Brooklyn Nets: Jason Kidd Will Coach, But He Won’t Play

Jason Kidd, left, consults with New York Knicks coach Mike Woodson during a game this season. Kidd will be introduced as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, June 13–10 days after retiring as a player. But any fans thinking Kidd could serve as his own backup point guard will be disappointed–the NBA outlawed player-coaches in 1984. (Flickr.com photo by Keith Allison)

When news began to break on Wednesday, June 12, that the Brooklyn Nets had settled upon just-retired Jason Kidd to be their new coach, a popular topic on the Internet among fans was the notion that Kidd could be, in essence, his own backup point guard.

The logic was that Kidd, at 40 and just wrapping up a 19-year NBA career, could provide 10 to 12 minutes a night of solid backup play for Deron Williams at point guard.

It makes sense except for one small detail … it can’t happen.

The NBA eliminated player-coaches in 1984, when it instituted its first salary cap. The NBA salary cap still has loopholes of a size that allow large trucks and heavy equipment to be driven through, but this is one loophole the league thought to close right away.

The reason is simple … it would have been a ridiculously simple way for a team to circumvent the salary cap. Coaches’ salaries don’t count against the cap.

That opens up a scenario wherein a team could hire two or three “player-assistant coaches,” pay them the veteran minimum as players and then pay them $30 million a year as coaches.

It’s easy to see how that could be a problem.

Player-coaches were never what could be considered common in the NBA, but there were several of them prior to the rule change in 1984.

A total of 40 players simultaneously served as head coaches. Richie Guerin served as a player coach for the St. Louis and Atlanta Hawks for parts of five seasons, beginning Dec. 29, 1964, when he replaced Harry Gallatin as head coach through the 1969-70 season, when he suited up and played in eight games for the Hawks, by that time in Atlanta. Guerin went onto coach the Hawks through the 1971-72 season and took the team to the playoffs in each of his eight seasons at the helm, four times advancing to the division/conference finals.

The irony of Guerin’s coaching career is that he was the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 1967-68 after leading St. Louis to 56 wins and the Western Division title. Guerin opted to retire as a player, in part because he had been selected by the Seattle SuperSonics in their expansion draft. When he wanted to put himself back into uniform the following season, the Hawks actually had to trade a guy named Dick Smith, who never was drafted by an NBA team nor played in an NBA game, to the Sonics to reacquire the rights to Guerin, their own coach.

Bill Russell (6) coached the Boston Celtics to back-to-back NBA titles in 1968 and 1969 while still playing for the team. (Flickr.com photo by Kip-koech)

Bill Russell won two titles as a player-coach for the Boston Celtics in 1967-68 and 1968-69. Buddy Jeannette is the only other player-coach to win a championship, guiding the Baltimore Bullets to the Basketball Association of America title in 1947-48 (the BAA was the forerunner to the modern NBA).

Lenny Wilkens is second on the all-time list for coaching victories with 1,332 wins and 159 of those victories came while he was a player coach with the SuperSonics from 1969-70 through 1971-72 and with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974-75 and 1975-76.

Here are some highlights of Wilkens’ long NBA career as both a player and a coach:

Dave DeBusschere was a two-time NBA All-Star while also coaching the Detroit Pistons in the mid-1960s. Back to Guerin for a moment: He is one of three player-coaches (Al Cervi of the Syracuse Nationals in 1952 and Bobby Wanzer for the Rochester Royals in 1957 are the others) to serve as head coaches in the All-Star Game.

The last player-coach in the NBA was Dave Cowens, who took over the Celtics for Tom Sanders after a 2-12 start in 1978-79. Cowens went on to post a 27-41 record with Boston and later coached the Charlotte Hornets and Golden State Warriors. Here’s a profile of Cowens done in 1996 as part of the “NBA at 50” series: