A week after retiring from the New York Knicks,
Jason Kidd expressed interest in coaching the Brooklyn Nets and will make his pitch in a meeting with general manager Billy King, according to ESPN.
Kidd announced his retirement last Monday, ending a 19-season career, during which he made 10 All-Star appearances and led the NBA in assists five times. Kidd's meeting with King early this week will reportedly be an open-ended discussion about potential employment.
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Sources told ESPN.com on Sunday that Kidd is determined to convince King that he is ready to jump into coaching immediately.
"Jason feels he's really ready to do this," one of his associates told ESPN.com.
Columnist Mike Lupica, of the New York Daily News, lobbied for
Knight to give Kidd a shot in a recent column.
"The Brooklyn Nets should at least talk to Jason Kidd, who is not just a great point guard for this time in basketball but for all times, about being their next coach," Lupica wrote. "Kidd is retired now after 19 seasons in the NBA . . . It means he is right there for Mikhail Prokhorov, who loves stars and letting everybody know he’s in town, and Billy King, on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge."
Lupica pointed to success stories of two players who made quick turnarounds from players to coaches — Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and Golden State Warriors' Mark Jackson. Rivers has an NBA title to his credit while Jackson rejuvenated the once lowly Warriors franchise this year.
"You can absolutely talk about all the other Hall of Fame players, in all the sports, who didn’t turn out to be anything close to Hall of Fame coaches," Lupica said. "You can remember how badly it ended between Willis Reed and the Knicks after the late Michael Burke, running the Knicks in those days, announced that 'the captain is now the coach.' But as tremendous a leader as Reed was with the old Knicks, he was never what Kidd always was, through the best of his time with the Knicks this season: Coach on the floor."
Kidd is now on the list of candidates the Nets are considering to replace P.J. Carlesimo, who was ousted the day after Brooklyn's first-round playoff elimination by Chicago.
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