Wednesday Insider

[Guest]

Jason Kidd averts

identity crisis

by Terry Brown

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Also Below: Writers Bloc: Winning only part of Larry Brown's legacy | Peep Show

NBA Insider Chad Ford is off this week. He'll return on Tuesday, Oct. 1

It has been three years, eight months and who knows how many days since the current Collective Bargaining Agreement went into effect.

Do you know where your favorite players is?

Since then, you've heard all about the salary cap, luxury taxes and base year compensation. Restricted free agent this. Unrestricted free agent that. Sign and trades, mid-level exceptions and no trade clauses. Something called Basketball Related Income derived from an escrow tax threshold. Greek to you. Latin to me. All designed, so we're told, to keep the 29-team league financially responsible.

In other words, no more $20 million per year contracts for players three years removed from tardy bells named Kevin Garnett.

But there was another purpose for the Collective Bargaining Agreement that had to do with veteran's exceptions, slotted rookie contracts and Larry Bird Rights.

And that was for Garnett, too. As well as Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, (fill in favorite player here).

Yes, it was even for guys named Jason Kidd and franchises like the Nets.

Without going lawyer on you, the CBA had built-in devices to keep players where they were. David Stern wisely wanted NBA fans to directly identify with NBA players by integrating them into the fabric of each NBA city.

Think about it.

Bird in Beantown. Magic in Hollywood. Brotherly love for Dr. J. Bad Boy Isiah Thomas. No. 23. The Dream. Tim Duncan and Kobe. Twenty-three years. Twenty-three NBA Championships. Twenty-three pre-packaged, signed, sealed and easily identifiable, highly marketable, no artificial colors or flavors added, products.

Did we mention shelf life?

If Garnett was born a Timberwolf, the reasoning went, then he should die a Timberwolf. Or a Celtic, Laker, Grizzly, Raptor, etcetera.

As a result, like it or not, good or bad, the current team almost always has the advantage at the bargaining table in years, dollars, you name it.

But with only two years remaining on the current CBA, are you getting the feeling that your favorite player is still cheating on you?

Sure, Kobe's still in Los Angeles, Paul Pierce is in Boston and Allen Iverson in Philly. You never thought New York would have to dig too deep to keep Allan Houston. Filthy-rich owners like the one in Dallas could have both Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki. Houston has won titles. The Rockets get to keep their Steve Francis.

But why did Denver just lose Antonio McDyess? Somewhere between Vancouver and Memphis, the Grizzlies lost Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Mike Bibby. Cleveland shipped off Andre Miller. Toronto may have kept Vince Carter but they parted with Tracy McGrady.

Glenn Robinson? Jerry Stackhouse? Elton Brand?

There are extenuating circumstances to almost every player transaction, but the Collective Bargaining Agreement made sure that there was one big reason for Chris Webber to call cowbells home and Baron Davis, Shawn Marion, Antawn Jamison and Rashard Lewis to all stay put. Stockton to Malone. Stockton to Malone. Stockton to Malone.

Of the 29 NBA teams, at least 16 of them have been able to keep the players they deemed worthy of franchise tags, including small-town teams like San Antonio, out of the way teams like Toronto and, even, traditionally terrible teams like that other one by the Big Apple.

Kidd may very well be the best point guard in the game five, six, seven years running. But that didn't change the fact that in his eight years in the NBA, he's already played for three different teams going on four with unrestricted free agency less than a year away.

That is, until the realities of the CBA came into focus and the Kidd that was born and raised in California, drafted by Dallas and starred in Phoenix suddenly, finds his fortune on the opposite end of the country.

"I would love to be an East Coast guy," he was quoted as saying in several different papers this morning. "I think there's so much flavor in the East. It's fun. I like the East, and hopefully I don't have to go too far. Hopefully, if everything does work out, I can be there for the rest of my career."

New Jersey?

"I have enjoyed being here in New Jersey, and this is my No. 1 choice," he said. "That will be my answer all year long."

The Nets?

"Winning and being around a great group of guys can make the decision a lot easier," Kidd said. "And that's what we have."

But make no mistake about it. Kidd made the Nets not the other way around.

Well, that and the fact that Shaq is Los Angeles, Webber in Sacramento and Duncan in San Antonio.

Follow the map and call it what you want.

After decades of waiting, the millions of fans from Newark to Morristown may finally have a hero to call their very own.

