The scoreboard inside of Barclays Center on Thursday afternoon while the Brooklyn Nets introduced Jason Kidd as their new head coach portended a homecoming of sorts, as J-Kidd rejoined the organization that he brought back to relevance more than 10 years ago as a player.


Just 10 days after the end of his playing career, Jason Kidd is a NBA head coach (Getty Images).

But for Jason, more than a homecoming, becoming Nets Head Coach represents a new beginning and despite 19 years in the game as a player, Coach Kidd knows there’s a learning curve ahead.

“I’m a rookie,” Jason said after being introduced as the 18th head coach in Nets history and the ‘first’ head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. “I go from being one of the oldest guys in the league to being a rookie coach. I’m very excited about this challenge.”

Indeed it will be a challenge as Jason takes the reigns of a Nets franchise that is just settling into a new home in Brooklyn and dealing with the heightened expectations that come along with being a pro sports franchise in the city that never sleeps.

But after meeting with Jason for several hours on Monday afternoon at the team’s headquarters in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just a short jog from the arena where J-Kidd turned the also-ran Nets into a perennial title contender in the early 2000s, Brooklyn GM Billy King was convinced that the risk of pairing this rookie coach and his basketball team was one worth taking.

“Any time you hire a coach, you could say it’s a risk,” King said. “I just feel confident in him. I don’t look at it like I’m taking a risk. I’m hiring a coach, somebody I believe in, and we’re going to work our butts off to make it work.”

 

In Brooklyn, Coach Kidd will be tasked with taking a team that has already achieved and pushing them toward higher goals and a quest for a championship. The Nets won 49 games last season to make the playoffs, but lost in the first round to the Chicago Bulls. Jason believes they are capable of much more.

“I think being here in Brooklyn we have a special opportunity to achieve that status as to being a championship-type-caliber team,” he said. “I’m looking forward to being part of that, helping with the structure and sharing things I

[brought to the table] as a player such as being unselfish, communicating and being tough, and hopefully I can get that across to the guys.”

One guy that was already promising to put in that work for his new coach on Thursday was Nets star point guard Deron Williams, who sat in the front row between their mutual agent and Jason’s wife as Jason was introduced.

J-Kidd and D-Will have been friends since they were selected as members of the U.S. Olympic basketball team in 2008 and have become close friends in the years since. But Williams’ admiration of his new coach dates back much farther than that.

“He’s a player I grew up watching and emulating and now I get to learn from him. I got to learn from him a little bit on the Olympic team, but this is a different stage, a different experience. I’m excited about it,” Williams said. “He is one of the smartest players to ever play this game and I think he will make a great coach.”


Jason’s relationship with Nets point guard Deron Williams should benefit the Nets as they move forward (Getty Images).

Jason believes the relationship between coach and point guard is crucial to a team’s success so he values the fact that he and Williams already have a rapport. As he works through the challenges of his first year as a coach, J-Kidd expects to lean on Williams.

“I have a lot to learn about coaching, but when I played the game I felt like I was an extension of the coach,” he said. “I look to Deron to be that guy to execute the game plan that I think that we can win.”

Kidd went on to compliment Williams’ ability as a team leader and said the point guard’s presence would anchor the structure he and his staff will look to put into place.

“You have to start with structure, understanding we’re here to build something. You have to have structure and understand it starts with your leader. When you look at Deron, I think he’s one of the best in the league at that. That’s your best player and he’s going to be the one that’s going to relay the message as much as guys will hear me talking.”

As for that staff, Jason has yet to decide who will join him on the bench as assistants, though he did admit on Thursday afternoon that he has received ‘a lot of calls.’

“He knows that he needs a good staff and he mentioned guys that he wants to add,” King said. “With the right staff and his basketball instincts, he knows he’ll be good.”

 

Though Jason is confident in what he can do as coach, just as he was as a player nearly 20 years ago when he entered the league as the No. 2 overall pick of the Dallas Mavericks, he also realizes that he has a brand new and different challenge in front of him. Asked Thursday if he was nervous, J-Kidd was honest.

“I’m a rookie; why wouldn’t I be nervous,” he said. “It’s just a matter of working hard. I’m a guy that took notes. I’m going to tell Deron [Williams], tell any player to grab a book and keep a diary, because you never know where the game of basketball will take you. I started that process right before we won a championship in Dallas. I’m excited for this opportunity.”

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