Jason Kidd isn’t 100 percent sure yet about his future.
Kidd said Thursday night his “plan’’ is to return to the Knicks next season, but added he still is “thinking’’ about retirement and has not made a final decision on whether to come back.
Speaking at Justin Tuck’s charity billiards event in Manhattan that raised funds to promote literacy, the 40-year-old Kidd said he was using the next week to finalize plans one way or another. Kidd had a catastrophic end to his season, going scoreless in his last 10 playoff games — a postseason record.
While Kidd initially remarked “that’s the plan’’ on whether he would return, he said he hasn’t made a final determination in his first remarks since the season ended.
When told his buddy Tyson Chandler said he was still mulling things over, Kidd said: “I am thinking about it. We’ll see. I have to make a decision. We’ll see what happens. Right now I plan on coming back, but in the next couple of days or a week or so, I’m going to think about it if I should keep playing or trying something different.’’
Kidd said television work and coaching are still on his brain as future endeavors. It’s unclear if Kidd already has been approached about a coaching position.
Kidd added money is not an issue. Kidd is one of the smartest to play the game and has always been pegged a future coach. But forgoing the final two years and $6.2 million to call it a Hall-of-Fame career now doesn’t sound so smart.
“There’s a lot different stuff I may have the opportunity to do,’’ said Kidd. “If I play, I plan on playing for the Knicks.
“I got to be honest with myself,’’ Kidd added. “I’m a young man. [But] I got to see if I could still mentally do the grind all over again.
And the money?
“It’s never been about money,’’ Kidd said. “The game is about winning. It’s not about money. If I decide I’m going to leave, the money is not going to hold me up from leaving.’’
Kidd said he had no bad feelings over his benching in the final two games of the Eastern Conference semifinal series, when he didn’t see the floor in either second half.
“You got to go with the guys who are playing,’’ Kidd said. “[Chris Copeland] and Pablo [Prigioni] were playing great. You got to go with guys the coach believes will get it done.’’
The Knicks are expecting Kidd back. General manager Glen Grunwald said last week Kidd indicated to him he was returning, though coach Mike Woodson piped in “but that could change.’’
Kidd’s scoring slump was mystifying after a mostly solid first season as a Knick. During his donut streak, he was 0-for-19 from the floor and stopped making hustle plays too.
“It happens. I’m 40 years old,’’ Kidd said. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in for you. You keep trying to help in other aspects of the game. We just missed shots at the wrong time.’’
Losing in the second round to Indiana wasn’t a total bust in Kidd’s eyes. The Knicks still won the Atlantic Division with a 54-28 record.
“It’s disappointing because we thought we had an opportunity to do something special,’’ Kidd said. “But as a team I thought we did, as a team, achieve a lot for the first year the guys were together. You had a scoring title [Carmelo Anthony] and a Sixth Man [J.R. Smith]. … You win over 50 games, you did something right.”
If Kidd leaves and the Knicks can’t re-sign Prigioni, they will be forced to draft a point guard at No. 24, which has been a focus of their draft planning.
Though Anthony is privately hoping for a secondary scorer to be added, Kidd won’t say what the club needs.
“That’s up to Glen and Woody,’’ Kidd said. “They got to figure that out.”
Kidd said he has tried not to think about his future since the season ended 13 days ago. He has been holed up in the Hamptons.
“I’ve been really trying to enjoy the family,’’ Kidd said. “I haven’t thought about basketball. I’ll think about basketball the next couple of days.”