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Jason Kidd, in his latest stop on his journey to the Hall of Fame, wants to teach, wants to mentor, wants to instruct Jeremy Lin. But Kidd also wants to be on the floor when the game is on the line.
Starting? Doesn’t matter. Finishing? Matters. Kidd said so yesterday when he and Marcus Camby, two players on the Knicks who can address James Dolan as “Sonny,” were introduced formally at the team’s Westchester County facility. But Kidd, who once tortured the Knicks like few others from his lair in New Jersey, said he is willing to do anything asked of him.
“I would love to start. I mean, my job is to make Jeremy better at practice and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, it’s about six minutes,” said Kidd, 39. “If I’ve learned anything in the last 18 years, it’s the last six minutes of any NBA game, down 15 or up 15, you can still win or lose. So that’s the best part of the game.”
Kidd is not looking to upset anything here. He knows the deal, knows he is to impart as much as he can to Lin, who has enjoyed a half-season of prominence — which only puts him 171/2 years behind the ex-Net.
“As you get older you change your role. … I’m 39 years old. I still feel I can start, but this is a role they need. I’m a basketball player. When I’m out there, I’m a leader. I’ll continue to lead. I’m looking forward to the new role,” said Kidd, who signed for the mini mid-level exception — three years starting at $3.09 million. “I told Coach whatever he needed — start or come off the bench, sit in a suit — whatever he needed me to do, I was going to do it.
“To have the chance to mentor a very good player, to be able to share what I’ve learned the last 18 years, is something I’ve been looking forward to.”
The first thing Kidd wants to impart upon Lin is pace. As in pace yourself. Kidd got that very same advice years ago when he went to Phoenix and it obviously has served him well.
“Looking from the outside, it’s trying to teach him different gears. He just plays at one gear and it’s a very high gear, so for me, we’ll sit down and talk about trying to find that fourth and third gear so that he has the energy to finish ball games,” said Kidd. “We want him to play the whole season. At just one gear, it’s hard to play 82 games.”
If it comes down to sharing the end game, Kidd has no problem doing that with the man who invented and trademarked “Linsanity,” although it’s neither player’s call.
“That’s up to Coach [Mike] Woodson. Again, it becomes about playing basketball. We’re basketball players and a lot of times the media gets lost with playing positions — the point guard, the two guard, the power forward, center,” Kidd said. “So the last six minutes, I’ve always said, is the most important part of the game. … I’d like to be on the court helping or if not helping Jeremy or whoever’s my teammates. Letting them know what I see and hopefully I can help us win ball games.”
Sort of strange — Kidd once lived to see the Knicks lose in the Nets’ glory days.
“It is a little surreal that I’m back in the New York area with the run I had in New Jersey,” Kidd admitted. “Now being with the Knicks and New Jersey moving to Brooklyn, it is a little surreal. But I think it’s great for the city of New York. You’ve got two great basketball teams and I think it’s going to be great.”
fred.kerber@nypost.com