LeBron’s Lakers ‘Don’t Win NBA Title’ Without Jason Kidd, Says Mavs GM Nico Harrison
The Dallas Mavericks were criticized by many after hiring Jason Kidd as their successor to Rick Carlisle last summer. Those criticisms continue to look worse by the day, though, as the Mavs are 35-24 heading into the All-Star break, having won six of their last seven games.
In an exclusive interview on our Mavs Step Back Podcast, GM Nico Harrison, who is good friends with Kidd and came along with him to Dallas as a ‘package deal,’ explains why people shouldn’t really be surprised that Kidd has seemingly figured things out in his third head coaching stint.
“I think [Kidd] has had amazing growth,” Harrison tells us. “I also think that if you look at the Milwaukee team [he coached], they weren’t ready to win. They weren’t built to win and ready to win.
“But if you look at the development of the players that were on that team, you look at where they’re at now? They’re All-Stars. [Kidd and his coaching staff] had a big deal in that.”
Those All-Stars Harrison mentions are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. The impact Kidd had on those guys was evident when Antetokounmpo went out of his way to thank his former head coach in a postgame press conference after the Milwaukee Bucks won the 2021 title.
“This is just human nature,” says Harrison. “As you have more experiences, you’re going to grow from it, and Jason definitely grew from it.”
When Dallas hired Kidd, most of the negative publicity came from what transpired in his first two coaching stints with Brooklyn and Milwaukee. Nobody doubted that those stops left blemishes on his resume, but why was Kidd’s glowing time spent with the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach for the last two years just swept under the rug?
“The thing people don’t really put a lot of emphasis on is the job he did with the Lakers,” Harrison tells us. “The Lakers don’t win the [2020] championship without what he did. The way he’s able to communicate with superstars, the way he’s able to support the team. And the coach he worked for, it wasn’t about Jason.
“Jason was in a secondary role. He embraced the role, and he did everything he could do to support the head coach and support the players, but never grandstanding.”
Kidd was so well-liked with the Lakers that LeBron James sent out a tweet about how disappointed he was that Kidd was being hired elsewhere. Perhaps the Lakers, who are just 27-31 and ninth in the Western Conference, are now wishing they had promoted Kidd instead of letting him walk.
“I think Jason learned a lot from his first two stops [in Brooklyn and Milwaukee],” says Harrison before briefly pausing and adding more emphasis. “I know he learned a lot, because we had long conversations about it.
“What you saw in Jason in LA is more of a reflection of what you see with Jason here with us on the Mavs. … He’s a much better coach now than he was at his first stop, and I think he’s learned so much along the way at each stop that we’re getting the best version of him [now].”
