I thought it was typical east coast centric, media hype.
Kidd was the same player he was in Phoenix, but it was like the east coast media finally gave him his props.I remember all the talk back then being about Marbury and Gary Payton when it came to best pg's......even dudes like Terrell Brandon and Damon Stoudamire use to get more props.
It was like people knew Kidd was a talented player, but he was a product of the west coast....as west as you can get.Back in those days, the east coast, mainly NY, had a monopoly on top pg prospects.As good as J Kidd was in high school, he still got slighted in terms of hype and media coverage.Look at Marbury....dude was everywhere.SLAM Magazine followed him the whole year.He was seen as the "future of the pg position" a basketball god.
J Kidd has the kind of game that you have to watch in order to truly appreciate his talents.You can't just look at his stats.In fact, maybe more than anybody in basketball over the last 20 years.
He does so much without having to actually score the ball, it's ridiculous.Loose balls...starting one man fast breaks and putting pressure on the D.....Crazy hustle.Quietly, this dude damn near had the same hustle/ nose for the ball that Dennis Rodman had, but at the pg position.
I never really respected the term " dominate a game without scoring" until I watched Kidd play....I mean playing really close attention to the game and soaking it up.Dudes instincts and nose for the ball is the best I've ever seen at the pg position.....that's just my personal opinion.
As someone already stated, that Nets team had a lot of injuries when Marbury was there.They had better luck staying healthy when Kidd got there.All the stars aligned perfectly during the Kidd era in NJ.
They had a bunch of HEALTHY young talent to pair with Kidd.Not to mention that the eastern conference was
.
The NY media had Kidd right in their back yard and finally started to acknowledge him as the amazing player he was.You started to see Kidd ranked as the #1 pg in yearly basketball publications..He was always that dude.
Prime Kidd was a pleasure to watch.The way he grabbed boards and started one man fast breaks was
beautiful.
He was fast as hell WITH the ball in his hands.It was like he had another gear or some shyt.Pure kinetic energy....and the way he could go coast to coast and change directions without loosing speed
He's another guy I'd throw in the "unique talent" category with guys like Magic, Barkley, and Dennis Rodman.
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