Dave Betancourt | Sports Section Manager

3/08/02

One of the biggest stories of this past week was New Jersey Nets point guard Jason Kidd returning to Arizona to play against the Phoenix Suns, the team he had spent the previous four years of his NBA career with.   More times than not when an athlete returns to a former place of employment it's a fun affair filled with positive emotions, like when MJ goes back to Chicago as a Wizard or when Hakeem Olajuwan goes back to Houston as a Raptor just to name a few examples.

Since being traded from the Suns to Soprano land for Stephon Marbury, Kidd has single handedly turned the Nets into the top team in the eastern conference while the Suns, once a constant playoff team, look like they will miss the playoffs for the first time in years.  The question is, why trade Kidd in the first place?  For the answer look no further than Mr. Arizona himself, Jerry Colangelo.

When Kidd was involved in a domestic despute with his wife Joumana, it was headline news.  No sports franchise wants their star players involved in negative publicity but Colangelo takes that to a whole new level. That summer Kidd was traded to the Nets for Marbury straight up.  It was a clear sign that Colangelo was not happy about the negative exposure Kidd's incident gave the Suns and that he thought trading away the teams best player was the best way to solve it.

In return for giving up Kidd the Suns got Marbury who can light up any team up for 50 points on any given night.  However despite the fact that Marbury is an excellent scoring threat and one of the better guards in the league, he still doesn't match up to what Kidd meant to the Suns.

Kidd may not have Marbury's offensive prowess, but what he lacks in points he makes up for in everything else.  Kidd is a point guard in the truest form.  It wasn't his scoring that made him so good in Phoenix but his ability to set up other people to score.  Since coming to the NBA out of the University of California after his sophomore year, Kidd has done exactly what people said he would do, make the assist popular.  Whether it's a no look pass, an alley-op, or just a simple chest pass, there is no one better in the league at passing than Kidd.

The Phoenix Suns weren't the most talented team in the NBA while Kidd was there, but he made due with what he had.  Sure guys like Shawn Marion and Tom Gugliotta are good players, but when Kidd was in Phoenix those guys got more open looks than they ever could have dreamed of because of the passing skills of Kidd.  This lead to Phoenix making the playoffs every year.

Marbury is a super talent but his ability to get other people involved has never been his strong point.  Sure he's sixth in the NBA in assist with 8.0 per game, but Marbury has always been a scorer first and a passer second.  Some say it was not wanting to share the glory with Kevin Garnett that lead him out of Minnesota early in his career.  Everyone knows Marbury is a good player, but I'd take Kidd over in a second.

The importance of a guy who looks to pass first and get his teammates involved outweighs someone who can score points any day.  Every time Kidd steps on the court he's almost a lock for a triple double (double digits in three offensive categories).  The Nets have benefited from the Kidd/Marbury trade way more so than the Suns have.  A lot of people like to point out that while Marbury was with the Nets they weren't that good and since Kidd has gotten there the Nets are in first place in the east. That is true but give Marbury a little slack, most of his time in Jersey he was the only player healthy and all the Nets key players like Keith Van Horn and Kerry Kittles were injured.

The Kidd/Marbury trade can be debated until the cows come home, but it all goes back to Colangelo.  Should he have traded Kidd to a team that before he got there wasn't anything close to a playoff team because of an off the court skirmish? Domestic violence is a very negative thing there's no disputing that, but Kidd did every thing the average athlete wouldn't have done.  He went straight to cameras and said that he was 100 percent wrong for what he did and that he was going to get help.  He got help, his wife is still by his side and he's done everything possible to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again.

Everyone makes mistakes, especially athletes who have been told they can do no wrong from the time they hit puberty, but Kidd should have been given a second chance.  Shipping him east just because of negative pub was definitely a dumb move on Colangelo's part.  But hey he's learning that the hard way.  The Nets are trying to lock up the number one seed in the east.  The Suns are already thinking about next year.