Cal Basketball: Jason Kidd Continues to Chase Winning

Jason Kidd first appeared on the Bay Area basketball landscape more than three decades ago — yeah, no kidding — and we’d never seen anything like him.

A phenomenon at St. Joseph-Notre Dame High School in Alameda, he already was holding his own against pros in the summer league. He led St. Joe’s to back-to-back California state high school titles, and that simply did not happen.

The effect Kidd had on Cal basketball in two years felt like what we’ve watched with Caitlin Clark at Iowa. The Golden Bears suddenly mattered and fans lined up to watch them . . . because of one player.

What mattered most to Kidd was winning. Cal’s second-round NCAA tournament upset of two-time reigning national champion Duke in 1993 was as big a victory as Bay Area college hoops had seen in more than 40 years.

At 51, Kidd is 11 years removed from a Hall of Fame playing career, during which he helped the Dallas Mavericks win their only NBA title in 2011.

Now he will try to become just the eighth person to win an NBA title as a player and a head coach with the same franchise. Among the others to do so: fellow Oakland product Bill Russell.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals is Thursday at Boston, where Kidd’s Mavs will face a Celtics team featuring former Golden Bear Jaylen Brown, playing the best ball of his career.

Kidd, who won an NBA title as an assistant with the Lakers in 2020, understands what he brings to the equation.

“I know how to win,” said Kidd, according to the Associated Press. “Done that since elementary school, to the highest level. I’ve won (two Olympic) gold medals. I’ve won championships. And I’ve won a championship as a coach, assistant coach. Now I get the opportunity to do it as a head coach.”

NBA Coach of the Year balloting is conducted just after the regular season and Kidd managed just one third-place vote from 99 voters, finishing in a tie for ninth place. You’d have to think the voting would be considerably different if held this week.

After some early inconsistency, the Mavs finished the regular-season strong to climb to a No. 5 seed and have won three straight playoff series against opponents with home-court advantage. They have a chance to be the second-lowest seeded team to claim a NBA crown.

Kidd’s achievements include successfully meshing superstars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving to form a potent 1-2 punch. Skeptics were unconvinced the pairing could work, mostly because Irving at times earlier in his career seemed unwilling or incapable of being a good teammate.

That’s all changed, and a coach gets credit for setting the tone.

“He understands me and Kyrie’s role because he’s been in that role,” Doncic said. “So he helps us a lot. But everybody. He kept everybody together. We were down a lot, especially during the season. It was ups and downs all the time, but he kept us together.”

Kidd also transformed a team that lived and died with its offense into a defense-first squad that allowed an average of just 101.0 points in 12 postseason victories.

The Mavs rewarded Kidd with a contract extension last month, and it was  well-deserved. Dallas went 11 years without winning a playoff series after the 2011 championship season, but has won five series in Kidd’s three seasons as head coach.

“I think at one of the points in the season, everyone thought the world was coming to an end,” Kidd said. “But we kept coming to work. We were positive and things kind of turned around for the better. I think that’s just who we are. It’s just about trust, about working and having fun at the same time.”