http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1091164231266180.xml Nets: Kidd ready to walk Friday, July 30, 2004 BY DAVE D'ALESSANDRO Star-Ledger Staff The Bruce Ratner Fire Sale continued in earnest yesterday, when the Nets gave away yet another piece of their franchise -- and their history -- by shipping Kerry Kittles to the Los Angeles Clippers for virtually nothing. Which raises the question: Just how low can the Nets go? This low: According to a team official, Jason Kidd returned from his Mexican vacation yesterday and immediately requested a meeting with management at Ratner's earliest convenience, at which time the Nets' captain is expected to demand a trade. And to further illustrate the goals of the new ownership group, a close friend of Alonzo Mourning yesterday disclosed that the disabled center wants to attempt a comeback, but has been informed by the team that his services are no longer desired, as it would rather lop his salary off the cap after next season. Team president Rod Thorn, who in an afternoon conference call with reporters sounded as though he had his soul ripped out by a savage tax collector, attempted to spin the Kittles trade into a positive move that will allow his depleted team to fill the gaping voids at other positions while saving the $9.8 million that remained on Kittles' contract. "The purpose for us was very simple: We're obviously trying to restructure our team, and it's going to make it much easier after we make this deal," said Thorn, whose team received a second-round draft pick in the deal, which also included a $1.5 million payment to L.A. "I feel very confident we'll end up with a strong two-guard position, but we have other needs we have to address, and if we stayed the way we were, we wouldn't be able to address them. That in a nutshell is why we did this trade." The ramifications, however, could get very complicated -- and ugly. Thorn, whose team picked up journeyman subs Rodney Buford and Jacque Vaughn yesterday, said last night that his conversation with Kidd about the Kittles deal was brief. "I talked to someone who was with him," Thorn said. "I talked to Jason for about three seconds." Presumably enough time for Kidd to slam down the phone. While Thorn would not confirm Kidd's mood or whether a meeting was requested, Kidd's anger over the sacrifice of his backcourt partner was felt throughout the organization -- so much that it is now widely assumed that he will demand a trade. Agent Jeff Schwartz, who was traveling yesterday, did not return calls seeking comment. But another member of Kidd's inner circle predicted the worst. "He took the Nets' money because they told him they were going to try to win the championship -- false pretenses," Kidd's friend said. "Knowing Jason, he'll want out. I'd bet that he's not playing until they trade him." The Nets have now lost three of their top seven players -- Kenyon Martin, Rodney Rogers and Kittles -- and received no live bodies in return. They have also trimmed their payroll from $62 million to its present $47.5 million, and there is no guarantee that they are done hacking more salaries. It is possible, for example, that the Nets will buy out Lucious Harris, who has $2.65 million coming to him next season. It also appears as though they would dissuade Mourning from returning, even though he has been in the gym almost daily for the past two months. According to Zo's friend, he told the Nets that he would like to play again, and showed ample readiness with a strong performance at his charity game last week. But the team would rather see him retire -- thereby allowing it to save $12 million after the last two years of his salary come off the salary cap. Mourning's agent, Jeff Wechsler, said last night that a comeback from last December's kidney transplant "hasn't come up -- Alonzo made his comments earlier this summer that he has no plans to play, and I'd believe what Alonzo says." Thorn added, "He's been working out, and there's certainly no doubt that if he can play he would like to play...but it's too early to comment about it." When asked whether the bean counters would welcome Mourning back, Thorn's response was intentionally vague: "If he's able to play," he said, "I'm sure he'll be here." Kittles leaves New Jersey after 496 games covering seven seasons, in which time he became the Nets' second-leading scorer behind Buck Williams. He also had more steals than any other Net besides Darwin Cook, played more minutes than anyone other than Williams, and led the franchise in most 3-point categories. Still, Thorn referred to Kittles as "a role player. If you look at our team, we have spots to fill. By making this trade it puts us in a better position to fill other spots." Besides the Clippers' second-round pick next year, the Nets also get a $9.8 million exception that can be used only in a trade, but they are not likely to use it. To fill out the roster, Thorn has targeted Ron Mercer and Newark native Eric Williams, hopeful they'd be willing to split their midlevel exception, that extra $4.9 million fund that capped-out teams can spend on free agents. "There's interest on the Nets' part and the lure of New Jersey is attractive on Eric's part," agent Mark Bartelstein said yesterday. "I think he'd be a great fit in a variety of ways."
