After turning 40 and having the worst postseason imaginable, many expected Jason Kidd to announce his retirement after 19 NBA seasons. Nothing wrong, even for a future hall of fame player, admitting that the game of professional basketball is a bit too much for him right now. However, according to people with the New York Knicks, Kidd is planning on remaining with the team a little while longer.
According to General Manager Glen Grunwald, they had a great meeting with Jason yesterday. We hope he’s going to be back and from his comments to us we expect him to be back next year and he’ll be a big contributor to the team like he was this year.
Kidd was undoubtedly going through his worst ever season and playoffs, averaging only 0.9 points per game in 20.6 minutes per game for the Knicks. He didn’t score a single point after the first two games in the series against the Boston Celtics, and it took Mike Woodson only until the last couple of games to understand that it’s looking like a disaster with Kidd on the floor, becoming a complete non-factor, in the truest sense of the word, on offense, while his defense and passing weren’t enough to make up for his 12% from the field during the playoffs.
Despite entering the fifth decade of his life, Kidd still played over 26 minutes a night this season for the Knicks, scoring 6 points per game. His shooting was just as bad, not worse, than it has been for most of his career, which made his time on the court tolerable, although he looked worse and worse on both ends of the floor as the season progressed. Kidd doesn’t want to be a third option at either point guard or shooting guard, but that’s the best he can hope for after such a terrible stretch in the playoffs.
In terms of money, after making more than $180 million so far in his NBA career it shouldn’t be an issue, but we don’t know his exact financial situation, so the $3.09 million he’s owed for each of the next two seasons might not be something he would like to give up.
But for the Knicks, having a player who can hardly contribute and eat away more than $3 million of salary cap, which they don’t have a lot of room under considering their other contracts, simply sounds too Isiah Thomas-lie. Don’t be surprised if Kidd is somehow pushed into strongly considering retirement, by suggesting he’ll hardly see any court time at all if he wishes to continue his NBA career with the team.