June 22, 2023 • 43 mins
In the second episode of "Something To Prove: The Story of the 2002 & 2003 Nets," we peel back the layers on the outstanding 2002 New Jersey Nets season, the winningest in their history. We look at the pieces comprising this roster: Jason Kidd's winning attitude, Kenyon Martin's hard-nosed mindset, Todd MacCulloch's soft hands, and more. Join us as we hear about their new-look offense, in-your-face defense, and everything in between that went into this transformative season.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I think the team dinners before training camp, I tried
to set the tone, but I had said publicly, I
think of the press conference that we were going to be,
you know, five hundred, forty one and forty one, and
a lot of people might have laughed at that statement,
but that was my goal. That was something that you know,
I thought was realistic. If you're five hundred, that means
you're doing something right. You're not great, but you're better
(00:25):
than you were in the past, and so that was
something that I wanted to I said, you know, at
a press conference, and then the dinner before training camp started,
I stood up and I recalled just saying that, you know,
we're not going to lose. We're all here to win.
We all have to do our job, and if we
play together, you know, that could happen. And the guys
probably more scared than anything when I said that, because
(00:48):
we had a lot of rookies, but they really bought
in to what I believed that we could be, and
I think it just went a little bit farther than
anybody thought.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Jason Kidd brought more than his game when he arrived
in New Jersey in two thousand and one. He brought
a new way of thinking. When you look back at
how the Nets turned things around that season, start with that,
Start with the mental game. Start by insisting that things
were going to be different.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Now I heard it.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
It was that Jason Kidd walked into their first team
dinner in training camp and he said, they're losing stops.
Now you get that out of your head right away.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
What do you think, scal I remember him talking about
winning the Eastern Conference. It was just as matter of
fact as that. I don't think you guys understand how
good we are. He started naming down everyone's skill set
and how it matched up with his skill set. I
gotta be honest, Like I've watched Todd McCulloch in Washington,
and I saw him in Philly. Like all the things
(01:56):
that he was saying about Todd, this is the guy.
Like I played against Todd. I didn't realize like how
good Todd m kollach was yet Jason Kidd had his
game down pat Like he knew exactly what he could
do offensively in the hands and how soft they were,
and like I just never played with a guy that
had hands like that before. But it's like he almost
knew Kingy Martin and what he's able to do, Richard Jefferson,
(02:18):
Keith Van Horn, like Lucius Harris, Carrie kitt Like, he
just went through everyone's bio and he was spot on.
This was like three days later, but he just went
through everyone's bio and saying like, this is why we're
gonna win.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Here's Jason Kidd's back court partner, Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Early on, Jay Kidd made some bold statements. I don't
recall it exactly what they were, but for us, the
year before was a twenty something win season, so he
made some bold statements about playoff run and things like that,
and we start to believe in it.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Guys are saying, yeah, I'm with Jason. You know we're
gonna be good and we're confident, and I'm telling you
it took off.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That's assistant coach Michael Coron, who played on five NETS
playoff teams in the eighties, then made a stop in
the broadcast booth on his way to the bench. In
the fall of two thousand and one, o'corn was heading
into his fourth season on the coaching staff and the
Nets essentially had a new team. They were the four Rookies,
Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins, Brandon Armstrong, and Brian Scalabrini.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
I really believe, like my rookie year, I had a
unique ability because I always played with a point guard
that wanted to push it, whether it be at USC
or even in junior college, I had a unique ability
to take the ball out of the net quickly. So
it's like such a small thing, and I really believe
those things lead to more playing time. If I take
the ball out of the net and get it to
Jason Kidd un let's say I just fly, it gets
(03:39):
out and we end up getting a bucket, I might
have just bought myself thirty more seconds.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There were summer acquisitions Jason Kidd and Tom McCullough, and
there was Kittles coming back from missing all the previous season.
Kittles spent most of the year working on his rehab
in California after knee surgery, so asidne from all the
new guys. Kittles had never played with Kenyan Martin or
Aaron Williams, and he hadn't yet played for the next
second year head coach Byron Scott.
Speaker 6 (04:06):
Byron Scott, whose background is all about championships with the Lakers.
He carries himself with that confidence even under stressful moments,
and we saw that early on, just his composure bringing
together pretty much a new team that following year after
his first year.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
They also credit Byron Scott for injecting not just Jason,
but that entire team with a sense of purpose. Byron
was a really interesting person in that equation in that
he allowed players to do what they were best at.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
That's Iron Eagle, who in two thousand and one was
heading into his eighth season doing next play by play.
Speaker 8 (04:47):
Byron has so much personal success that he used it
all the time. You just felt that this guy had
something in his mind that this team could do some
special things. Nobody else believed it, but he kept talking
in that manner, and eventually the players bought in.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Scott didn't waste any time either. Here's Jason Kidd on
day one as an et.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I remember the first practice. I don't know even if
we touched the basketball. We did a lot of running.
I remember running around the court with our hands up,
sliding backwards.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
Run.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That was tough. That was tough because we had heard
that we were going to do some running. But I
don't think we knew it was going to be that
type of running, but we got through it. There are
probably a couple of garbage kins lined up around the
court just in case anybody didn't feel well. He sent
the message that we were going to work and that
we were gonna run, and that we needed to be
(05:50):
in shape. And I think we all bought into what
he was selling, and that was offensively, we're going to
get out and running and defensively, we're going to get
after one another. And I thought he set the toll
on day one and Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
That first day of training camp was spectacular. I mean,
you saw it all on that first day. You saw
guys willing to make the extra pass. You saw athleticism,
you saw speed, you saw defensive effort, and I'll never
forget I closed it out. Jason Kidd threw me an alleoop,
(06:25):
I went back door and he threw an alley loop
and Byron stops like that's enough. Like it was just
cemented anything that we had discussed the day.
Speaker 7 (06:33):
Before in the hotel as a group.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
And then that next day it was obvious that we
had all were to take to be a really, really
good team.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
With this coach, this point guard, and this roster. Some
things were obvious. These Nets were going to defend and
they were going to get out and run. But they
had to figure out what to do when there wasn't
an option. This was the NBA's era of low scoring
and deliberate offenses. The game was ruled by back to
the basket post scores like Shaquille O'Neill and Tim Duncan,
(07:03):
or isolation superstars like Ai Alan Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and
Vince Carter out in the perimeter clearing things out so
they go one on one. These nets didn't have one
of those guys, but Byron Scott and an assistant coach,
Eddie Jordan, had both come through Sacramento on their way
to New Jersey with the Kings. They worked with legendary
(07:24):
Princeton coach Pete Carrill. They saw an answer in the
intricate motion offense that Carrill had used to frustrate defenses
during his Hall of Fame college career. Here's net center
Jason Collins.
Speaker 9 (07:36):
Eddie Jordan brought in the Princeton offense, and that was
sort of new to the NBA, bringing a college set
to the NBA game. Now, it's so funny when I'm
watching different NBA games, there's all different kind of riffs
off of some of the options off of the Princeton offense.
But we were one of the first teams to bring
(07:57):
it into the NBA. When you're one of those teams
that you know that you bring something new, you sort
of have a little competitive advantage because a lot of
teams aren't necessarily used to going through sets with a
lot of movement. Usually in the NBA, you would give
it to your superstar and the low post like a
Shock or Charles Barkley and just sort of feed off
of them with very little movement. But there was a
(08:19):
lot of movement in the Princeton offense which teams weren't
necessarily used to.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
An assistant coach Mike Ocurran, we went.
Speaker 7 (08:26):
Through the Princeton offense and Byron's getting excited about it, saying, wow,
we'll get shot still in this, and we'll lull the
ball from side to side and guards are forwards forwards
of guards if they overplay, you know, back door. So
Byron got excited about it and let Any go with it.
Let Any run with it, and Eddie ran but you know,
putting it in an implemented the players really brought in
players don't buy any got no shot. And Jason was
(08:48):
as unself as a player as I could remember or
ever coached. When he brought in. Everybody else brought in
with it, and it was a great stet.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yes, Jason Gett had to run the show, and this
was a change from the way he'd been playing his
first seven years in the league.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I thought it was kind of cool because it gave
us structure. And again, as a player who's new on
the scene, I was up to trying anything, and I
thought it gave our younger players a sense of what
they had to do instead of just wandering. It was
really black or white, it made a cut that it
led to something else. There was a lot of ball movement,
a lot of cutting, but then also it just helped
(09:25):
you understand where you were going to get your shots.
And I thought that Princeton offense was suitable for our
young team and it helped us with structure, also helped
us with transition defense, so that it helped us both
ways offensively and defensive.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Nothing changed for kid. Jason put up the same great numbers,
averaging nine point nine assists in his first year with
the Nets, the fourth highest rate in his nineteen NBA seasons. Ironically,
it was the only time in the sixth season stretch
that he didn't lead the league in assists. But the
Nets is a team. We're third in the league with
twenty four point three assists per game. Here's Tom McCollough,
(10:04):
the center with the soft hands, who was a perfect
fit to work out the high post as a fulk
room to the offense while his teammates cut and slashed
around him.
Speaker 10 (10:13):
And I was sort of the center of the pinwheel
where a lot of a lot of things were dictated
by me coming to the high post, getting the ball. Okay,
here's a cutter. If he's open, give it to him.
If he's not. There's a second cutter if he's not open.
Speaker 11 (10:23):
Okay.
Speaker 10 (10:23):
So it's all predicated on these reads. So it's necessary
for me to get to the spot, catch the ball,
make the right decision. The offense that we were running
was predicated on what is the defense going to do.
