The first few days of the week have been eventful. It began with news in the midwest that the Milwaukee Bucks had fired their head coach and future Hall of Famer, Jason Kidd.  

Kidd went 139-152 during his 3 ½ year tenure as coach of the Bucks. During his tenure in Milwaukee, Kidd guided the team to two NBA Playoff appearances.

But that wasn’t enough to keep Bucks brass happy. Upon his firing, the Bucks were an eighth seed with a 23-22 record despite the pretty consistent play from their All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo and recent trade with the Phoenix Suns which shipped speedy guard Eric Bledsoe to Fear The Deer nation.

Speaking of Antetokounmpo, ESPN’s Ramon Shelburne reported that the Greek Freak offered to take his grievances to Bucks management and fight Kidd’s firing. Giannis loves his coach and didn’t want to see him go.

But, business is business, right?

Jason Kidd tells ESPN that Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo called him about 15 minutes before Kidd was officially notified he’d been fired by the Bucks and offered to help save his job.

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) January 23, 2018

Joe Prunty took over as the Bucks’ interim head coach. He and the Bucks got a win Monday night against the Phoenix Suns.

Prunty is no stranger to hoops, comes highly recommended and is another disciple from San Antonio Spurs head coach, Gregg Popovich’s coaching tree. Prunty began as a video coordinator with San Antonio before becoming an advance scout and assistant coach for nine seasons, beginning in 1996.

Speaking of San Antonio, they’ve made headlines in the last 48 hours. A multitude of NBA league sources indicate that Spurs forward, Kawhi Leonard and his reps are disconnected from the Spurs organization.

Last Wednesday, the Spurs announced that Kawhi Leonard would be out of action for an “indefinite period of time” as he’s been dealing with a lingering quad injury that has burdened him since the NBA Playoffs last year.

Leonard’s right quadriceps tendinopathy recovery has carried over into this season, causing the one time NBA Finals MVP to miss the first 27 games of the season.

Retired NBA vet and ESPN analyst Jalen Rose told ESPN’s First Take yesterday that Leonard doesn’t want to be in San Antonio.

According to Rose, Leonard wants out because the Spurs have been ‘unable to attract elite-level, all-NBA-caliber free agents to come play with him.’

Added Rose:

“Players talk about wanting to win and wanting to be a champion, but ultimately they want to do it on their own terms,” Rose said. “And when you go to San Antonio, guess who is the CEO of that organization? Gregg Popovich. It’s going to be his way.”

Before the Spurs’ 114-102  home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, Popovich rebuffed confusion or the Spurs being a soap opera. “Some people wrote some articles. I understand it, but soap opera? It’s a soap opera if we talk about it every day, I guess,” Popovich said.

“I don’t get it. We won’t talk about it. There’s nothing to talk about other than what we’ve already said.”

As for the Cavs, the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 148 points on them on Saturday without Kevin Love who called out sick.

That got folks talking. Was Love really sick? Some of Love’s teammates reportedly called Love out in a team meeting.

Cleveland is 3-7 in their last 10 games. During their last 10, Isaiah Thomas has returned from injury, J.R. Smith has struggled, the talk of LeBron James leaving at seasons end has resurfaced along with the debates on whether Cavs head coach Ty Lue should lose his job.

Mind you, the Cavs currently hold a 27-19 record and are sitting in third place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

Ashley Nevel says it best

The Cavs will get it together. Don’t push the panic button just yet!

Kemba Walker is apparently on the trading block. A Bronx, New York native, a return home as a member of the New York Knicks is what anybody from the 5-boroughs would want.

The Milwaukee Bucks were reportedly in preliminary talks before the Kidd firing and the usual suspects, teams in the NBA Finals hunt like the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers have made calls.

“Kemba Walker is a player that can come to a team and score you points. If he came off the bench he could be a Lou Williams Jr. He can help a team win.” @ScoopB has high praise for the @hornets point guard. Which team should go out there and make a trade for the UConn alum?

— Bud and the Manchild (@Budandmanchild) January 23, 2018

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski says that Charlotte has been encouraging teams to make offers and appears eager to discuss attaching Walker to a larger trade in which another team would take on one of the Hornets’ several less desirable contracts.

Not so fast; Hornets majority owner, Michael Jordan is not trading him unless he’s shipped out for something really good.

“It’s not like we are shopping him,” said Jordan.

“We would not just give him up. I love Kemba Walker. I would not trade him for anything but an All-Star player.”

Walker would be a nice addition to any team. He can score in volume and will be a scorer for hire like the Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams and Minnesota Timberwolves’ Jamal Crawford.

Be on the lookout for where he goes next!

RESPECT Magazine’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson checking out Bangkok, Thailand’s Temple of the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho . Photo Credit: @Scoop_B Instagram.

Check out all of my commentary on the going ons of the NBA on Syracuse, NY’s Bud and the Manchild by pressing play at the top!

While on Bud & the Manchild, I also discussed my recent 15-day vacation to Thailand where I visited the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.

If you’re a Street Fighter 2 fan, Sagat’s battle stage is in front of the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, which is located at Wat Pho.

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The post Scoop B: Milwaukee Bucks, Jason Kidd part ways, Cavs, Spurs & Kawhi Leonard drama & a trip to Thailand appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Lonzo Ball and Jason Kidd. Photo Credit: Uproxx

Kenyon Martin checked in with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson and discussed Lonzo Ball/Jason Kidd comparisons and more on Scoop B Radio. Press Play Below To Listen!

Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks play each other at BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee. It will be the first meeting between the two teams this season and the first time that Lakers rookie, Lonzo Ball faces a Bucks team that is coached by Jason Kidd, a player the rookie is often compared to.

