Jason Kidd will have to wait a little longer for his tenure as Brooklyn Nets coach to start as he has been suspended two games for pleading guilty stemming back to a DWI he received in the summer of 2012.
Kidd will not be behind the bench when the Nets open their season Oct. 30 on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers or two nights later on Nov. 1 when Brooklyn tips off against the Miami Heat, as he will have to wait until Nov. 3 when the team takes on the Magic in Orlando to return to the bench.
NBC Sports reports the league made the two-game ban official Friday, following Kidd pleading guilty to the DWI from July of 2012. A two-game ban is usually the league normal for such an infraction. Kidd endured the infraction just after signing a free agent deal with the New York Knicks, where his career ulitmately ended.
In Kidd's place, lead assistant coach Lawrence Frank will take on a familiar role of coaching the Nets for the first two games of the season. Kidd, who retired as an active player in the summer, took on the coaching role shortly thereafter, as the Nets look to win a championship this season in what appears to be a very tiny window the team has to compete for one with the talent that it brought in during the offseason.
Kidd, driving while intoxicated, crashed his SUV into a tree in the summer of 2012 while driving in the Hamptons in New York and was arrested following the incident, though he was lucky that no one was injured in the aftermath of the crash. Over the summer, Kidd pleaded guilty to the charges and owned up to what he did at his attorney's suggestion, according to NBC Sports.
After serving the suspension, Kidd will look to put the incident behind him. Kidd played for the Nets for seven seasons between the 2001-02 and 2007-08 seasons and will have his number retired by the team on Oct. 17.
As a player, Kidd averaged 12.6 points per game, 8.7 assists per game and 6.3 rebounds per game through a 19-year career.
The Nets enter the season after a successful campaign in their Brooklyn debut in 2012-13 that saw the team go 49-33 and place second in the Atlantic Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference. The team will look for better playoff results as it was ousted by No. 5 seeded Chicago in seven games in the opening round last year.
As the Nets pursue a championship with their window for doing so admittedly small, they'll have to start the journey without their head coach for the first two games.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