Pardon me if I feel no sympathy for Jason. He tried to play gm(Rodney Rogers, Zo) and failed horribly. He dogged his teammate(KVH) and made sure he was jettisoned, even if it was for what turned out to be useless crap. He made sure his coach got fired, and as soon as he did, the Nets all of a sudden started magically playing better again ( ). He wanted to be a part of the decision to where the Nets would play ( I wont play for a Long Island team ). And now he says he wont play? What a load of bull****. Just more posturing. He wont pass up that $$$, and his wife wont let him pass up that $$$. You didn't choose NJ for championship aspirations, you chose it for the perk$. If you cared about championships you would have bolted to SA. People like to rag on Kobe(and with good reason), but Jason is every bit the primadonna he is. Still, the Nets should trade him, just because they are going to suck with or w/o him, and they should try to get out from his contract and get some pieces for the future. It's rebuilding time.
lol i wish we could take a stab at him, make an offer, tell him that shaq n duncan killed yall in finals, now u can kill other teams by playing with a dominant bigman in yao, and arguably one of the top 5 players in the leauge, tracy.
Personally, I would tend to side with a guy who was told last summer that the team was committed to winning before agreeing to a long term deal. Now, Ratner's making a run at beating out Donald Sterling as "Worst Owner in the NBA". How is this team expecting to compete with the Knicks when they move to Brooklyn when all the team will have is Richard Jefferson (maybe not even him).
Our MEXICAN water will do that to you, seeñor. Or maybee eet wahs all thee margareetas, seeñor. Andele, Andele, Andele, ARRIBAAAA... !
For those keeping track at home: Shaq demands trade - granted McGrady (somewhat) demands trade - granted Antoine Walker demands trade ($14.6) Vince Carter demands trade ($12.6) Jason Kidd demands trade ($14.8) Shareef Abdur-Rahim demands trade ($14.6) And that's not even looking at who's available for the taking. Wow. This has to go down as one of the biggest offseasons ever. Evan
emjohn thats interesting.. it seems like the players are making more and more demands and the owners are just buckling. I hope we could get him if not I hope we ends up with the Hawks. J
Dallas trades: Antoine Walker Dallas receives: Shareef Abdur-Rahim Portland trades: Shareef Abdur-Rahim Portland receives: Jason Kidd New Jersey trades: Jason Kidd New Jersey receives: Vince Carter Toronto trades: Vince Carter Toronto receives: Antoine Walker Trade Accepted
hmm..... Kidd's an excellent true point guard who performs best with a great shooter and a powerful center he can pass to. And he's going to demand a trade.... ... Zo is an old, coming-out-of-surgery big man who can't fill a starting role, but could probably do a good job coming off the bench. And NJ doesn't want him to come back.... ... can you think of any teams that need a vertan starting point guard and a competent backup center? hmmm... let me think... think, think think.... (...if only we had the money/cap room) -- droxford
I agree with you 100%. it's not that Kidd isn't a good player...it's that he should leave the personnel decisions to the people upstairs..that is, unless Kidd is willing to pay for players out of his own pocket. I always gave Kidd the benefit of the doubt because he makes winners out of the loser teams he's been on but that ultimatum of bringing in Zo last summer did it for me. Did Kidd REALLY expect Zo to come back at even 75% health? Kidd just wants to run a franchise his way...if they didn't sign Zo I think they could have still kept Martin.
No matter how you think of him as a person, he is one of the best pgs if not the best...Too bad he's out of our price range otherwise he would be a good pg for our team.
I will only take Zone for league minimum and JKidd for half of the MLE. I don't really want JKIDD. He is as overrated as they come. Great eyes, high IQ, great motor but not enough to command the max. Not worth building a franchise on.
i think both parties are getting what they want here. kidd gets to get out and nj gets to trade him. as CK said, if kidd really wanted a title, he would've gone to SA. after being dominated in the finals, he couldn't have been delusional enough to think his team stood a chance against the west. maybe he was, but nonetheless he had to know SA was even better. plus, it's not like the team was going to win the title if they kept kmart around. kidd knows there is no hope of a title in nj for the foreseeable future and probably is glad to be given a reason to get out (now that he's got his contract that was bigger than anyone else could give him). and i'm pretty sure nets management was fully aware their moves would cause kidd to demand a trade and are probably secretly happy that he did so they can appear out of options when it comes to trading him. this team had obviously peaked and no amount of small moves were going to get them back to the top, and with kidd's enormous contract, no big moves could be made. now, they can trade his huge contract, get some picks, some cap space in the future, and build around those picks and rj and hope things work out. the only thing that would've probably kept them from doing that would be keeping up appearances and not wanting to make it look completely like a firesale. now they can say, hey he's forcing our hand, we have to trade him. and they'll probably be better for it in the long run.
I think that if Zo were to become available, he might seriously consider accepting league minimum to play with us (he's coming out of retirement after transplanet surgery, he's old, and I don't see how he could command much salary. By joining us, he may be able to contribute to a true contender. I agree with your statements about JKidd, too. But I wouldn't consider building our franchise around him. He's worth a lot, but not the max. And even if he wasn't at the max, we couldn't afford him. But I do think it was kinda curious to hear about these two players leaving the Nets when the Rockets are looking for almost those exact kinds of players. -- droxford
