The Jason Kidd-Lawrence Frank situation grows clearer and cloudier by the day.
David Aldridge of NBA.com detailed the deteriorating relationship between Kidd, the Brooklyn Nets' rookie head coach, and the man who once coached him as a player and whom he brought in to help him adjust to head coaching duties.
What the report doesn't do is outline the good guy or the bad guy in the situation.
The breaking point, which did not mention a specific point of the season when it happened, came during a game in which Aldridge describes Kidd telling Frank, "Sit the (bleep) down! I'm the coach of this (13-letter word) team! When you're on the bench, don't (bleeping) move!"
The guess is that Aldridge meant two words joined by a hyphen and totaling 13 letters.
Aldridge first goes after Kidd, saying that Kidd brought in Frank to be the team's defensive coordinator, diagram plays and be the voice during practice. Frank did as he was told, Aldridge reported, and Kidd did not like it.
"The assistant's job is to stand up and call coverages," an NBA coaching source told Aldridge. "Every time the offense comes down and calls a play, my defensive coach stands up and yells, 'four down!' or 'get to the side.' Jason didn't like it. He thought Frank was coaching the team."
Aldridge goes on to defend Frank, saying the Indiana Pacers had a similar working relationship between then-head coach Larry Bird and assistant Rick Carlisle.
But then Aldridge turned on Frank, saying that his $1 million per year salary gave him a feeling of empowerment that grated on the rest of the staff, Kidd included.
A member of the Nets organization told Aldridge that Kidd was trying to put his own stamp on the team. Aldridge reported that Kidd tried to be "direct and honest with players in film sessions, going over things one-on-one with players." The source told Aldridge that Kidd would tell a player "that's a bad shot and here's why. That's losing basketball, and here's why."
Kidd, Aldridge said, had ideas on defense that were different from Frank's. But "Frank wouldn't stop talking."
The only certainty is that more of the dirty laundry is likely to come out as long as Frank still is employed by the Nets.
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