The defense can has to make a choice. Are they
going to play us this way? If they do, we're
going to react and do it this way. So I
think we put ourselves in advantage that whatever the defense
was doing, we sort of had a counter for that
(10:44):
was going to get us an open shot or an
open look or a cut. And I think it took
some teams a long time to try and figure out
the best way to stop us on the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And here's Kerry Kittles, who posted the two highest field
goal percentages of his career during the NETS two final seasons.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
This offense was really passing, moving, cutting, playing off your teammates,
and that was fun for us and that kind of
got us out of our own individual heads more into
the team's goals and trying to make everything right as
a unit for the team. I would say if we
didn't instill that offense and we just played a normal
(11:20):
NBA style offense, they would have been tough for us
because we didn't have those kinds of players on that team.
We really had guys that needed to be able to
excel off of each other, and that offense really glued
us together.
Speaker 11 (11:32):
I would say they liked that.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It looked in the preseason the ball was popping, the
energy was high, the intensity was there. But the first
real test came on October thirtieth two thousand and one.
In that season opener against the Indiana Pacers at the
Medallands at the start of the best season in the
franchise history. Nobody else was really paying attention. The year before,
(11:55):
the netsaid played their twentieth season in the Medal Lands
and they dropped to twenty eighth and the league attendance
out of twenty nine teams. Even the trade for Kid
didn't seem to change anybody's mind about the team. The
official attendance for the season opener in the twenty thousand
Seed Arena was eight seven hundred and forty nine. Here's
(12:15):
Ion Eagle the crazy part.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
The first game of the Jason Kidd era, there might
have been sixty five hundred people in attendance. You had
a lot going on. Yankees were in the World Series,
Michael Jordan was in town playing the Knicks as a
member of the Washington Wizards. The Nets weren't exactly lighting
the sports world on fire, and in a way, it
(12:39):
was this perfect backdrop because Kid got to do it
in relative anonymity, and he got to work through some things.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In his Nets debut, Kid nearly had a triple double,
fourteen points, ten rebounds, nine assists, and four steals. It
was a perfect preview of what he would deliver this season. Meanwhile,
Keith van Horn had twenty six points, Curry Kittle scored
twenty and the Nets came back for a one to
oh three the ninety seven win after outscoring the Pacers
(13:09):
by seventeen points in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 8 (13:12):
And they roared back in that game. They won it
going away, and then they beat Boston in Game two,
and I think at that point around us, it did
raise some eyebrows that, huh, maybe there's something here, Maybe
this thing's gonna work.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
They rolled through the first two weeks of the season.
After they routed the Knicks one oh nine to eighty
three on November sixteenth, the Nets were seven and one.
Here's Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
Having a new group come together and to have that
hot start, it meant that the league was gonna like
look at us as like, all right, these guys are
no joke. You better go to New Jersey now and
be ready to compete. And so we had to back
that up, and that was that was the challenge for us.
Can't we back up what we just started? We know
we're good and we got off to this hot start,
(14:00):
can't you guys sustain it? Now that teams know that
you guys are really good, and so that was a
fun challenge for us that first year was going on
the road and winning in some tough places, putting together
some win streaks, and beating some quality teams that were
in the playoffs.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
The year before. We beat them handedly and I remember.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
Vimberly against some of those teams and it was like, Yeah,
the Nets are for real. The whole season was just
win streak after win streak, bouncing back from losing a
couple of games.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
We were all in forward. Aaron Williams was part of
the twenty six win team the year before his first
with the Nets.
Speaker 11 (14:34):
We didn't know what to expect, you know, going into
the season like we had nothing to lose. That's when
the chemistry really started to come together with all those guys.
As good as all of those guys are, every one
of those guys is really unselfish and they didn't really
care who got the credit, who scored the points. They
were just really unselfish. Now at that point in the season,
it's still kind of early, but getting off to winning
(14:56):
selling on your first aid is a lot better than
losing selling on your first eight to see that, you know,
we're pretty good. Let's keep it going. Maybe we can
shock the world. Who knows. I think more so, we
were having fun playing together. That energy and that fun
just carries over and it kind of snowballs. I think
by a halfway through the season, we're fairly confident that
(15:16):
we can play with anyone. Obviously, anything can beat on
any given night, but we feel that applies to us,
and we can beat anyone any given night. We have
the talent, we have the chemistry, we all like each other,
we all get along. I think by halfway point of
the season, we're pretty confident that we can play with anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
They were in first place in the Atlantic Division for
all but a week of the regular season, and held
the top spot in the Eastern Conference from New Year's
Day on. A six game win streak solidified their conference
lead in mid January. The Nets went into the All
Star break with a thirty two and fifteen record, and
when they won another sixth straight just after the break,
(15:54):
they were thirty eight and seventeen with twenty five games
left to go in the season.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
They play their home games in the Garden state and
man have they ever blossomed as a team this year,
and there's been those stopping the New Jersey Nets running
game this year. With Kidd at the helm, everyone else
is ready willing and able to fill the lanes and
finished the fast great the Kid philosophy has spread throughout
the team, with everyone looking to share the wealth on offense.
(16:22):
Currently five nets average in double figures I resulted so
far this year. There's no doubt about it. The New
Jersey Nets are for real.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Here's Ion Eagle.
Speaker 8 (16:33):
If you look at that season, they never really let up.
They got off to a good start, lost a few games,
bounced right back. They would win four out of five,
five out of seven, seven out of ten, ten out
of fifteen. They just always seem to bludgeon teams when
they least expected it. And that was the hallmark of
(16:55):
that entire season. Teams were just very surprised by them.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And why not. And that's We're in the middle of
one of the great one season turnarounds in NBA history.
They went from twenty six wins to fifty two, from
sixth in their division to first in the conference. The
franchise had won one playoff series in twenty five years
eventually went all the way to the NBA Finals. And
(17:22):
the reason it all happened is because one of the
worst defensive teams in the league became the best. Here's
general manager Rod Tharn.
Speaker 12 (17:31):
All of a sudden, we went from a team that
was one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA
to a team that with Jason Kidd and Kenyan Martin,
who was a very good defender. With those guys leading
the way, we went from a really poor defensive team
to a solid, good defensive team.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
And assistant coach Mike o'carran.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
I used to remember sitting out of bats talking to
Lawrens Frank and I said, man, I'd hate to have
to play against us when we were on defensively like this,
deflection steals, long rebounds, switches. We just had it all,
we really did.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
That's finished the season fourth in the league in steals,
sixth in blocks, sixth and field goal percentage allowed, and
number one overall in defensive rating the fewest points allowed
per one hundred possessions. Here's Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Honestly, it was their training camp. We knew we were
athletic and we could cover ground and then after that
it was really just accountability. Really, what it was was
we were not going to have a week link. If
you're going to be on the court on this team,
you better guard because you're not going to play. That
was the theme, and we held each other accountable. We
(18:44):
were good like that, and we knew what our strengths were,
but we bought in on that defensive end, and then
we saw how good it was for us by making
it so difficult and how that led to offensive points
in the open court.
Speaker 11 (18:57):
And we loved that. We absolutely loved that.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It all started on the perimeter. You had Kittles and
Jefferson along with Kid out there. They could contain their
own guy with the bounds, which didn't put a lot
of pressure on the inside people. They were very successful
in valuing the basketball, They finished breaks, they got easier
baskets than always had their defense set which allowed them
to be pretty much tough minded. Kid was in the
(19:22):
middle of a run of ninth straight All Defensive Team honors.
Teammates like Aaron Williams knew he was the instigator on
that defensive end.
Speaker 11 (19:30):
It starts with Jay Kidd. He's the point on defense.
He picks up the ball full court sometimes and he
just makes it hard on the other guards and his
anticipation getting steals. Defense a lot of times like our
offense wasn't the greatest, but our defense will lead the offense,
whether it's steals, block shots, what have you are just
more importantly just guys being in the right place at
(19:51):
the right time, when you're helping each other. I'm helping someone,
someone's helping me. You build that trust on defense, and
I think that's where it starts. For We just enjoyed
playing defense. We enjoy getting stops. We took pride in it.
The guy like Kmart, you see the energy he plays
with and the pride he played. He like, you take
your defense seriously. I think the same with r J Collins.
(20:11):
That's what he did. He was a defender. Jay Kidd,
like I said, it all starts with Jay Kidd. Kerry
Kittles was long, he gets steals. You know. It was
just just that chemistry on defense is what made us
what we were, and that a lot of times at
leads to those breakour fast breaks and then guys don't
libs and alleops and it makes it more fun. That's
what gets on ESPN Sports center, not the steal that
(20:33):
led to it. All those guys, we all took pride
in our defense.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Kid knew it all started on the defensive end and
flowed from there. That was what made fun stuff possible.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I think that was our offense. So when you talk,
you know, they'll talk about our offense in the fast pace,
in the fast breaks, but it all came from steels,
rebounding the ball, block shots, and you would have to
look at Kmart when you talk about Kenyon the anchor
of our defense, being able to guard in the post,
but also just being athletic enough to protect us for
us guys who got blown by, to be able to
(21:07):
block shots or change shots, and then we would come
up with the rebound. And I think it was a
game within the game that was the fun part. Like
let's play defense so that we can get to offense,
so that we can get out and run, so we
can throw a lob or someone can get an easy
dunk or layup. That was something that we talked about
with Carrie Kettle's using his length and then also you
(21:27):
know with RJ and Twin and McCalla being able to
again deflections and steals and they really believe again, you
got to give a lot of credit to Bayron of
preaching defense that that was the one thing that was
going to help us be successful.
