Byron Scott and Jason Kidd have a long history and apparently some bad blood.
Byron Scott and Jason Kidd likely won’t be golfing together anytime soon.
The two coaches met on Wednesday night in a match-up between the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks but Scott landed the opening salvo before the first whistle, calling Kidd an “a--hole” to reporters during morning shootaround.
Scott and Kidd have a tense history that dates back to when Scott was a first-time coach and Kidd was his valued point guard and the two helped guide the New Jersey Nets to a pair of NBA Finals appearances.
Scott’s dislike for Kidd can be traced back to multiple reports that painted Kidd as orchestrating Scott’s firing in 2004.
Not shy about making power-plays, Kidd left Brooklyn last season after a failed coup to gain control over the Nets basketball operations.
Asked what he thought of Kidd as a player, Scott didn’t hold back, unleashing what seemed like more than a decade of frustration.
“He’s kind of known as being an a--hole,” Scott told reporters on Wednesday.
Scott then qualified that response with a little back-pedaling and clarification.
“That’s all I’ve heard. Now did he actually go and talk to Rod Thorn and those guys?” Scott said, referencing the Nets’ ex-president. “I never got that story. I always said though, ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.’ I’m in a much better place and I’m sure he’s happy where he is.”
Kidd responded in typical fashion, downplaying the comment and acting like it was a non-issue.
“You guys are bored,” Kidd told reporters when told of Scott’s comment, according to a tweet by Bill Oram of the Orange County Register.
Scott did, however, praise Kidd for the job he’s done with a young Bucks team, which is currently ranked sixth in the moribund Eastern Conference. Wednesday’s game is the first time that Scott and Kidd met as adversaries on opposing sidelines.
But it’s obvious the passage of time hasn’t mellowed their relationship, at least from Scott’s perspective.
“Cordial, and that’s about as good as it’s going to get too,” Scott said in describing his rapport with Kidd. “There’s nothing to patch up. It’s cordial. I respect him as a basketball player and now as a coach. But other than that, we’re not going to be swapping spit, having dinner or playing golf.”
While he applauded his stint as a coach, he did take issue with Kidd’s intentionally spilling a soda in a regular season game against the Lakers last season when Kidd was coaching in Brooklyn to buy his team more time when they were out of timeouts. He was fined $50,000 for the maneuver - an amount that Scott believes should have been increased.
“He should’ve been fined more,” Scott said. “I wasn’t the only one who was surprised he wasn’t fined more. It was so obvious.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...ets-coach-jason-kidd-a-hole-article-1.2103803
Byron Scott and Jason Kidd likely won’t be golfing together anytime soon.
The two coaches met on Wednesday night in a match-up between the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks but Scott landed the opening salvo before the first whistle, calling Kidd an “a--hole” to reporters during morning shootaround.
Scott and Kidd have a tense history that dates back to when Scott was a first-time coach and Kidd was his valued point guard and the two helped guide the New Jersey Nets to a pair of NBA Finals appearances.
Scott’s dislike for Kidd can be traced back to multiple reports that painted Kidd as orchestrating Scott’s firing in 2004.
Not shy about making power-plays, Kidd left Brooklyn last season after a failed coup to gain control over the Nets basketball operations.
Asked what he thought of Kidd as a player, Scott didn’t hold back, unleashing what seemed like more than a decade of frustration.
“He’s kind of known as being an a--hole,” Scott told reporters on Wednesday.
Scott then qualified that response with a little back-pedaling and clarification.
“That’s all I’ve heard. Now did he actually go and talk to Rod Thorn and those guys?” Scott said, referencing the Nets’ ex-president. “I never got that story. I always said though, ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.’ I’m in a much better place and I’m sure he’s happy where he is.”
Kidd responded in typical fashion, downplaying the comment and acting like it was a non-issue.
“You guys are bored,” Kidd told reporters when told of Scott’s comment, according to a tweet by Bill Oram of the Orange County Register.
Scott did, however, praise Kidd for the job he’s done with a young Bucks team, which is currently ranked sixth in the moribund Eastern Conference. Wednesday’s game is the first time that Scott and Kidd met as adversaries on opposing sidelines.
But it’s obvious the passage of time hasn’t mellowed their relationship, at least from Scott’s perspective.
“Cordial, and that’s about as good as it’s going to get too,” Scott said in describing his rapport with Kidd. “There’s nothing to patch up. It’s cordial. I respect him as a basketball player and now as a coach. But other than that, we’re not going to be swapping spit, having dinner or playing golf.”
While he applauded his stint as a coach, he did take issue with Kidd’s intentionally spilling a soda in a regular season game against the Lakers last season when Kidd was coaching in Brooklyn to buy his team more time when they were out of timeouts. He was fined $50,000 for the maneuver - an amount that Scott believes should have been increased.
“He should’ve been fined more,” Scott said. “I wasn’t the only one who was surprised he wasn’t fined more. It was so obvious.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...ets-coach-jason-kidd-a-hole-article-1.2103803
