity
to be a good player. So we ended up signing McCullough.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Didn't mind going from the finals team to a rebuilding
project if it came with a chance for more minutes.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
I felt like whatever the record was the year before,
whatever the environment was, I thought it was going to
be a fresh start for that team, and I knew
that they had drafted well, and so I wanted to
be a part of that. I was looking for a
little bit more of a role and to be a
starter and sort of be guaranteed some minutes and just
know that every night you're going to get a chance
(19:37):
to play. I was looking forward to getting some more playtime.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Here's iyon Eagle. Todd.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
He just was such a wonderful guy and great teammate
and a perfect fit for what they needed. Give Rod
Thorne a great deal of credit the vision he had.
I'm not sure he signed Todd McCullough with the idea
that he could be a championship center, but he came
damn close to being one.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So the Nets had added two centers and a dynamic
rookie wing. They were bringing back Kenyan Martin and Keith
van Horn, plus reliable veterans in forward Aaron Williams and
guard Lucius Harris. There was another edition with Curry Kittle's
coming back from knee surgery that had sidelined him for
the entire two thousand and two thousand and one season.
Before the injury, Kittle shot forty percent from three point
(20:28):
range twice in his four seasons and set the franchise
record for three pointers made after the Nets drafted him
eighth in nineteen ninety six. But it was between the
draft and the mccullos signing that Thorn took his big
swing with a blockbuster trade for the second time in
franchise history. One trade changed everything for the Nets.
Speaker 8 (20:49):
All right, sensational move by Jason Jason.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
OLLI come back the other way, goes in traffic, gets
hammer go five of six from three, can't head to Harris.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
He runs it down, lays it up and am and
he just comes up with something new almost every night.
Kid the jumper that win it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
He got it, job done, and he does two of them.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
I'm telling you, Kid throws it up.
Speaker 11 (21:20):
How did he do it?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Ull circus shot. Jason Kidd was the West Coast counter
to the Brooklyn bred Marbury, a Bay Area playmaking prodigy
who had gone second in the nineteen ninety four NBA
draft and had shared Rooking the Year honnors with Grant
Hill in Phoenix. Kid was living up to all the promise.
(21:42):
He had just led the NBA and assists for three
straight years and been named to the old NBA first
team each year. He was twenty seven years old, right
in his prime, but the Suns felt stalled. They had
won just one playoff series in the last six seasons.
They were looking either shake things up and that made
Kid available. Here's Rod Thorne.
Speaker 8 (22:05):
Over the course of several months, we had several conversations,
but nothing that led to anything. And then finally it
became apparent to me that they were going to move
Jason Kidd. So the talks heat it up, and when
we were made the decision that we would give up
(22:26):
step On Marbury and a trade for Jason, that really
got the talk seated up and again over the course
of a couple of weeks, we ended up making a
trade with Phoenix. Jason Kidd's talent level and his skill
level were what I thought we really needed. We couldn't guard,
(22:48):
we had poor chemistry, we couldn't rebound. Jason Kidd does
all of those. So in getting Jason, we got a leader,
we got someone who had ex experience, We got someone
who came in and the first thing he said was
we're going to make the playoffs when he was introduced
(23:08):
by the press conference. We're going to make the playoffs.
He was used to making the playoffs. His skill set
fit in remarkably well with what we had. I knew
we were going to be better, but did I have
any inclination that we would be as good as we
became that next year. I would say that was a
(23:29):
fond hope, but one that was probably unattainable.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
At that time.
Speaker 8 (23:35):
He gave us everything that we needed.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
The trade became official on July eighteenth, two thousand and one.
In that sense, Stefan Marbury, Johnny Newman, and Samala Samaki
to Phoenix for Kid and Chris Dudley in August, and
that's Wave Dudley and the Sons. Wave Newman Samachi never
played a game for the Sons either after we was
traded to Chicago and Wave. This was Marbury for Kid
(24:01):
straight up, and nobody was sure what was going to
work out. Here's Chris Carino.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
The Sons were eager to move on from Jason Kidd.
The Nets were eager to move on from Stefan Marbury.
It was like the perfect trade partner set up. It
was a new beginning for each of those guys. Obviously
we knew Jason Kid was a great player. This team
was a twenty six win team didn't really have any
other stars on it. Marbury couldn't push him over the top,
(24:30):
so I think there was some skepticism as to how
good Jason Kidd could make this team.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And Iron Eagle.
Speaker 6 (24:36):
It was really a perfect storm in many ways. I
think Kid needed a change of scenery. The Nets desperately
needed someone to take the reins and take control and
set the bar really high. It was mutually beneficial they
got a player in the prime of his career that,
at that point I think was viewed as an exceptional town.
(25:00):
But the questions around him were based on whether or
not he could really lift the level of play of
everybody around him. And what he did in New Jersey
is he lifted an entire franchise and I had not
seen it done before.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
We knew that.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
If someone could come in and really lead that the
team had a chance to be something, but they just
had never found that player. He provided that and so
much more. They leaned on him in every possible way,
and again, timing is everything. At that point in his career,
(25:43):
he needed the Nets as much as the Nets needed him.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Kinna just finished his seventh NBA season. He'd been traded
once before halfway through year three. He understood the business.
He was a pro. As far as actually finding out
about the deal, well, you can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 13 (26:02):
I think I was going through a drive through I
want to say taco bell when I heard about the
trade from Robin Pound, who was our strength coach, our
strength and conditioning coach, saying, hey, did you hear the
news about you being traded? And I told him I hadn't.
He asked me where I was and I said, I'm
just about to order some taco bell. I said, let
me call you back and find out what's going on.
(26:24):
That was the first time I heard about the trade.
Shortly after that, Brian Colangelo called me and said that
they had traded me to the New Jersey Nets. It
was just kind of a surreal moment because I didn't
know what the thing. But it wasn't my first trade,
so I wasn't mad. I just wanted to figure out
who was on the Nets and who was being traded
(26:44):
to the Suns, and I think I started really trying
to think about how the season was going to go
in New Jersey. I wasn't upset. I was more excited
about the challenge of leading a team to the playoffs.
I wasn't really concerned about the record, the past record.
I was just trying to figure out how we could
be five hundred.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
He took them a lot further than that. He took
them to two finals, four division titles, and six playoff appearances.
It's the greatest run of success in the next forty
seven seasons in the NBA, and it started before the
season began. It didn't start on the court, it started
in Jason Kidd's mind. Here's iron eagle.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
New vibe around the team. You could tell that Jason
was business like. He was very focused, but he was
also measured. He gave off a sense of confidence, but
it wasn't arrogance by any stretch. Any of those media
sessions prior to the season, Jason talked about winning, and
(27:47):
he talked about a team that he thought had a
chance to win. But he didn't talk about that next level.
He didn't talk about a metamorphosis. He just talked about
what it was going to take steps needed for this
team to become competitive and to be a factor in
the NBA. So I credit him for bringing a certain
(28:09):
mindset to the team.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Jason Collins had seen Kid play for the first time
ten years earlier, when he was twelve years old. They
were playing for the same AAU organization in California. Kid
was five years older.
Speaker 11 (28:23):
We went to go see them play and it was
just incredible. It was like like my eyes got big
because I was like, the only point guard I had
ever seen play like that was Magic Johnson before, and
Jason was so fast, so skilled, and I was just
thinking to myself, it'd be really cool if I had
to play with him one day. So then getting drafted
and then you know, getting traded, and then my dream
(28:46):
came through, you know, playing in the NBA and then
also get to play with Jason Kidd.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
And that's other News center Tom McCullough reached out to
a friend for a scouter report on his new point guard.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
I knew about Jason Kidd, and I knew what a
great passer he was and what a great competitor. Steve
Nash and I had been teammates on the Canadian national team,
and I knew what it was like to play with
a point guard like that, and I knew that Jason
and Steve knew each other, and so I called Steve
and I said, hey, you either signed with the next
to that point where I was about to and I said,
I think maybe I had. I said, hey, what's it
(29:19):
going to be like for me to play with Jay Kidd?
