Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history for 75th anniversary

Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history: No. 36 – Jason Kidd

Career: 1994 – 2013

Achievements: 2011 champion; All-NBA (6x); All-Star (10x); All-Defense (9x); five-time assists leader; second in career steals and assists; 11th in career 3-pointers

Jason Kidd took the mantle of a classic point guard from John Stockton and made it his own, leading the league in assists five times as he effectively ran multiple teams the same way, pushing int transition and manipulating defenses in the half-court to set up teammates. Until the twilight of his career he never averaged fewer than 7.7 assists per game, and ten times he averaged at least nine.

What is remarkable about Kidd’s career is how he reinvented himself halfway through it. He never had a true co-star who could help him elevate a team to a title, even though he dragged the Nets to the NBA Finals twice in 2002 and 2003; they were overmatched by Western Conference juggernauts both times. Then he joined the Dallas Mavericks to pair with Dirk Nowitzki, becoming more of an off-ball threat, adding a 3-point shot that simply didn’t exist earlier in his career.

This new Jason Kidd helped the Mavericks win the title in 2011, with Kidd in a lower usage role while Nowitzki carried the offense. Kidd still set up teammates, shot from outside and played his usual brand of tough defense, and finally found the team success he was searching for.