Gary Payton remembered a toughness he adored in the 13-year-old back on the playgrounds of suburban Oakland, Calif. Payton purposely beat on the kid. But always, Jason Kidd came back for more.
“He was a kid that just wanted to learn,” Payton said at this year’s All-Star Game. “Every time I beat him down, he’d come back the next day. He’d go home and tell his mom and dad, ‘Gary did this to me.’ But you know what? It was always, ‘I’m coming back tomorrow.’ That’s what I loved. That toughness, you see it now.
“The greatness, I saw it instantly.”
Kidd quickly deciphered the best way to stay on the court with older kids.
“I was in elementary school playing with high school and college guys,” Kidd said. “I learned real quick that if I wanted to stay on the court, get the best player the ball.”
Eventually, the scoring and the rebounding developed, along with the legend. The son of a middle class African-American father and an Irish mother, Kidd went on to St. Joseph’s Notre Dame High in nearby Alameda. Two state titles followed. There was a two-year stay at Cal, which included a stunning 1993 NCAA upset of two-time defending champion Duke.
Next came the NBA and a career destined for the Hall of Fame. With three consecutive teams, Kidd orchestrated turnarounds that turned saps into contenders, starting with Dallas and Phoenix.
Then there was New Jersey. The doormat Nets went to two straight NBA Finals after Kidd was dealt by the Suns — following an ugly domestic abuse incident for which he underwent court-mandated counseling.
“It was the best time for the Nets in the history of the franchise. All those banners the Nets have came during his time,” former Nets president Rod Thorn said recently. “I can’t say enough about him as a player. I can’t say enough about him as a competitor.”
Kidd’s time in New Jersey ended with him forcing a trade to Dallas, where he won his elusive championship. Kidd left Dallas last summer, ticking off owner Mark Cuban (who denounced him in a radio interview), to settle with the Knicks in New York, where Saturday he celebrates his 40th birthday. He will be the 21st player in NBA history to play after turning 40.
The numbers are staggering through 19 grueling NBA seasons. Kidd trails only John Stockton in both career assists and steals. But discard numbers. Kidd’s presence, intelligence and near supernatural court vision always set him apart.
“It’s his basketball intelligence. Jason Kidd knows the game, he smells the game, he feels the game,” Heat president Pat Riley once said.
“There are times he sees something way before it even happens,” Knicks teammate Carmelo Anthony said recently. “I’m coming to him, ‘How the hell did you just see that two plays before?’”
“You may think by his demeanor he’s just another guy out there,” Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. “He’s a quiet assassin, trying to get the win by any means necessary.”
And it started because Jason Kidd kept coming back for more.
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KIDD took New Jersey by storm following his trade from Phoenix. He was on a video game cover, received a 10-story billboard in Manhattan, wore a milk mustache in a “Got Milk?” ad. Big deal.
“I got more attention in high school,” Kidd said.
At St. Joseph’s, Kidd was a McDonald’s All-America, Prep Player of the Year for Parade Magazine and USA Today. Obviously, Kidd was special in basketball. But he had options.
“He’s the best athlete I’ve ever played with,” Joe Nelson, a former major league pitcher who was Kidd’s high school basketball and baseball teammate said in the past. “He could have been a helluva center fielder in the big leagues.”
Another Nelson in the Bay Area loved what he saw of Kidd. Then-Warriors coach Don Nelson invited Kidd to Golden State practices where, working with the “Run TMC” gang of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin, Kidd said he “learned how to play.”
Surprisingly, Kidd chose California-Berkeley for college. Cal had endured two miserable seasons previously. Then Kidd arrived. Fortunes changed. The Bears went from an 10-18 team to 21-9 and a Sweet 16 berth, the following year. After a 22-8 campaign in 1993-94, Kidd was on his way to the NBA, and Cal was back to its mediocre ways, falling to 13-14 the following season.
As Kidd prepared for the NBA draft, reports surfaced of a hit-and-run accident that left two friends injured and a car wrecked. He entered a no contest plea to hit-and-run and speeding charges.
Drafted second overall by the Mavericks in 1994, Kidd helped fashion a 23-game improvement and was co-Rookie of the Year with Grant Hill. In 1996, after a reported feud with teammate Jim Jackson provided mounds of headlines, Kidd eventually landed in Phoenix.
Three 50-victory seasons materialized with the Suns. Kidd became the fourth guard ever to lead the league in assists three straight years. But there were three first-round playoff exits, one in the second round.
Then on Jan. 18, 2001, Kidd was arrested on domestic abuse charges for punching wife Joumana in the face.
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KIDD underwent anger management classes, repeatedly apologized. Still, he was traded in July to the Nets. Current Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo, then the Suns GM, pulled the trigger on the deal that essentially swapped Kidd (28) for the younger Stephon Marbury (24).