Speaker 9 (21:43):
Something that made our team so effective defensively is we
had a lot of guys with a high, super high
basketball IQ. J kidd of all the players that I
played with, and I played with thousands of players, his
basketball IQ on both ends of the court are off
the charts, absolutely off the charts. Kenyan Martin incredibly high
(22:06):
basketball IQ, especially on the defensive end. There is a
clip of Lebron doing a postgame interview where he talked
about different plays and he was just sequential in like
his memorization that was sort of like Kmart when it
comes to basketball plays, and a lot of people don't
give him credit for just how high of a basketball
IQ he asked, especially on the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Jason Collins wasn't the only net who highlighted Martin's understanding
of the game. Kerry Kittle's put Martin's hoops IQ up
there with anybody he ever played with. But for the
outsiders who weren't in the film sessions, practices, or team huddles,
they identified Kmart with the muscle end of the job,
that intimidating presence in the paint.
Speaker 12 (22:49):
He's what you call a live body. That guy gets
it done night at a night out and he loves truim.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
Nets to have numbers three on one Martin.
Speaker 13 (23:00):
Don't Kidney.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Becaus thirty six.
Speaker 9 (23:04):
It's camp who landing?
Speaker 14 (23:05):
It comes cam v Kenny Martin, Oh baby, kiss me Woods,
Oh my goodness, here's a three on two ordered break.
Wesley Kenyon Martin grabbed the bar on the right of
the rim.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
But tremendous leaping ability and timing by Kenyon Martin.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
Jock clocket five Van Horn got a bump from Mason.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Gives it up, bitch finish on the paceline.
Speaker 14 (23:34):
He clanned the imaginary ladder and that's what he does.
Speaker 10 (23:37):
Offensive rebound and explosive battle league around the rim, and
that is his game.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Here's Chris Carrino.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Kenyan Martin was the heart that pump blood into that team.
Kenyon's presence was felt by everybody because he was the
guy that had your back, gave them a toughness, would
also not stand for anything but your best. He would
get on his own team in a practice the same
(24:07):
way he would get on another player in a game.
But you knew that when you were a Kenyan's teammate that.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
He had your back.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Net's had a lot of nice guys on that team,
and I personally liked Kenyon and he was a nice
guy with me and the other guys that covered the team.
But as my partner Tim Capstrow would say, you can't
have all milk and cookies guys, right, You need a
couple of guys that are going to get in your face,
who are going to be a little rough and tumble,
and Kenyan Martin was that guy for that team.
Speaker 8 (24:35):
And Iron Eagle Kenyan Martin, he brought unnecessary edge. You
didn't mess with the Nets because of Kenyon Martin. He
had your back as a teammate. He was ferocious, he
was relentless, and he wanted to rip your heart out.
He didn't just want to win. He wanted to do damage.
(24:57):
And you could see it in the way he played.
He played off defense the same exact way, same exact way.
And I can't say it was reckless abandoned because it
wasn't reckless. He knew exactly what he was doing. It
was controlled rage and it was exactly what.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
The Nets needed.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
They were a team that could embarrass you because of
the way that they ran the break, and when you
get embarrassed, you push back, and he would not let
other teams try to push them back. He was always
there to patrol the paint and also to be the
muscle if necessary.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
What do you think, Brian Kenyan Martin's going to have
your back? Like he was looking for a fight every
single day. You just felt like, this is our identity.
Let me tell you a story. This is why I
learned in the NBA. Like I'm at an AAU game
just the other day and a fight breaks out and
someone looks at me, like, yo, man, why don't you
go over there and do something like tell you a
quick story. It was the Portland game. We're getting beat
(25:58):
by Portland and Richard Jefferson is talking to the referee.
Kenya Martin tells Richard Jefferson, man, forget this blankety blank, dude,
just save your money. Save your money, man, don't even
get involved in this nonsense. So they go into the
locker room, and I think it was like a miscommunication
between the two, Like I think Richard was thinking, why
is Kenyr Martin telling me to shut the blank up right,
(26:21):
and Richard's like, man, why are you of all the
people telling me to shut the blank up? And then
Kenya Martin just started saying, nah, I was.
Speaker 9 (26:28):
Gonna tell you.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
And then Richard Jefferson steps in front, so like before
you can get out the words of like I was
just gonna tell you to save your money, they start
going at it. So I'm in the locker room, so
I break it up. I'm in the middle. I take
a two piece to the back of the head. Boom boom, right,
so I'm all I'm on the like I'm sitting down.
These two guys hash it out because now there was
a miscommunication and I'm the only one who took a
(26:51):
two piece, So I said to myself, like, I'm not
doing this anymore. You guys can hash out your own problems,
like I'm not getting involved in this. And they were
cool like five seconds later except for me with you know,
taking two punches to the head, and I think each
one of them got me.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Martin led a front court rotation that protected the paint
with a committee at center. There was the rookie Jason Collins,
the free agent pickup Tom McCollough, and the reliable veteran
Aaron Williams, who slid between the center rotation and backing
up Martin at the four. With that group, the Nets
ranked eighth in the league in rebounding and fifth in
(27:27):
both second chance points and points in the paint allowed.
Williams was one of those underdog success stories who climbed
the NBA ladder won painstaking rung at a time. He
played twenty one NBA games in his first two years,
then ended up out of the league in year three
playing in the CBA. The Denver Nuggets signed him in
nineteen ninety six, played him one game and cut him.
(27:50):
It wasn't until his seventh year out of college with
Washington in nineteen ninety nine that he found the regular role.
The Nets were his seventh team.
Speaker 11 (28:00):
A lot of guys say when they make it there,
it's a dream come true, but for me, it wasn't
even a dream come true because it wasn't even reality.
I'm never playing the NBA. I'm just a huge fan
growing up watching the games, and as I started playing
in college, start playing against guys who were getting drafted,
started seeing I can play with these guys. I can
play at the college level. I'm getting better and better, So,
(28:21):
needless to say, I didn't get drafted some time in
a CBA, spent time overseas in Greece and Italy, and
just kind of grinded my way back. I played with
the Bucks in ninety four. You know, I just go
into free agent camps, just getting invited to camps and
getting calls up from the CBA, getting cut, never really
realizing how really close I was to not making it.
(28:44):
There's such a fine line from guys who make it
and who guys who don't. There's not that much of
a talent difference between guys who are on that line.
But I just never doubted myself, especially the more I
played in the summer leagues against guys who were getting drafted,
seeing that, you know, I'm actually better to and a
lot of these guys just about finding a team who
believes in me and is going to give me a chance.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Here's Jason Collins.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
A train another great dude, another great teammate. I learned
a lot of my professionalism from him. He was always
in the weight room, always working out, and I sort
of copied that and incorporated that into my professionalism and
that I would get in the weight room and start
lifting weights and you know, getting the practice early or
staying after practice. And I attribute a lot of that
(29:29):
to watching how Aaron Williams went about his business and
his work. And one thing about a train was he
was super athletic, super explosive, but he never really did
it in practice. He saved it for the games. So
it was just really interesting to see, like the practice
Aaron Williams as far as like explosive f versus the game,
because in the game it was something else. He was
(29:51):
a trained in the game.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Here's scal Aaron has a fantastic game. I don't remember
what game it was in the playoffs, but he was
big time for us. Right So I get in the
locker room, walk in and he's there. I'm like, this
unbelievable that game you had, Man, that was unbelieving that
moment right there, Like, I'm not sure we win that
game if you didn't do that with six minutes to go,
Like your ability to get to that left hand and
be so strong defensily, you were off the chart.
Speaker 9 (30:15):
Man, that was unreal.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Man, I can't I can't thank you enough, Like we're
not winning that game if it's not for you man,
way to play man? How was it?
Speaker 11 (30:22):
This is where he goes? He goes yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
I said, all right, Doug, good talk man, I'll see
you later. I'm like going off and I'm not even
a fanboy or anything like that. I just thought like
there were so many big moments in games where he
was huge for us, right, and he hit me with
a yeah. He was off the charts like it's just
(30:48):
he just, you know, every day, taking hits and guarding
bigger guys and getting too that left hand jump hook.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Martin and Williams made an impression with their muscle. But
when he came to the biggest guy in the roster,
the seven two and eighty pounds center Tom McCullough, the
thing that stood out were those soft hands.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
I can remember talking to Alan Iverson before a game
one time when we got McCullough and he says, the
guy with the best hands I've ever played with is
Todd McCullough. Alan Iverson said that because he played some
years in Philadelphia with him, and I said, you got
that right. He said, I could throw it the ball
anyway to him and he would catch it, and it
was true.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
That's assistant coach Michael korn A McCullough's partner in the
center rotation. Jason Collins saw the same thing.
Speaker 9 (31:32):
Todd McCullough big Dip. We called him Big Dip. Just
a great guy. I enjoy watching because he isn't the quickest.
He isn't the fastest, but he gets the job done.
And of all the bigs that I played with, his
ability to catch the ball in tight areas and then
just quickly put it up and end incredible to watch.
(31:52):
And even today when I'm doing clinics with kids, I
will tell them catch the ball two hands and just
like todm.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
MCA signing McCullough over the summer didn't create much of
a wave. He had averaged nine minutes a game in
two years with the Sixers. But this was a roster
where all the pieces complimented each other. Here's iron Eagle.
Speaker 8 (32:14):
A perfect fit for what they needed. He didn't need
the ball, he didn't require it. He would score on
post ups and they would look for him. In that
Princeton offense or Princeton's style, they would look for him,
and he understood his role. Scored on a lot of putbacks.
Solid rebounder.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Todd used to do the thing I called the belly bump.
It was probably the greatest offensive rebounder. They never got
his toes off the floor. McCullough and Collins didn't put
up big numbers on their own, but they gave the
nets exactly what they needed. O Corn's role on the
coaching staff included working extensively with the team's big men,
Todd and twin colle.
