NBA

Kidd: Player in me ‘dead,’ ready for new lifestyle on Nets’ bench

ORLANDO, Fla. — Jason Kidd says he’s ready to leave the lifestyle of a player behind for the long hours and daily grind of coaching an NBA team with championship aspirations.

“I have no choice,” Kidd told The Post with a smile during an exclusive interview yesterday. “It started from Day 1. The player in me is dead, in the sense that the coach … that’s who I am. I’m in the office from 8 [in the morning] to 7:30 [at night], and there’s guys who come in and you can see them leaving.

“When I was a player, I could see the coach in there as I was leaving. I can understand [because] I’ve gotten a taste of both, and I really love the coach situation and I don’t mind guys coming in and leaving because my job is to put these guys in a situation to be successful.”

To do that, Kidd — just a month after his Hall of Fame playing career ended after 19 years in the NBA — has to do the same himself. He said he tried to construct a coaching staff similar to the one Larry Bird had in Indiana when he, like Kidd, became a head coach with no prior coaching experience.

Bird had current Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle directing his offense and longtime NBA assistant Dick Harter running the defense, a formula that helped the Pacers to a pair of Eastern Conference Finals and one NBA Finals appearance in Bird’s three years on the bench.

Kidd said he hopes to replicate that kind of success in Brooklyn with longtime NBA assistant John Welch — who spent the past several seasons working under George Karl with the Nuggets — likely to run the offense while Kidd’s former coach with the Nets, Lawrence Frank, working on the defensive end.

“Lawrence is great,” Kidd said. “He has the total package. He’s been an assistant. He’s been a head coach. You look at John, he’s been around one of the best that’s done it in George Karl, and if you look around he’s been with [longtime NBA assistant Tim Grgurich], he’s been at UNLV and Fresno State with [Jerry Tarkanian], so he knows what it takes to be successful.

“We’re talking this week and I’m trying to share the vision I have, and that’s one of the formulas that we might have — break it down where [Frank] could do defense and John does the offense and I’ll oversee and pipe in on both.”

Kidd also said he’s expecting the veteran-laden roster he inherited — including a starting lineup that features a combined 35 All-Star appearances — to make his transition to coaching easier, as well.

“With the makeup of this team, once the roster is done, in house you will have guys who will always be accountable, holding other guys accountable and keeping them in line and reinforcing that we don’t always need you to score 20 to be successful,” he said.

“The sacrifice is something that’s going to be big. The process of this whole thing is we hold each other accountable, coaches and players, because we’re in this together.”

For many, it’s still hard to envision Kidd on the sidelines in a suit as opposed to on the court in a jersey and shorts expertly directing traffic as he did throughout his illustrious career. But Kidd said he is satisfied with the way his career wound up, and is ready to begin the next chapter of his basketball life.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he said. “It was a great journey.

“The game was great to me for 19 years, and it was time to move on. I could maybe try to stretch it two more years, but I felt inside it was time to do something different.”