“The circumstances of the trade were very much basketball driven and contract driven,” Colangelo recalled recently. “It was not certainly because his talents were eroding or his basketball was declining.
“There was definitely some trepidation as to what his popularity was on the market at that moment, but the off-court issues did not drive that trade.”
The Nets happily accepted the man who became the face of the franchise — with his wife and son, T.J., as courtside staples. Kidd’s impact was immediate.
It was the start of the greatest stretch the Nets have ever known. For six straight years, they went to the playoffs, the first two resulting in failed trips to the Finals. Kidd was a nightly triple double threat — his 107 rank third all-time.
“He’s a culture changer, one of the few in the league that can do it,” current Pistons and ex-Nets coach Lawrence Frank said.
Perhaps the most costly victory in team history came May 14, 2004, when the Nets outlasted Detroit in three overtimes in Game 5 of the Eastern semis. Kidd played 57 minutes, was exhausted for the following game and had nothing for the Game 7 elimination.
Then came cost-cutting and dismantling. Kenyon Martin, Kerry Kittles and Lucious Harris left. Martin’s trade soured Kidd on the team.
Eventually, Kidd told the Nets he wanted out. He said they couldn’t win, issued a 2007 Thanksgiving trip manifesto claiming the Nets “let go of the rope.”
The following month came the famed “migraine game.” Kidd sat out a home game against the Knicks, citing a migraine. Many felt he was “on strike.” Eventually, Kidd admitted he had endured enough.
“He just made it clear he didn’t want to play for us,” Thorn said. “He told me, ‘I don’t want to play here anymore, you guys don’t want to win.’”
On Feb. 19, 2008, the Jason Kidd Era ended for the Nets with a trade to the Mavericks.
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BEFORE Kidd soured on the Nets, he and other teammates had soured on head coach Byron Scott. Kidd complained to ownership after the Nets lost the 2003 Finals. And there was a Dec. 13, 2003, game at Memphis, a 100-63 wipeout. Afterward, Kidd tore into the coaching staff for lack of preparation and adjustments. Scott soon was gone.
“My name is always going to be attached to it because I’m a player, and people think I have control of things but that’s with management,” Kidd said.
While Thorn and Kidd were at odds over the player’s departure, they have resolved their differences. Scott and Kidd never had that reconciliation.
“Never settled it with him,” said Scott, now with Cleveland. “We’re cordial when we see each other and things like that. It bothered me for a while, but now, it’s been so long I’ve moved on.”
“Whether justified or not, our top players, not only Jason, had lost confidence in Byron,” Thorn said.
The Nets won the first 13 games playing for Frank after Scott’s firing, but Kidd was playing on a bum left knee. The season ended with the disappointment of the Detroit series and Kidd needing microfracture surgery.
“Back then it was called ‘career killer,’” said Matt Gibble, director of Excel Orthopedic Rehabilitation in Fort Lee, N.J., who worked with Kidd for “three months, six days a week” in rehab. “Jason was one of the first microfractures to return.”
Gibble raved about Kidd’s “focus, work ethic and dedication,” but was equally impressed with his courtesy. Kidd often did aquatic rehab at the Jewish Community Center on the Palisades in Tenafly, N.J.
“He’d be flying through the water, swimming next to a lot of old people,” Gibble recalled, noting Kidd “was always very courteous and never once turned down an autograph request.”
But a different picture would emerge. On Jan. 9, 2007, Kidd filed for divorce from Joumana in what became a nasty, public episode. Kidd cited “extreme cruelty.” Joumana countersued, claiming years of physical abuse in the 10-year union. She depicted Kidd as a serial adulterer.
In 2011, Kidd remarried. But trouble surfaced last summer after he signed with the Knicks. Kidd was arrested in Southhampton for driving under the influence. A hearing on that charge is scheduled in 11 days.
“It was never a problem with us because it never went onto the court,” Thorn said of Kidd’s personal woes. “He could always focus.”
That focus helped place Kidd, a two-time Olumpic gold medalist, among the greats. The quickness is not what it was, but the court vision still impresses and Kidd remains a formidable weapon. On the day he turns 40, rising star Kyrie Irving of Cleveland will turn 21.
“What always hit me was the pace, how he controlled the game and how smart he was as a player,” said Irving, who grew up in New Jersey. “His quickness? Unbelievable. Crazy.”
Almost as crazy as playing at 40.
“You just play the game,” Kidd said. “It doesn’t matter how many birthdays you have. You just always see yourself playing. But you know there’s an end. I’ve just been blessed to be able to go this long.”
fred.kerber@nypost.com