Speaker 7 (32:53):
They wanted to score like anybody else, but they knew
how the offense was built around that. So a lot
of times they would come up to the elbow area
or even the top of the key area as part
of this offense, and a lot of times it would
become a one two to two where the center would
have the ball top of the key, and then forwards
would pin down for the guards, and the guards would
pin down for the forwards and they'll be dribble handoffs
and roller places. Both of them at that center position
(33:16):
did two things really. They did a lot of things well,
but two things really well. They had great hands and
they could catch the ball. A lot of big guys
sometimes they have three or four thumbs on their hands,
they don't catch the ball well. Todd and Jason Twinn.
Jason Collins could catch the ball really well.
Speaker 9 (33:32):
And that sounds like, come on, no.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
It's true. They had great hands, especially mccullor. And then
they set great screens. They let as they would say,
they laid a lot of wood out there. They set
great screens that really really helped the offense go.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Brian Scalabrini, Todd and Collins are really smart, like they
know how to play, they know how to pass, they
have great hands, and they can make good decisions at
the high posts.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Tom mccullos saw it the same way, a group that
fit together and made each each other better.
Speaker 10 (34:01):
I think everybody kind of had, you know, a different
skill set. I mean, Aaron Williams was a super strong
and could dunk on people and played great defense and
got great rebounds, and everybody kind of understood their roles.
Nobody was complaining about playtime. I think we had the
advantage where the coach could put any one of us
in in any certain situation. And you know, Jason Collins
(34:23):
was able to play really good defense and distribute the
basketball and that pin wheel offense, and so I think
for that big man role, I think Byron had choices
and options into who he played depending on different matchups,
and I think all three of us we were all
team oriented that nobody was going to complain and everybody
wanted to be on the court, but they were willing
to sacrifice if the coach felt that there was a
(34:45):
better matchup. And so I think just as a big
man unit, we were all on the same page that
we all kind of saw the big picture that if
we got a good thing going here and if we
ride this out, who knows how far this team can go.
So nobody was rocking the boat, nobody was complaining, and
we just tried to go about our business of doing
the dirty work, getting rebounds, getting the ball to Jason
Kidd and then watching amazing things happen, whether it's kry
(35:07):
Kittle's running down for a wide open three or Kenyon
flying in for an alley up. I think we love
to start the break by getting the rebound, getting into
Jason and then just trying to get easy baskets for us,
and I think all three of us were willing to
do that.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
The defense, the rebounding, the ball moving it all fed
into the fast breaking style that became the team signature.
Here's Chris Carino.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Byron Scott came from the Lakers, the showtime base right.
Those Lakers Showtime teams were about defending primarily and getting
up and down the floor running. That's where Byron Scott
wanted that team to be, and Jason Camp was the
perfect guy to lead that. That's an entertaining style. You
(35:49):
want to turn teams over, you want to get up
and down the floor.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And iron eagle.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
They were so elite as a fast break team. They
were next les transition like I had not seen before
in my tenure in the NBA, where they could just
snap their fingers and change the entire pace of the
game because Kid was looking for his guys cutting down
(36:14):
the floor and it all just fit like a perfect
chicksaw puzzle. Everything fit together, the fact that they were
playing the style. It was so pleasing to the eye,
and from a broadcasting standpoint, it was the best thing
to ever happen to me as a basketball broadcaster. It
raised my game because the speed, the style, the pizzazz
(36:39):
in which they performed forced me and Bill Raftery that
year to come up with new ways to describe it,
and it brought our level to an eleven. It was
not the norm and it would stun teams. I vividly
remember walking out of arenas and thinking to my self
(37:00):
that team did not expect that. Maybe they scouted it,
maybe they saw it on tape, maybe they even prepared
for it. They didn't expect it to hit them like
a tidal wave.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
The Nets were third in the league and turning over
opponents and fourth and steels, and they turned that all
into offense. There were fourth in points off turnovers and
first in fast break points with seventeen a game.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Ah that special chand and Martin on the top. Ah,
what a feet from Jason Kidd to carry Kiddle.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Exquisite pass by a kid. Watched the spin on the ball,
a little backspin.
Speaker 14 (37:37):
Kid has it and against three defenders, Jason Kid goes
to hide the temper fen what to play by Jason Kidd.
Speaker 8 (37:45):
Swanted by mccollor.
Speaker 14 (37:47):
Nets trigger the break Kid ap a dipsy do he
got rid of it to Martin, he got the.
Speaker 15 (37:53):
Next pushing Kidd, No look van hur and somehow the
ball gets through them all past them. The completion by
Kenya Martin. Just a beautiful past that time by Jason Kiddy.
He knows where everybody is on the floor and another turnover.
Here comes kid running with Kenyan Martin.
Speaker 14 (38:12):
Oh baby, just me Woods, Oh my goodness, bring the
house down.
Speaker 15 (38:21):
Jason up the floor, Jefferson, Bob.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Jefferson with the finish.
Speaker 11 (38:30):
That's not fast.
Speaker 7 (38:31):
I mean, that's as pretty as you will see a fast.
Speaker 9 (38:33):
Break run in this league.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Here's Rod Thorn.
Speaker 7 (38:37):
We had the best fast break in the league.
Speaker 12 (38:39):
We were like the Showtime Lakers East in that Jason.
Nobody could take the ball from foul line to foul
line as fast Jason. Jason had what few great players had.
I will always compare him to Wayne Gretzky. They could
see things before they happen. He's coming down on a
fast break. He knew who was going to be open
(39:02):
and who to.
Speaker 9 (39:02):
Throw the ball to.
Speaker 12 (39:03):
A lot of guys most guys have no clue. They
just come down and take it as far as they
can and if they can't shoot, then they'll throw it off.
He knew where to throw it. So our fast break
was devastating.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
And Jason kidd, I think when you look at what
Rod Thorn and Byron did of putting the team together,
it was a perfect fit because I had athletes around
me who could get out and run and also cover
me up if I was all defense getting beaten. But
I think also they really respected, really trusted that I
was going to put them in a position to be successful.
(39:39):
And I always tell people, they do the hard part.
They got to put the ball in the basket, and
so there was a lot of trust. We had a
lot of fun. They really listened and that's what made
that team special.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Kids court vision pushed the whole thing to a new level.
Here's Aaron Williams.
Speaker 11 (39:56):
J Kidd just playing with a guy like that who's
obviously on how selfish he is. He's a pass first
point guard who can also score and defend. It makes
the game more fun when you if you're open, you
know you're going to get the ball well and you
think he didn't see you, he sees you, and playing
with a guy like that is fun.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Kind of worked every day with a guy like that
and Jason Collins.
Speaker 9 (40:17):
That was one thing that I knew of playing with
Jay Kidd was that if you run the floor, he
will find you and reward you. So it was really
a matter of when we got that defensive rebound, we
tried to get the ball to Ja Kidd as quickly
as possible, and then all of us would just sprint
and run, and then I knew I wasn't catching Karrie Kittles.
(40:39):
Kry Kerry Kittles is one of the fastest guys point
A to point b. But when Carrie was out of
the game, and Richard as far as the biggs, Kmart
obviously could run the floor like a deer. So we
had a lot of guys who you get the drill
that if you pick up the pace and fastbreat we're
gonna be very explosive.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Kid at all the right pieces around them. Kittles, Jefferson Martin,
here's Tim Capstraw.
Speaker 13 (41:03):
Jason Kidd was the leader, but the other players on
the roster fit so perfectly into the game that Jason
Kidd played so well the running game, defensive minded defense,
get after it, get the rebound and run or force
the steal, and then finish the game off that way.
That's what they did to teams. Teams would hang around
(41:26):
and then all of a sudden they would wipe them
out with a flurry of great defense to turn it
into fast break offense. And Jason Kidd would go end
to end. His head would be on a swite, his
eyes would be off. You'd be so excited wondering what
he was gonna do, What was gonna be the play
because he just saw everything way before you did. And
(41:46):
it would be Kittles on the right and Jefferson on
the left and Kenyon coming behind, and you just knew
Jason Kidd was gonna make a special play. Some of
the most awesome plays you'd ever seen was when they're
sprinting down the floor, Jason Kidd is in front of
the pack, They're filling all the lanes, and then Jason
Kidd with either dropping behind him to Kenyon Martin or
(42:09):
throw it off the backboard for one of those slams.
It was unbelievable to watch. And a lot of people
have a three man break or a two man break.
The Nets had a four man break because of the
ground that Kenyan Martin could cover.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
And Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (42:24):
I was a fast player with trying to keep up
with Jason Kid, Kenyan Martin and Richard Jefferson was no
easy task. That's why sometimes I just stopped at the
three point line because that was the easier thing to do.
Speaker 7 (42:36):
Is like, those guys are going to be in and
beating me.
Speaker 6 (42:38):
I'm as gonna just bring the defense back behind the
three point line.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
It was a team that didn't play the same game
the rest of the league was playing. They ran a
transition game that was out of the eighties and a
half court offense that came from the college game, and
they rode it all the way to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I think we caught a lot of people surprised on
their heels, pretty much built like a West Coast team
with the athletes that we had on the wings that
could run. We wanted a team that was going to
walk the ball up and just grind it, but we
were a team that would run, explore the break, and
I think again, our defense put us in a position
(43:17):
to win a lot of games. And so when you
look at us, probably that first two times around, we
surprised a lot of Eastern Conference teams and then we
competed with the West and that was something that was
not easy to do. But when we're at the halfway point,
I think we really started to believe that we were
a really good team.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Next week, the reward for New Jersey's first place finish
was a first round playoff series against Rigie Miller and
the Indiana Pacers. They went to the limit and beyond
over an epic five game series to stay on the
road to the finals.
