Just one year after the Brooklyn Nets and Jason Kidd shocked the world going straight from playing to a head coach position, we now have another shocker. Kidd approached ownership and attempted to get more power. The failed attempt could mean the end of him with the franchise.
via NY Post:
A league source told The Post Kidd recently approached ownership with a series of demands, including the role of overseeing the Nets’ basketball operations department in addition to his head-coaching responsibilities. The source said Kidd didn’t want general manager Billy King to be dismissed, but wanted to be given a title and placed above him in the organizational hierarchy.
Ownership declined to grant Kidd that kind of power, which is rare for any coach in the league to have. The source said ownership felt Kidd wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility after having only one year of coaching experience — the team finished his first season on the bench with a 44-38 record, good for sixth in the Eastern Conference — and allowed Kidd to seek other opportunities.
The franchise then was asked by the Bucks for permission to speak with Kidd about the prospect of hiring him and the Nets consented, making his departure from Brooklyn a sudden possibility.
The two teams have already begun discussing compensation for the departure of Kidd and there are reports that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is “finished” with him. Kidd’s four-year, $10.5 million contract was dwarfed by the recent hirings of other first-year coaches Derek Fisher and Steve Kerr who both received five-year, $25 million deals. That was reportedly was one of the reasons behind Kidd’s decision.