NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of The 1990s
By Phil Watson
50 greatest NBA players from the 1990s — 32. Jason Kidd
The Dallas Mavericks thought they were getting their point guard of the future when they took California’s Jason Kidd with the second overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft.
They did, but it was a much more distant future than they imagined.
Kidd shared NBA Rookie of the Year honors with Grant Hill of the Detroit Pistons in 1994-95 and was an All-Star in 1996 for the Mavericks, finishing third in the NBA in assists, fourth in steals and steals per game and second in assists per game.
But things soured in Dallas and in December 1996, Kidd was traded with Tony Dumas and Loren Meyer to the Phoenix Suns for Sam Cassell, Michael Finley, A.C. Green and a second-round pick in 1998.
In parts of three seasons with the Mavericks, Kidd averaged 13.7 points, 8.7 assists, 5.9 rebounds and two steals in 35.7 minutes per game, shooting .381/.312/.692.
With the Suns, Kidd was an All-Star in 1998, as well as earning All-NBA and All-Defensive honors and finishing fifth in the MVP voting in 1998-99.
He led the NBA in minutes played with 2,060, assists with 539 and assists per game with 10.8 in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. Kidd was also second in assists and assists per game in 1997-98 and second in minutes per game, third in steals and fourth in steals per game in 1998-99.
In parts of three seasons with Phoenix in the 1990s, Kidd averaged 13.2 points, 9.6 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 38.5 minutes per game, shooting .428/.346/.761.
Kidd remained with the Suns until July 2001, when he was traded with Chris Dudley to the New Jersey Nets for Stephon Marbury, Johnny Newman and Soumalia Samake.
In February 2008, he returned to Dallas with Malik Allen and Antoine Wright in exchange for Devin Harris, Maurice Ager, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Keith Van Horn and first-round picks in 2008 and 2010. He won his only NBA championship with the Mavericks in 2011.
He signed as a free agent with the New York Knicks in July 2012, retiring after the 2012-13 season to become the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
In one season with the Nets, Kidd was 44-38 before he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in June 2014 for second-round picks in 2015 and 2019.
With the Bucks last season, Kidd was 41-41.
Kidd was third in the decade of the 1990s with an average of 9.1 assists per game.
He is seventh in NBA history with 1,391 games and an average of 8.7 assists per game, third with 50,111 minutes played, fifth with 1,988 3-pointers, second with 12,091 assists and 2,684 steals, 46th with an average of 36 minutes per game and 14th with an average of 1.98 steals per game.