I think the team dinners before training camp, I tried
to set the tone, but I had said publicly, I
think of the press conference that we were going to be,
you know, five hundred, forty one and forty one, and
a lot of people might have laughed at that statement,
but that was my goal. That was something that you know,
I thought was realistic. If you're five hundred, that means
you're doing something right. You're not great, but you're better
(00:25):
than you were in the past, and so that was
something that I wanted to I said, you know, at
a press conference, and then the dinner before training camp started,
I stood up and I recalled just saying that, you know,
we're not going to lose. We're all here to win.
We all have to do our job, and if we
play together, you know, that could happen. And the guys
probably more scared than anything when I said that, because
(00:48):
we had a lot of rookies, but they really bought
in to what I believed that we could be, and
I think it just went a little bit farther than
anybody thought.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Jason Kidd brought more than his game when he arrived
in New Jersey in two thousand and one. He brought
a new way of thinking. When you look back at
how the Nets turned things around that season, start with that,
Start with the mental game. Start by insisting that things
were going to be different.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Now I heard it.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
It was that Jason Kidd walked into their first team
dinner in training camp and he said, they're losing stops.
Now you get that out of your head right away.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
What do you think, scal I remember him talking about
winning the Eastern Conference. It was just as matter of
fact as that. I don't think you guys understand how
good we are. He started naming down everyone's skill set
and how it matched up with his skill set. I
gotta be honest, Like I've watched Todd McCulloch in Washington,
and I saw him in Philly. Like all the things
(01:56):
that he was saying about Todd, this is the guy.
Like I played against Todd. I didn't realize like how
good Todd m kollach was yet Jason Kidd had his
game down pat Like he knew exactly what he could
do offensively in the hands and how soft they were,
and like I just never played with a guy that
had hands like that before. But it's like he almost
knew Kingy Martin and what he's able to do, Richard Jefferson,
(02:18):
Keith Van Horn, like Lucius Harris, Carrie kitt Like, he
just went through everyone's bio and he was spot on.
This was like three days later, but he just went
through everyone's bio and saying like, this is why we're
gonna win.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Here's Jason Kidd's back court partner, Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Early on, Jay Kidd made some bold statements. I don't
recall it exactly what they were, but for us, the
year before was a twenty something win season, so he
made some bold statements about playoff run and things like that,
and we start to believe in it.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Guys are saying, yeah, I'm with Jason. You know we're
gonna be good and we're confident, and I'm telling you
it took off.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That's assistant coach Michael Coron, who played on five NETS
playoff teams in the eighties, then made a stop in
the broadcast booth on his way to the bench. In
the fall of two thousand and one, o'corn was heading
into his fourth season on the coaching staff and the
Nets essentially had a new team. They were the four Rookies,
Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins, Brandon Armstrong, and Brian Scalabrini.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
I really believe, like my rookie year, I had a
unique ability because I always played with a point guard
that wanted to push it, whether it be at USC
or even in junior college, I had a unique ability
to take the ball out of the net quickly. So
it's like such a small thing, and I really believe
those things lead to more playing time. If I take
the ball out of the net and get it to
Jason Kidd un let's say I just fly, it gets
(03:39):
out and we end up getting a bucket, I might
have just bought myself thirty more seconds.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There were summer acquisitions Jason Kidd and Tom McCullough, and
there was Kittles coming back from missing all the previous season.
Kittles spent most of the year working on his rehab
in California after knee surgery, so asidne from all the
new guys. Kittles had never played with Kenyan Martin or
Aaron Williams, and he hadn't yet played for the next
second year head coach Byron Scott.
Speaker 6 (04:06):
Byron Scott, whose background is all about championships with the Lakers.
He carries himself with that confidence even under stressful moments,
and we saw that early on, just his composure bringing
together pretty much a new team that following year after
his first year.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
They also credit Byron Scott for injecting not just Jason,
but that entire team with a sense of purpose. Byron
was a really interesting person in that equation in that
he allowed players to do what they were best at.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
That's Iron Eagle, who in two thousand and one was
heading into his eighth season doing next play by play.
Speaker 8 (04:47):
Byron has so much personal success that he used it
all the time. You just felt that this guy had
something in his mind that this team could do some
special things. Nobody else believed it, but he kept talking
in that manner, and eventually the players bought in.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Scott didn't waste any time either. Here's Jason Kidd on
day one as an et.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I remember the first practice. I don't know even if
we touched the basketball. We did a lot of running.
I remember running around the court with our hands up,
sliding backwards.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
Run.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
That was tough. That was tough because we had heard
that we were going to do some running. But I
don't think we knew it was going to be that
type of running, but we got through it. There are
probably a couple of garbage kins lined up around the
court just in case anybody didn't feel well. He sent
the message that we were going to work and that
we were gonna run, and that we needed to be
(05:50):
in shape. And I think we all bought into what
he was selling, and that was offensively, we're going to
get out and running and defensively, we're going to get
after one another. And I thought he set the toll
on day one and Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
That first day of training camp was spectacular. I mean,
you saw it all on that first day. You saw
guys willing to make the extra pass. You saw athleticism,
you saw speed, you saw defensive effort, and I'll never
forget I closed it out. Jason Kidd threw me an alleoop,
(06:25):
I went back door and he threw an alley loop
and Byron stops like that's enough. Like it was just
cemented anything that we had discussed the day.
Speaker 7 (06:33):
Before in the hotel as a group.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
And then that next day it was obvious that we
had all were to take to be a really, really
good team.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
With this coach, this point guard, and this roster. Some
things were obvious. These Nets were going to defend and
they were going to get out and run. But they
had to figure out what to do when there wasn't
an option. This was the NBA's era of low scoring
and deliberate offenses. The game was ruled by back to
the basket post scores like Shaquille O'Neill and Tim Duncan,
(07:03):
or isolation superstars like Ai Alan Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and
Vince Carter out in the perimeter clearing things out so
they go one on one. These nets didn't have one
of those guys, but Byron Scott and an assistant coach,
Eddie Jordan, had both come through Sacramento on their way
to New Jersey with the Kings. They worked with legendary
(07:24):
Princeton coach Pete Carrill. They saw an answer in the
intricate motion offense that Carrill had used to frustrate defenses
during his Hall of Fame college career. Here's net center
Jason Collins.
Speaker 9 (07:36):
Eddie Jordan brought in the Princeton offense, and that was
sort of new to the NBA, bringing a college set
to the NBA game. Now, it's so funny when I'm
watching different NBA games, there's all different kind of riffs
off of some of the options off of the Princeton offense.
But we were one of the first teams to bring
(07:57):
it into the NBA. When you're one of those teams
that you know that you bring something new, you sort
of have a little competitive advantage because a lot of
teams aren't necessarily used to going through sets with a
lot of movement. Usually in the NBA, you would give
it to your superstar and the low post like a
Shock or Charles Barkley and just sort of feed off
of them with very little movement. But there was a
(08:19):
lot of movement in the Princeton offense which teams weren't
necessarily used to.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
An assistant coach Mike Ocurran, we went.
Speaker 7 (08:26):
Through the Princeton offense and Byron's getting excited about it, saying, wow,
we'll get shot still in this, and we'll lull the
ball from side to side and guards are forwards forwards
of guards if they overplay, you know, back door. So
Byron got excited about it and let Any go with it.
Let Any run with it, and Eddie ran but you know,
putting it in an implemented the players really brought in
players don't buy any got no shot. And Jason was
(08:48):
as unself as a player as I could remember or
ever coached. When he brought in. Everybody else brought in
with it, and it was a great stet.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yes, Jason Gett had to run the show, and this
was a change from the way he'd been playing his
first seven years in the league.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I thought it was kind of cool because it gave
us structure. And again, as a player who's new on
the scene, I was up to trying anything, and I
thought it gave our younger players a sense of what
they had to do instead of just wandering. It was
really black or white, it made a cut that it
led to something else. There was a lot of ball movement,
a lot of cutting, but then also it just helped
(09:25):
you understand where you were going to get your shots.
And I thought that Princeton offense was suitable for our
young team and it helped us with structure, also helped
us with transition defense, so that it helped us both
ways offensively and defensive.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Nothing changed for kid. Jason put up the same great numbers,
averaging nine point nine assists in his first year with
the Nets, the fourth highest rate in his nineteen NBA seasons. Ironically,
it was the only time in the sixth season stretch
that he didn't lead the league in assists. But the
Nets is a team. We're third in the league with
twenty four point three assists per game. Here's Tom McCollough,
(10:04):
the center with the soft hands, who was a perfect
fit to work out the high post as a fulk
room to the offense while his teammates cut and slashed
around him.
Speaker 10 (10:13):
And I was sort of the center of the pinwheel
where a lot of a lot of things were dictated
by me coming to the high post, getting the ball. Okay,
here's a cutter. If he's open, give it to him.
If he's not. There's a second cutter if he's not open.
Speaker 11 (10:23):
Okay.
Speaker 10 (10:23):
So it's all predicated on these reads. So it's necessary
for me to get to the spot, catch the ball,
make the right decision. The offense that we were running
was predicated on what is the defense going to do.
The defense can has to make a choice. Are they
going to play us this way? If they do, we're
going to react and do it this way. So I
think we put ourselves in advantage that whatever the defense
was doing, we sort of had a counter for that
(10:44):
was going to get us an open shot or an
open look or a cut. And I think it took
some teams a long time to try and figure out
the best way to stop us on the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And here's Kerry Kittles, who posted the two highest field
goal percentages of his career during the NETS two final seasons.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
This offense was really passing, moving, cutting, playing off your teammates,
and that was fun for us and that kind of
got us out of our own individual heads more into
the team's goals and trying to make everything right as
a unit for the team. I would say if we
didn't instill that offense and we just played a normal
(11:20):
NBA style offense, they would have been tough for us
because we didn't have those kinds of players on that team.
We really had guys that needed to be able to
excel off of each other, and that offense really glued
us together.
Speaker 11 (11:32):
I would say they liked that.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It looked in the preseason the ball was popping, the
energy was high, the intensity was there. But the first
real test came on October thirtieth two thousand and one.
In that season opener against the Indiana Pacers at the
Medallands at the start of the best season in the
franchise history. Nobody else was really paying attention. The year before,
(11:55):
the netsaid played their twentieth season in the Medal Lands
and they dropped to twenty eighth and the league attendance
out of twenty nine teams. Even the trade for Kid
didn't seem to change anybody's mind about the team. The
official attendance for the season opener in the twenty thousand
Seed Arena was eight seven hundred and forty nine. Here's
(12:15):
Ion Eagle the crazy part.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
The first game of the Jason Kidd era, there might
have been sixty five hundred people in attendance. You had
a lot going on. Yankees were in the World Series,
Michael Jordan was in town playing the Knicks as a
member of the Washington Wizards. The Nets weren't exactly lighting
the sports world on fire, and in a way, it
(12:39):
was this perfect backdrop because Kid got to do it
in relative anonymity, and he got to work through some things.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In his Nets debut, Kid nearly had a triple double,
fourteen points, ten rebounds, nine assists, and four steals. It
was a perfect preview of what he would deliver this season. Meanwhile,
Keith van Horn had twenty six points, Curry Kittle scored
twenty and the Nets came back for a one to
oh three the ninety seven win after outscoring the Pacers
(13:09):
by seventeen points in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 8 (13:12):
And they roared back in that game. They won it
going away, and then they beat Boston in Game two,
and I think at that point around us, it did
raise some eyebrows that, huh, maybe there's something here, Maybe
this thing's gonna work.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
They rolled through the first two weeks of the season.
After they routed the Knicks one oh nine to eighty
three on November sixteenth, the Nets were seven and one.
Here's Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
Having a new group come together and to have that
hot start, it meant that the league was gonna like
look at us as like, all right, these guys are
no joke. You better go to New Jersey now and
be ready to compete. And so we had to back
that up, and that was that was the challenge for us.
Can't we back up what we just started? We know
we're good and we got off to this hot start,
(14:00):
can't you guys sustain it? Now that teams know that
you guys are really good, and so that was a
fun challenge for us that first year was going on
the road and winning in some tough places, putting together
some win streaks, and beating some quality teams that were
in the playoffs.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
The year before. We beat them handedly and I remember.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
Vimberly against some of those teams and it was like, Yeah,
the Nets are for real. The whole season was just
win streak after win streak, bouncing back from losing a
couple of games.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
We were all in forward. Aaron Williams was part of
the twenty six win team the year before his first
with the Nets.
Speaker 11 (14:34):
We didn't know what to expect, you know, going into
the season like we had nothing to lose. That's when
the chemistry really started to come together with all those guys.
As good as all of those guys are, every one
of those guys is really unselfish and they didn't really
care who got the credit, who scored the points. They
were just really unselfish. Now at that point in the season,
it's still kind of early, but getting off to winning
(14:56):
selling on your first aid is a lot better than
losing selling on your first eight to see that, you know,
we're pretty good. Let's keep it going. Maybe we can
shock the world. Who knows. I think more so, we
were having fun playing together. That energy and that fun
just carries over and it kind of snowballs. I think
by a halfway through the season, we're fairly confident that
(15:16):
we can play with anyone. Obviously, anything can beat on
any given night, but we feel that applies to us,
and we can beat anyone any given night. We have
the talent, we have the chemistry, we all like each other,
we all get along. I think by halfway point of
the season, we're pretty confident that we can play with anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
They were in first place in the Atlantic Division for
all but a week of the regular season, and held
the top spot in the Eastern Conference from New Year's
Day on. A six game win streak solidified their conference
lead in mid January. The Nets went into the All
Star break with a thirty two and fifteen record, and
when they won another sixth straight just after the break,
(15:54):
they were thirty eight and seventeen with twenty five games
left to go in the season.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
They play their home games in the Garden state and
man have they ever blossomed as a team this year,
and there's been those stopping the New Jersey Nets running
game this year. With Kidd at the helm, everyone else
is ready willing and able to fill the lanes and
finished the fast great the Kid philosophy has spread throughout
the team, with everyone looking to share the wealth on offense.
(16:22):
Currently five nets average in double figures I resulted so
far this year. There's no doubt about it. The New
Jersey Nets are for real.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Here's Ion Eagle.
Speaker 8 (16:33):
If you look at that season, they never really let up.
They got off to a good start, lost a few games,
bounced right back. They would win four out of five,
five out of seven, seven out of ten, ten out
of fifteen. They just always seem to bludgeon teams when
they least expected it. And that was the hallmark of
(16:55):
that entire season. Teams were just very surprised by them.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
And why not. And that's We're in the middle of
one of the great one season turnarounds in NBA history.
They went from twenty six wins to fifty two, from
sixth in their division to first in the conference. The
franchise had won one playoff series in twenty five years
eventually went all the way to the NBA Finals. And
(17:22):
the reason it all happened is because one of the
worst defensive teams in the league became the best. Here's
general manager Rod Tharn.
Speaker 12 (17:31):
All of a sudden, we went from a team that
was one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA
to a team that with Jason Kidd and Kenyan Martin,
who was a very good defender. With those guys leading
the way, we went from a really poor defensive team
to a solid, good defensive team.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
And assistant coach Mike o'carran.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
I used to remember sitting out of bats talking to
Lawrens Frank and I said, man, I'd hate to have
to play against us when we were on defensively like this,
deflection steals, long rebounds, switches. We just had it all,
we really did.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
That's finished the season fourth in the league in steals,
sixth in blocks, sixth and field goal percentage allowed, and
number one overall in defensive rating the fewest points allowed
per one hundred possessions. Here's Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Honestly, it was their training camp. We knew we were
athletic and we could cover ground and then after that
it was really just accountability. Really, what it was was
we were not going to have a week link. If
you're going to be on the court on this team,
you better guard because you're not going to play. That
was the theme, and we held each other accountable. We
(18:44):
were good like that, and we knew what our strengths were,
but we bought in on that defensive end, and then
we saw how good it was for us by making
it so difficult and how that led to offensive points
in the open court.
Speaker 11 (18:57):
And we loved that. We absolutely loved that.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It all started on the perimeter. You had Kittles and
Jefferson along with Kid out there. They could contain their
own guy with the bounds, which didn't put a lot
of pressure on the inside people. They were very successful
in valuing the basketball, They finished breaks, they got easier
baskets than always had their defense set which allowed them
to be pretty much tough minded. Kid was in the
(19:22):
middle of a run of ninth straight All Defensive Team honors.
Teammates like Aaron Williams knew he was the instigator on
that defensive end.
Speaker 11 (19:30):
It starts with Jay Kidd. He's the point on defense.
He picks up the ball full court sometimes and he
just makes it hard on the other guards and his
anticipation getting steals. Defense a lot of times like our
offense wasn't the greatest, but our defense will lead the offense,
whether it's steals, block shots, what have you are just
more importantly just guys being in the right place at
(19:51):
the right time, when you're helping each other. I'm helping someone,
someone's helping me. You build that trust on defense, and
I think that's where it starts. For We just enjoyed
playing defense. We enjoy getting stops. We took pride in it.
The guy like Kmart, you see the energy he plays
with and the pride he played. He like, you take
your defense seriously. I think the same with r J Collins.
(20:11):
That's what he did. He was a defender. Jay Kidd,
like I said, it all starts with Jay Kidd. Kerry
Kittles was long, he gets steals. You know. It was
just just that chemistry on defense is what made us
what we were, and that a lot of times at
leads to those breakour fast breaks and then guys don't
libs and alleops and it makes it more fun. That's
what gets on ESPN Sports center, not the steal that
(20:33):
led to it. All those guys, we all took pride
in our defense.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Kid knew it all started on the defensive end and
flowed from there. That was what made fun stuff possible.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I think that was our offense. So when you talk,
you know, they'll talk about our offense in the fast pace,
in the fast breaks, but it all came from steels,
rebounding the ball, block shots, and you would have to
look at Kmart when you talk about Kenyon the anchor
of our defense, being able to guard in the post,
but also just being athletic enough to protect us for
us guys who got blown by, to be able to
(21:07):
block shots or change shots, and then we would come
up with the rebound. And I think it was a
game within the game that was the fun part. Like
let's play defense so that we can get to offense,
so that we can get out and run, so we
can throw a lob or someone can get an easy
dunk or layup. That was something that we talked about
with Carrie Kettle's using his length and then also you
(21:27):
know with RJ and Twin and McCalla being able to
again deflections and steals and they really believe again, you
got to give a lot of credit to Bayron of
preaching defense that that was the one thing that was
going to help us be successful.
