Jason Kidd probably didn't see the shot of Mikhail Prokhorov and Avery Johnson sitting at the Finals together on Sunday night because the future Hall of Famer hasn't been watching much basketball lately. But Kidd seems well-aware of all the changes his former team has undergone lately and he thinks fans of the Nets have good reason to be excited.
Speaking to reporters today on a conference call to promote a celebrity golf tournament that he is playing in next month, Kidd spoke highly of the Nets and their new coach and owner. He played for Avery Johnson during the 2007-2008 season, which he started with the Nets before being traded to Dallas in the Devin Harris deal.
Though Kidd apparently clashed with Johnson on the way to the Mavericks' first-round playoff elimination that season, Kidd thinks Johnson is a good fit for the Nets.
"He got the Mavs to the Finals," said Kidd, referring to 2006, when Dallas lost to Miami. "So it I think (the Nets) are going in the right direction."
Kidd referred to Johnson several different ways on the call, all of them complimentary. Once he said Johnson is a "good coach." Then he called him a "great coach" before finishing up with "a very good coach."
Kidd - who said he hasn't watched much of the Finals because he'd rather be playing in them - also called Prokhorov an "owner who wants to win" and said New Jersey should be excited because it has a young, up-and-coming team.
"So they have some of the pieces and now they just have to get some of the other pieces to be successful," Kidd said.
Before Kidd arrived in New Jersey in 2001, it wasn't exactly a hotbed of NBA basketball. Then after Kidd left 2 1/2 years ago - after taking the Nets to back-to-back Finals - things went south again for the Nets, who bottomed out this past season with a 12-70 record.
But Kidd has some advice for would-be free agents who might be considering the Nets but also worrying about some of the possible downfalls of playing in Newark for a team that is coming off such a horrible season.
"I would first tell them to forget the record of what happened last year. You can't look at that," said Kidd. "The thing about playing in Jersey is it is a beautiful place; they have some great areas there. There's the city you can go in and eat and they have everything there. You have to look at the upside, and then they may be a couple of years away from being a legitimate team."
You can only imagine what it would have been like had Kidd gotten the chance to play at The Rock in Newark the way Devin Harris and Brook Lopez will this year. Imagine Kidd tallying triple-doubles in Brooklyn, where the Nets are supposed to be moving in two or three years.
It's too late for that - barring a trade - but the next best thing for Nets fans might be reading all the nice things a legendary Net like Kidd is saying about the team now.
"I think being able to move down the highway (to Newark) for the next two years is going to help them, playing in a nice arena. And then once they get to Brooklyn they can look forward to finally getting recognition," Kidd said.
"The future is very bright for them," he said. "They have a great owner who wants to win, and they've got a very good coach."