Speaker 12 (29:21):
You know?
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Is it going to be as good as I think?
And He's like, imagine playing with a way better version
of me every night.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
What Jason Kidd was capable of doing was extraordinary. He
was a coach on the floor, which is something a
lot of people say, but he managed a team like
a choreographer good. He got all the pieces in the
right spot, and there was nobody better on the fast break. Defensively,
he was so strong and great at getting around ball screens.
In his first season in New Jersey, Kid finished second
(29:50):
to San Antonio's Tim Duncan in the MVP race in
one of the closest votes in the two decades the
media have been voting on the award. He was named
to the All NBA f First Team and All Defensive
First Team the next two years. He led the league
in assists in his six and a half seasons with
the Nets. Kid was an All NBA three times, All
(30:11):
Defensive Team six times, and was selected for five All
Star games. His number five hangs in the rafters at
Barkley Center, and he was inducted into the Hall of
Fame in twenty eighteen. Here's Rod Thorp.
Speaker 8 (30:26):
His innate toughness, his physicality gave us something that we
didn't have before, and combined it with Kenyon Martin, who
was a tough guy and a physical, hard nosed guy,
gave us a presence on the court that we just
didn't have before. And Jason could guard anybody but a
(30:49):
center on the court. There were many games late in
the ballgame when you need to stop, Jason might be
Gardener four, he might be Gardener one, he might he
could go to anybody. He was a tremendous defensive player, slash, rebounder, passer.
It was incredible the games we won when we had
(31:11):
to make stops, and that guy would get us to stop.
He played through pain with the way he played. He
was banged up a lot, kept playing, always played. He
played close to forty minutes every game. Nowadays, nobody plays
forty minutes. If you average thirty six minutes a game,
it's like, boy, that guy really plays a lot of minutes.
(31:32):
He played every night. He was there every night.
Speaker 7 (31:35):
He was ready.
Speaker 8 (31:36):
He was not a vocal leader, but the kind of
leader that people want to follow.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
When you're talking about Jason his leadership. I remember watching
a workout and Kenya Martin was struggling with his jump
shot and they were walking off the floor and I
think Bird was with me. Usually we would be able
to shoot round or practice. And I heard Kenyon lamenting
the fact that he couldn't make a jump shot, and
Jason said, you're the first to leave. That's all he said.
(32:04):
From that day on, Kenya Martin worked and became a
decent mid range jump shooter. He didn't miss words, and
he didn't use many words, and obviously he led by
the way he played too. He was just a great
extension of the bench. Kid just changed everything about the
way that that's played. He elevated everybody around them, partly
(32:24):
with his skill set and partly with the example. He said.
Here's Tim Capstraw.
Speaker 9 (32:31):
The single greatest competitor I have ever watched in my
entire life, and it's not even close. His will to win,
his ability to motivate teammates with just the look in
his eyes was second to none of any athlete I
have ever ever witnessed unbelievably brilliant player. The competitive instincts
(32:51):
were off the charts, and again, how he could make
others around him better was his greatest attribute. He made
them so much better by the way he played. They
played at a higher level. And the pieces of that
entire two thousand and two two thousand and three team
fit just perfectly with him being the leader, the orchestrated
(33:13):
and a guy pushing it and making all the plays
and Chris Carino.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Jason had this vibe about him. He was not a
very vocal guy, not a loud guy. He's a soft
spoken individual, but he had a look about him. He
had this thing and I think Jason still has it
where you don't want to let him down. No one
played the game harder than Jason. And when you saw
him out there on the floor as a net for
(33:38):
the first time, you realize that he wasn't going to
be the raw, raw vocal leader, but he was going
to set the tone. That team played very hard, played fast,
and nobody played harder or faster than Jason.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Kip next week, with a style all the wrong, the
two thousand and one two thousand and two Nets took
the NBA by surprise and played their way into the
number one seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
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