Speaker 9 (21:43):
Something that made our team so effective defensively is we
had a lot of guys with a high, super high
basketball IQ. J kidd of all the players that I
played with, and I played with thousands of players, his
basketball IQ on both ends of the court are off
the charts, absolutely off the charts. Kenyan Martin incredibly high
(22:06):
basketball IQ, especially on the defensive end. There is a
clip of Lebron doing a postgame interview where he talked
about different plays and he was just sequential in like
his memorization that was sort of like Kmart when it
comes to basketball plays, and a lot of people don't
give him credit for just how high of a basketball
IQ he asked, especially on the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Jason Collins wasn't the only net who highlighted Martin's understanding
of the game. Kerry Kittle's put Martin's hoops IQ up
there with anybody he ever played with. But for the
outsiders who weren't in the film sessions, practices, or team huddles,
they identified Kmart with the muscle end of the job,
that intimidating presence in the paint.
Speaker 12 (22:49):
He's what you call a live body. That guy gets
it done night at a night out and he loves truim.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
Nets to have numbers three on one Martin.
Speaker 13 (23:00):
Don't Kidney.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Becaus thirty six.
Speaker 9 (23:04):
It's camp who landing?
Speaker 14 (23:05):
It comes cam v Kenny Martin, Oh baby, kiss me Woods,
Oh my goodness, here's a three on two ordered break.
Wesley Kenyon Martin grabbed the bar on the right of
the rim.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
But tremendous leaping ability and timing by Kenyon Martin.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
Jock clocket five Van Horn got a bump from Mason.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Gives it up, bitch finish on the paceline.
Speaker 14 (23:34):
He clanned the imaginary ladder and that's what he does.
Speaker 10 (23:37):
Offensive rebound and explosive battle league around the rim, and
that is his game.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Here's Chris Carrino.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Kenyan Martin was the heart that pump blood into that team.
Kenyon's presence was felt by everybody because he was the
guy that had your back, gave them a toughness, would
also not stand for anything but your best. He would
get on his own team in a practice the same
(24:07):
way he would get on another player in a game.
But you knew that when you were a Kenyan's teammate that.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
He had your back.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Net's had a lot of nice guys on that team,
and I personally liked Kenyon and he was a nice
guy with me and the other guys that covered the team.
But as my partner Tim Capstrow would say, you can't
have all milk and cookies guys, right, You need a
couple of guys that are going to get in your face,
who are going to be a little rough and tumble,
and Kenyan Martin was that guy for that team.
Speaker 8 (24:35):
And Iron Eagle Kenyan Martin, he brought unnecessary edge. You
didn't mess with the Nets because of Kenyon Martin. He
had your back as a teammate. He was ferocious, he
was relentless, and he wanted to rip your heart out.
He didn't just want to win. He wanted to do damage.
(24:57):
And you could see it in the way he played.
He played off defense the same exact way, same exact way.
And I can't say it was reckless abandoned because it
wasn't reckless. He knew exactly what he was doing. It
was controlled rage and it was exactly what.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
The Nets needed.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
They were a team that could embarrass you because of
the way that they ran the break, and when you
get embarrassed, you push back, and he would not let
other teams try to push them back. He was always
there to patrol the paint and also to be the
muscle if necessary.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
What do you think, Brian Kenyan Martin's going to have
your back? Like he was looking for a fight every
single day. You just felt like, this is our identity.
Let me tell you a story. This is why I
learned in the NBA. Like I'm at an AAU game
just the other day and a fight breaks out and
someone looks at me, like, yo, man, why don't you
go over there and do something like tell you a
quick story. It was the Portland game. We're getting beat
(25:58):
by Portland and Richard Jefferson is talking to the referee.
Kenya Martin tells Richard Jefferson, man, forget this blankety blank, dude,
just save your money. Save your money, man, don't even
get involved in this nonsense. So they go into the
locker room, and I think it was like a miscommunication
between the two, Like I think Richard was thinking, why
is Kenyr Martin telling me to shut the blank up right,
(26:21):
and Richard's like, man, why are you of all the
people telling me to shut the blank up? And then
Kenya Martin just started saying, nah, I was.
Speaker 9 (26:28):
Gonna tell you.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
And then Richard Jefferson steps in front, so like before
you can get out the words of like I was
just gonna tell you to save your money, they start
going at it. So I'm in the locker room, so
I break it up. I'm in the middle. I take
a two piece to the back of the head. Boom boom, right,
so I'm all I'm on the like I'm sitting down.
These two guys hash it out because now there was
a miscommunication and I'm the only one who took a
(26:51):
two piece, So I said to myself, like, I'm not
doing this anymore. You guys can hash out your own problems,
like I'm not getting involved in this. And they were
cool like five seconds later except for me with you know,
taking two punches to the head, and I think each
one of them got me.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Martin led a front court rotation that protected the paint
with a committee at center. There was the rookie Jason Collins,
the free agent pickup Tom McCollough, and the reliable veteran
Aaron Williams, who slid between the center rotation and backing
up Martin at the four. With that group, the Nets
ranked eighth in the league in rebounding and fifth in
(27:27):
both second chance points and points in the paint allowed.
Williams was one of those underdog success stories who climbed
the NBA ladder won painstaking rung at a time. He
played twenty one NBA games in his first two years,
then ended up out of the league in year three
playing in the CBA. The Denver Nuggets signed him in
nineteen ninety six, played him one game and cut him.
(27:50):
It wasn't until his seventh year out of college with
Washington in nineteen ninety nine that he found the regular role.
The Nets were his seventh team.
Speaker 11 (28:00):
A lot of guys say when they make it there,
it's a dream come true, but for me, it wasn't
even a dream come true because it wasn't even reality.
I'm never playing the NBA. I'm just a huge fan
growing up watching the games, and as I started playing
in college, start playing against guys who were getting drafted,
started seeing I can play with these guys. I can
play at the college level. I'm getting better and better, So,
(28:21):
needless to say, I didn't get drafted some time in
a CBA, spent time overseas in Greece and Italy, and
just kind of grinded my way back. I played with
the Bucks in ninety four. You know, I just go
into free agent camps, just getting invited to camps and
getting calls up from the CBA, getting cut, never really
realizing how really close I was to not making it.
(28:44):
There's such a fine line from guys who make it
and who guys who don't. There's not that much of
a talent difference between guys who are on that line.
But I just never doubted myself, especially the more I
played in the summer leagues against guys who were getting drafted,
seeing that, you know, I'm actually better to and a
lot of these guys just about finding a team who
believes in me and is going to give me a chance.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Here's Jason Collins.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
A train another great dude, another great teammate. I learned
a lot of my professionalism from him. He was always
in the weight room, always working out, and I sort
of copied that and incorporated that into my professionalism and
that I would get in the weight room and start
lifting weights and you know, getting the practice early or
staying after practice. And I attribute a lot of that
(29:29):
to watching how Aaron Williams went about his business and
his work. And one thing about a train was he
was super athletic, super explosive, but he never really did
it in practice. He saved it for the games. So
it was just really interesting to see, like the practice
Aaron Williams as far as like explosive f versus the game,
because in the game it was something else. He was
(29:51):
a trained in the game.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Here's scal Aaron has a fantastic game. I don't remember
what game it was in the playoffs, but he was
big time for us. Right So I get in the
locker room, walk in and he's there. I'm like, this
unbelievable that game you had, Man, that was unbelieving that
moment right there, Like, I'm not sure we win that
game if you didn't do that with six minutes to go,
Like your ability to get to that left hand and
be so strong defensily, you were off the chart.
Speaker 9 (30:15):
Man, that was unreal.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Man, I can't I can't thank you enough, Like we're
not winning that game if it's not for you man,
way to play man? How was it?
Speaker 11 (30:22):
This is where he goes? He goes yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
I said, all right, Doug, good talk man, I'll see
you later. I'm like going off and I'm not even
a fanboy or anything like that. I just thought like
there were so many big moments in games where he
was huge for us, right, and he hit me with
a yeah. He was off the charts like it's just
(30:48):
he just, you know, every day, taking hits and guarding
bigger guys and getting too that left hand jump hook.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Martin and Williams made an impression with their muscle. But
when he came to the biggest guy in the roster,
the seven two and eighty pounds center Tom McCullough, the
thing that stood out were those soft hands.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
I can remember talking to Alan Iverson before a game
one time when we got McCullough and he says, the
guy with the best hands I've ever played with is
Todd McCullough. Alan Iverson said that because he played some
years in Philadelphia with him, and I said, you got
that right. He said, I could throw it the ball
anyway to him and he would catch it, and it
was true.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
That's assistant coach Michael korn A McCullough's partner in the
center rotation. Jason Collins saw the same thing.
Speaker 9 (31:32):
Todd McCullough big Dip. We called him Big Dip. Just
a great guy. I enjoy watching because he isn't the quickest.
He isn't the fastest, but he gets the job done.
And of all the bigs that I played with, his
ability to catch the ball in tight areas and then
just quickly put it up and end incredible to watch.
(31:52):
And even today when I'm doing clinics with kids, I
will tell them catch the ball two hands and just
like todm.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
MCA signing McCullough over the summer didn't create much of
a wave. He had averaged nine minutes a game in
two years with the Sixers. But this was a roster
where all the pieces complimented each other. Here's iron Eagle.
Speaker 8 (32:14):
A perfect fit for what they needed. He didn't need
the ball, he didn't require it. He would score on
post ups and they would look for him. In that
Princeton offense or Princeton's style, they would look for him,
and he understood his role. Scored on a lot of putbacks.
Solid rebounder.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Todd used to do the thing I called the belly bump.
It was probably the greatest offensive rebounder. They never got
his toes off the floor. McCullough and Collins didn't put
up big numbers on their own, but they gave the
nets exactly what they needed. O Corn's role on the
coaching staff included working extensively with the team's big men,
Todd and twin colle.