Kidd Is Happy Playing With the Nets, So They're Happy, Too

Chris Broussard / New York Times

Jersey state of mind

Fred Kerber / New York Post

Kidd: Nets are my top choice - for now

Ohm Youngmisuk / New York Daily News

Kidd Still Fitting In

Barbara Barker / Newsday

Kidd shows loyalty ... at least for this year

Don Burke / Newark Star-Ledger

Writers Bloc: Winning only part of Larry Brown's legacy

As we get closer and closer to Hoop Immortality with Friday's Hall of Fame ceremonies in Springfield, Mass., Stephen A. Smith of the Phialdelphia Inquirer takes time to praise head coach Larry Brown while Laura Vecsey of the Baltimore Sun honors the Harlem Globetrotters.

"The aspirations for this season should be put on hold. A record of 1,237 career wins shouldn't mean that much to us. When a coach earning $7 million per season is constantly called a teacher, when his penchant for imploring sportsmanship and unselfishness occurs so frequently that record stores could sell it on CDs, perhaps, there comes a moment when one's accomplishments on the hardwood should be supplanted by one's contributions toward humanity. 'Name something positive about the game of basketball, and Larry has probably done it 10 times over,' Spurs coach Greg Popovich once said."

"The Harlem Globetrotters will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday. What took so long? Ever since June, when this year's Hall of Fame class was announced, I have wondered how a team as much responsible for the perpetuation of and affection for the game as anything else on Earth is only now being granted its proper honor . . . We're talking 76 years, 120 million people and 117 countries. We're talking generation after generation of wildly skilled ballhandlers, shooters, ambassadors of the game, entertainers. We're talking about generations of African-American men, whose team was formed because of and against racial segregation, who turned out to be one of America's greatest symbols of freedom, expression, self-realization. We're talking Meadowlark Lemon, Goose Tatum, Marques Haynes. We're talking to Fred 'Curly' Neal, a bald-headed star long before Charles Barkley, who could spin a ball on his finger, dribble a ball like it was a yo-yo. 'It's overdue,' Neal said."

Brown's accomplishments: Bigger than ever imagined

Stephen A. Smith / Philadelphia Inquirer

Globetrotters truly giants on the court, among men

Laura Vecsey / Baltimore Sun

Peep Show

Lakers: Paul Sunderland has signed a one-year deal to do the play by play for the Lakers. "I'm honored, thrilled and ecstatic," Sunderland said. "But the reason we are doing this is because Chick is no longer with us, so this comes with very mixed emotion . . . there will always remain only one voice of the Lakers, and that voice is Chick Hearn."

Timberwolves: Forward Gary Trent, who averaged 7.5 points and 4.2 rebounds last season, will be back with the Timberwolves for the veteran's minimum, which brings their training camp roster to 12 not including center Loren Woods, a restricted free agent who has yet to accept the team's qualifying offer. The Wolves are said to also be looking at Rod Strickland, Kendall Gill and John Wallace.

Denver: The deal for Rodney White is done . . . almost. Don Reid, Mengke Bateer and a first-round draft pick will go to the Pistons in exchange for White but the deal can't be finalized until Oct. 1 due to technicalities stemming from the aqcuisition of Reid on Aug. 1. Denver must wait at least 60 days before moving him.

Pacers: Looks like they're going to have to hold Al Harrington back. After a season in which he averaged more than 13 points and 6 boards before blowing out his ACL, Harrington is eager to get back into action. "I think he'll come back fine," Pacer president Donnie Walsh said. "He shouldn't go in there full bore. He should inch his way, day-by-day, into game shape and he has enough time to do that . . . He's worked very, very hard - as he does every summer - to get into condition. He's in the best position he could possibly be in."

Jazz: Point guard Raul Lopez is worth the risk and the Jazz are willing to sign their first-round pick from Spain despite the fact that he blew out his knee in August while playing for his National Team. "It is the opinion of the medical team that the injuries can be repaired and function restored," the Jazz released in a statement. The Jazz also announced that on Nov. 19, they will retire the No. 14 worn by Jeff Hornaceck.

Gary Trent says he'll return to Wolves

Steve Aschburner / Minneapolis Star Tribune

Denver's deal for White blocked by 60-day wait

Marc J. Spears / Denver Post

Camp Question: Harrington's Recovery Complete?

Conrad Brunner / Pacers.com

Lopez to sign, have knee surgery

Rich Evans / Deseret News

Jazz plan to retire No. 14; Padgett returns

Tom McEachin / Ogden Standard-Examiner

Sunderland Is Lakers' Voice of Choice

Larry Stewart / Los Angeles Times