Jason Kidd can still survey the court and see things Father Time cannot defend. He can still steal the ball from Father Time’s dribble, he can still outthink Father Time when the game is on the line, even on 40-year-old legs.
Sometimes the great ones find a way, sometimes their love of their game compels them to stay too long, sometimes the jersey has to be ripped off them. Jason Kidd is Muhammad Ali in Zaire and beyond, rope-a-doping Father Time in dogged pursuit of his second championship.
This is the time of year, these are the games — Game 2 tonight at the Garden against the Celtics — that keep Jason Kidd forever young.
“As a kid growing up, you watched Magic, Dr. J and these guys compete for championships,” Kidd said. “And when you talk about as a kid growing up, you would love to have that gold trophy. That’s what it’s all about.”
It took him 17 years to win that gold trophy, with the Mavericks, and it has only fueled his fire for another.
“You know the feeling, so now you want it again,” Kidd said. “When you have that feeling, there’s no better feeling.”
He has spent a basketball life making teammates and teams better, and admired champions in other sports who play their game the way he plays his.
“I would say [Derek] Jeter, as a baseball player, understanding the moment, understanding the situation — runners on, what if the ball’s hit somewhere? — being in the right place at the right time. That would be one guy. … Tiger [Woods], if he’s in trouble, he can find a way to get out of it. … Peyton Manning, understanding a situation, reading the defense, he sees it before it happens. … Joe Montana was the quarterback that loved that stage of coming down and having the ball and making something happen.”
Kidd was asked if there is a trick in the trade he does not know.
“I hope not,” Kidd said and smiled. “That means I haven’t been paying attention. I think I pretty much know, or have seen everything.”
He smiles when reminded of a game several years ago with the Mavericks when a Hawks coach named Mike Woodson was unsuspecting prey for Kidd’s savvy.
“A play earlier I saw he was kind of far out on the court,” Kidd recalled. “Somebody took the ball out, and we were running it down the sideline, and he was standing on the floor, and I thought if I could just get a piece of him. … I just clipped him, just brushed up against him while he was on the court while the ball is in play, so my thinking is a delay of game, or something where you have to free throw out of it. They called a ‘T,’ we got a free throw and then we got the ball back, and it kind of turned the whole game around for us to where we ended up winning.”
So Woodson knows as well as anyone what kind of coach on the court he has on his side.
“If I see something, he definitely gives me freedom to say things, and maybe run a play or two that I see how they’re playing it and I think we can get a good look,” Kidd said.
His first playoff game?
“Oh, I’ll never forget it,” Kidd said. “We were the eighth seed going against the No. 1 seed in Seattle, and Rex [Chapman] goes for 40-something and we steal Game 1.”
His most painful playoff moment?
“Oh, anytime the door closes on you, when you lose a series,” Kidd said.
His favorite Nets playoff memories?
“That first series against Indiana, when Reggie [Miller] makes the shot to send it into overtime. … That kind of made us grow up really quickly to understand what it took to win in a series and also to beat a good team. … The run we had in Jersey when we won like eight or 10 in a row… The battle with Oklahoma City when I was with Dallas. … Boston when we lost the 21-point lead up there, and then also the game we lost, another 20-point lead to Portland when I was with Dallas. Those two games we could have easily broke and folded tent, but we bounced back and won the next game.”
Kidd was brought to the Knicks for the playoffs. Sleep on him at your own peril.
“I love taking like a two-three hour nap every day,” Kidd said. “I’ve done it since I got in the league.”
When he speaks about the playoffs, the younger Knicks would be fools not to listen.
“I told some guys just to have fun,” Kidd said, “and you have to stay focused, I mean, this is the only thing that matters right now.”
He was 48 days old when the Knicks won their last NBA championship.
“I think the city’s excited, and hopefully it can come back to where it was when I was born (smile) where we can win a championship,” Kidd said.
How long does he want to play?
“At some point my body will tell my mind,” Kidd said. “The problem is telling my mind that we’re going to have to do something different. ’Cause I always feel that I can be competitive no matter how old I am.”
How old does he feel?
“I would say 32,” Kidd said.
You’ll be back here next year?
“That’s the plan,” Kidd said.
In your face, Father Time.