Speaker 7 (32:53):
They wanted to score like anybody else, but they knew
how the offense was built around that. So a lot
of times they would come up to the elbow area
or even the top of the key area as part
of this offense, and a lot of times it would
become a one two to two where the center would
have the ball top of the key, and then forwards
would pin down for the guards, and the guards would
pin down for the forwards and they'll be dribble handoffs
and roller places. Both of them at that center position
(33:16):
did two things really. They did a lot of things well,
but two things really well. They had great hands and
they could catch the ball. A lot of big guys
sometimes they have three or four thumbs on their hands,
they don't catch the ball well. Todd and Jason Twinn.
Jason Collins could catch the ball really well.
Speaker 9 (33:32):
And that sounds like, come on, no.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
It's true. They had great hands, especially mccullor. And then
they set great screens. They let as they would say,
they laid a lot of wood out there. They set
great screens that really really helped the offense go.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Brian Scalabrini, Todd and Collins are really smart, like they
know how to play, they know how to pass, they
have great hands, and they can make good decisions at
the high posts.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Tom mccullos saw it the same way, a group that
fit together and made each each other better.
Speaker 10 (34:01):
I think everybody kind of had, you know, a different
skill set. I mean, Aaron Williams was a super strong
and could dunk on people and played great defense and
got great rebounds, and everybody kind of understood their roles.
Nobody was complaining about playtime. I think we had the
advantage where the coach could put any one of us
in in any certain situation. And you know, Jason Collins
(34:23):
was able to play really good defense and distribute the
basketball and that pin wheel offense, and so I think
for that big man role, I think Byron had choices
and options into who he played depending on different matchups,
and I think all three of us we were all
team oriented that nobody was going to complain and everybody
wanted to be on the court, but they were willing
to sacrifice if the coach felt that there was a
(34:45):
better matchup. And so I think just as a big
man unit, we were all on the same page that
we all kind of saw the big picture that if
we got a good thing going here and if we
ride this out, who knows how far this team can go.
So nobody was rocking the boat, nobody was complaining, and
we just tried to go about our business of doing
the dirty work, getting rebounds, getting the ball to Jason
Kidd and then watching amazing things happen, whether it's kry
(35:07):
Kittle's running down for a wide open three or Kenyon
flying in for an alley up. I think we love
to start the break by getting the rebound, getting into
Jason and then just trying to get easy baskets for us,
and I think all three of us were willing to
do that.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
The defense, the rebounding, the ball moving it all fed
into the fast breaking style that became the team signature.
Here's Chris Carino.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Byron Scott came from the Lakers, the showtime base right.
Those Lakers Showtime teams were about defending primarily and getting
up and down the floor running. That's where Byron Scott
wanted that team to be, and Jason Camp was the
perfect guy to lead that. That's an entertaining style. You
(35:49):
want to turn teams over, you want to get up
and down the floor.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And iron eagle.
Speaker 8 (35:53):
They were so elite as a fast break team. They
were next les transition like I had not seen before
in my tenure in the NBA, where they could just
snap their fingers and change the entire pace of the
game because Kid was looking for his guys cutting down
(36:14):
the floor and it all just fit like a perfect
chicksaw puzzle. Everything fit together, the fact that they were
playing the style. It was so pleasing to the eye,
and from a broadcasting standpoint, it was the best thing
to ever happen to me as a basketball broadcaster. It
raised my game because the speed, the style, the pizzazz
(36:39):
in which they performed forced me and Bill Raftery that
year to come up with new ways to describe it,
and it brought our level to an eleven. It was
not the norm and it would stun teams. I vividly
remember walking out of arenas and thinking to my self
(37:00):
that team did not expect that. Maybe they scouted it,
maybe they saw it on tape, maybe they even prepared
for it. They didn't expect it to hit them like
a tidal wave.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
The Nets were third in the league and turning over
opponents and fourth and steels, and they turned that all
into offense. There were fourth in points off turnovers and
first in fast break points with seventeen a game.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Ah that special chand and Martin on the top. Ah,
what a feet from Jason Kidd to carry Kiddle.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Exquisite pass by a kid. Watched the spin on the ball,
a little backspin.
Speaker 14 (37:37):
Kid has it and against three defenders, Jason Kid goes
to hide the temper fen what to play by Jason Kidd.
Speaker 8 (37:45):
Swanted by mccollor.
Speaker 14 (37:47):
Nets trigger the break Kid ap a dipsy do he
got rid of it to Martin, he got the.
Speaker 15 (37:53):
Next pushing Kidd, No look van hur and somehow the
ball gets through them all past them. The completion by
Kenya Martin. Just a beautiful past that time by Jason Kiddy.
He knows where everybody is on the floor and another turnover.
Here comes kid running with Kenyan Martin.
Speaker 14 (38:12):
Oh baby, just me Woods, Oh my goodness, bring the
house down.
Speaker 15 (38:21):
Jason up the floor, Jefferson, Bob.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Jefferson with the finish.
Speaker 11 (38:30):
That's not fast.
Speaker 7 (38:31):
I mean, that's as pretty as you will see a fast.
Speaker 9 (38:33):
Break run in this league.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Here's Rod Thorn.
Speaker 7 (38:37):
We had the best fast break in the league.
Speaker 12 (38:39):
We were like the Showtime Lakers East in that Jason.
Nobody could take the ball from foul line to foul
line as fast Jason. Jason had what few great players had.
I will always compare him to Wayne Gretzky. They could
see things before they happen. He's coming down on a
fast break. He knew who was going to be open
(39:02):
and who to.
Speaker 9 (39:02):
Throw the ball to.
Speaker 12 (39:03):
A lot of guys most guys have no clue. They
just come down and take it as far as they
can and if they can't shoot, then they'll throw it off.
He knew where to throw it. So our fast break
was devastating.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
And Jason kidd, I think when you look at what
Rod Thorn and Byron did of putting the team together,
it was a perfect fit because I had athletes around
me who could get out and run and also cover
me up if I was all defense getting beaten. But
I think also they really respected, really trusted that I
was going to put them in a position to be successful.
(39:39):
And I always tell people, they do the hard part.
They got to put the ball in the basket, and
so there was a lot of trust. We had a
lot of fun. They really listened and that's what made
that team special.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Kids court vision pushed the whole thing to a new level.
Here's Aaron Williams.
Speaker 11 (39:56):
J Kidd just playing with a guy like that who's
obviously on how selfish he is. He's a pass first
point guard who can also score and defend. It makes
the game more fun when you if you're open, you
know you're going to get the ball well and you
think he didn't see you, he sees you, and playing
with a guy like that is fun.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Kind of worked every day with a guy like that
and Jason Collins.
Speaker 9 (40:17):
That was one thing that I knew of playing with
Jay Kidd was that if you run the floor, he
will find you and reward you. So it was really
a matter of when we got that defensive rebound, we
tried to get the ball to Ja Kidd as quickly
as possible, and then all of us would just sprint
and run, and then I knew I wasn't catching Karrie Kittles.
(40:39):
Kry Kerry Kittles is one of the fastest guys point
A to point b. But when Carrie was out of
the game, and Richard as far as the biggs, Kmart
obviously could run the floor like a deer. So we
had a lot of guys who you get the drill
that if you pick up the pace and fastbreat we're
gonna be very explosive.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Kid at all the right pieces around them. Kittles, Jefferson Martin,
here's Tim Capstraw.
Speaker 13 (41:03):
Jason Kidd was the leader, but the other players on
the roster fit so perfectly into the game that Jason
Kidd played so well the running game, defensive minded defense,
get after it, get the rebound and run or force
the steal, and then finish the game off that way.
That's what they did to teams. Teams would hang around
(41:26):
and then all of a sudden they would wipe them
out with a flurry of great defense to turn it
into fast break offense. And Jason Kidd would go end
to end. His head would be on a swite, his
eyes would be off. You'd be so excited wondering what
he was gonna do, What was gonna be the play
because he just saw everything way before you did. And
(41:46):
it would be Kittles on the right and Jefferson on
the left and Kenyon coming behind, and you just knew
Jason Kidd was gonna make a special play. Some of
the most awesome plays you'd ever seen was when they're
sprinting down the floor, Jason Kidd is in front of
the pack, They're filling all the lanes, and then Jason
Kidd with either dropping behind him to Kenyon Martin or
(42:09):
throw it off the backboard for one of those slams.
It was unbelievable to watch. And a lot of people
have a three man break or a two man break.
The Nets had a four man break because of the
ground that Kenyan Martin could cover.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
And Curry Kittles.
Speaker 6 (42:24):
I was a fast player with trying to keep up
with Jason Kid, Kenyan Martin and Richard Jefferson was no
easy task. That's why sometimes I just stopped at the
three point line because that was the easier thing to do.
Speaker 7 (42:36):
Is like, those guys are going to be in and
beating me.
Speaker 6 (42:38):
I'm as gonna just bring the defense back behind the
three point line.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
It was a team that didn't play the same game
the rest of the league was playing. They ran a
transition game that was out of the eighties and a
half court offense that came from the college game, and
they rode it all the way to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I think we caught a lot of people surprised on
their heels, pretty much built like a West Coast team
with the athletes that we had on the wings that
could run. We wanted a team that was going to
walk the ball up and just grind it, but we
were a team that would run, explore the break, and
I think again, our defense put us in a position
(43:17):
to win a lot of games. And so when you
look at us, probably that first two times around, we
surprised a lot of Eastern Conference teams and then we
competed with the West and that was something that was
not easy to do. But when we're at the halfway point,
I think we really started to believe that we were
a really good team.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Next week, the reward for New Jersey's first place finish
was a first round playoff series against Rigie Miller and
the Indiana Pacers. They went to the limit and beyond
over an epic five game series to stay on the
road to the finals.
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