There is no sentimentality, no romantic marriage between past and present, with the hiring of Lionel Hollins.
The Nets didn’t need to trumpet “Hello Coach! JKidd Back Where He Belongs” on the video screen Monday at Barclays Center. Hollins never played for the New Jersey Nets, never took them to the NBA Finals.
It turned out Kidd, both a splashy and risky hire by the fearless Mikhail Prokhorov, was clearly the wrong man at the wrong time in Brooklyn.
Hollins is the right man at the right time.
Kidd commanded respect because of who he was as a player. Hollins commands respect because of who he is as a coach and who he is as a man.
He was a straight shooter with the basketball in his hands and he is a straight shooter on the sidelines now. He is The Professional.
Only money buys happiness for some. Integrity and honor and loyalty are priceless for others.
Hollins won’t be firing assistant coaches five minutes into the job, and he won’t be spilling soda on the sideline, and he won’t be “russian” to submarine GM Billy King. He knows where he’s been and he knows where he’s going. And it isn’t Milwaukee.
“I’m a basketball coach,” Hollins said. “I don’t want to do Billy’s job. I don’t want to do anybody else’s job in the organization but the one that I’m hired to do.”
It was not intended as a jab at Kidd, but it served its purpose just the same.
Hollins, 60, won’t have to grow on the job, the way Kidd had to, the way Derek Fisher and Steve Kerr will have to in New York and Golden State, respectively. Brooklyn won’t scare him. He’s already Brooklyn-tough.
“I know who I am,” Hollins said.
Kidd’s carpetbagger power-and-money grab left the Nets in desperate need of a no-nonsense commander-in-chief who commands respect instead of one of the boys. Hollins oozes leadership.
All aboard the L Train.
Hollins, an All-Star point guard, played for the late, great Jack Ramsay and was part of the champion 1977 Bill Walton Blazers.
“Everything was about blending,” Hollins once said. “Give it up, get it back, give and go. It was basketball in its purest form. The guy who was open got the ball.”
To that, Gregg Popovich would say, “Amen.”
Hollins led the Grizzlies — the league’s best defensive team — to the 2013 Western Conference Finals —Â and was rewarded with a pink slip by a penny-pinching new regime. The anti-Prokhorovs.
“I’m here to try to develop a consistent championship contender,” Hollins said.
Following his sweep of Hollins and the Grizzles in what would be Hollins’ last game in Memphis, Popovich said: “The job he’s done here is beyond excellent. He’s put in a system that fits the players perfectly. They respond to him. They play hard. He’s had some tough situations to overcome as the year has progressed and he’s done it in style.”
There was the trade of Rudy Gay that Hollins opposed, and management trying to stuff analytics down his throat.
“I’m very low-maintenance,” Hollins said.
He wants a mentally-tough team.
“If they’re out watching, they know that I’m gonna be straight with them, that I’m gonna be consistent with them, and we’re gonna have fun, we’re gonna work hard and we’re gonna win,” Hollins said.
Hollins was raised by his mother and grandmother, and will be more than a coach. He will be a father figure as well.
“I also believe that it’s important that I develop them as people as a coach,” Hollins said.
Kidd was an alley-oops.
Lionel Hollins is a slam dunk.