Kidd told ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk that he thought that it was a stretch to compare Ball and Kidd’s game after playing just 12 games.

“I am not saying it is not fair [to make the comparison], but it is too early,” the Milwaukee Bucks coach told  Youngmisuk about Ball. “People are talking about Rookie of the Year; we are already talking about awards [for Ball]. But it is really early and we are 12 games into this. We are jumping the gun a little bit. Let’s enjoy and watch this young kid play and then we will make the comparison at 40 games [or more].

“Let him get some games under his belt. I truly think he is talented. Today we want everything microwaved, we want it overnight or we want it Googled. We want to see the answer now.”

Jason Kidd with son TJ during The NBA Store hosts the ‘2nd Annual Back-To-School Style Preview’ at NBA Store in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by James Devaney/WireImage)

Kidd’s son, T.J., now a sophomore at a Los Angeles-area college agrees: “I believe that Lonzo is a great basketball player,” T.J. Kidd told me by phone.

“High basketball I.Q,. great passer. He has without a doubt the potential to be great and do great things in the NBA. I think there are some similarities between the two. But I think at the same time, they’re playing in two different eras.”

During Jason Kidd’s playing career, he became an NBA champion, a 10-time All-Star, five-time first-team All-NBA performer, five-time assists leader, three-time All-Defensive selection and Co-Rookie of the Year in 1994-95.

During that time he played alongside Kenyon Martin on both the New Jersey Nets and the New York Knicks. 

Martin also weighed in: “I see the size comparison,” Martin said of Kidd and Ball while on Scoop B Radio.

Kenyon Martin puts Jason Kidd in the class of Magic and Stockton 76. Once a teammate, always a teammate? Photo Credit: Sports-Kings

“He is tall and athletic like J-Kidd was coming out. I haven’t seen that. He passes the ball well. The floor is wide open right now. Kidd has that vision though. I’m not going to deny him that. I need to see a little bit more. I am a big J-Kidd fan, even before when I saw him in Dallas. I saw J-Kidd when he first came in and seeing the things he did. I guess against tougher defense. We will see the kid can play and I’m not taking anything away from him, but he needs to show me more.”

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The post Kenyon Martin & Jason Kidd’s son, T.J. don’t buy Lonzo Ball, J-Kidd comparisons just yet appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Rapper Fabolous and sports and entertainment journalist Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Credit: Angie Vasquez

Rapper Fabolous Chatted With Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about rapping the intro of EA Sports’ NBA Live 2003 on Scoop B Radio

In today’s video game world, face and tattoo recognition and a soundtrack littered with hot tracks is a must for gamers. After an unsuccessful run with NBA Live 2002, EA Sports went back to the lab and brought in some fire power. NBA Live 2003 featured then-New Jersey Nets All Star point guard Jason Kidd as their cover athlete and keyed in on the halfcourt game; much to the delight of San Antonio Spurs fans everywhere.

The defensive strategy was also a focus with Dikembe Mutombo and Kenyon Martin having nightly block parties on their respective teams. But quite honestly, the thing that stood out the most was the game’s soundtrack.

Anyone who purchased a copy of NBA Live 2003 got an added bonus. They got a copy of the NBA Live 2003 soundtrack on a CD. The tracklist included cuts like Busta Rhymes and Flipmode Squad’s Here We Go, Angie Martinez’s If I Could Go, Joe Budden’s Drop Drop, Freeway and Memphis Bleek’s Let’s Go.

“It’s In The Game,” the game’s intro song performed by Fabolous and also featured DJ Clue. Fabolous’ wordplay was insane especially when you say things like:

‘I’m the crowd favorite and I believe the fans love the way I finger roll it with either hand, my handles pull it through presses plus I can play the lane and block shots like bulletproof vestes.’

 

Fabolous had a buzz going strong on the mixtape circuit at the time and was also coming off of a successful album, Ghetto Fabolous, that he’d dropped two years prior to NBA Live 2003’s release. The Brooklyn rapper was in a league of his own, rapping about sports and donning the most exclusive of exclusive Mitchell & Ness throwback jerseys. Fab was a natural fit as the game’s intro vocalist. “I was a bigger video game fan then,” Fabolous told me on Scoop B Radio. 

“It was a cool experience. The whole video game. I actually got to visit the EA Sports headquarters and got to see the stuff behind games; the real geeky, techy side, that was even cool. It was really, really, really a cool experience.”

The song’s producer, DJ Clue had fun working on it too. “I think that sometimes  you get caught in the moment and you don’t realize how big something is that you are doing,” DJ Clue told me on Scoop B Radio. 

“They gave me no restrictions on how to be with sound, but they gave me sound effects that they wanted me to actually incorporate into actually beats.The whistle, the feet squeaking, the dunk, they gave me all those sounds. So I was in the studio, I was doing a beat and I came up with the beat and they came up with the rap and I had to go back and put the sound effects in from what he was rapping about.”

According to the Fabolous, the coolest part was that while being on tour. He did a promotion in conjunction with EA Sports.”I did a tour stop where in each city somebody would come on the bus and play me in NBA Live,” Fabolous said. 

“I pretty much beat everybody that we played. A couple of them were girls, I had to beat them too.”

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The post Scoop B: Fabolous Recounts What It Was Like To Rap The Intro To EA Sports’ NBA Live 2003 appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

UNITED STATES – APRIL 22: Basketball: playoffs, Closeup of New Jersey Nets Kenyon Martin (6) and Jason Kidd (5) during game vs Indiana Pacers, East Rutherford, NJ 4/22/2002 (Photo by Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images) (SetNumber: X65736 TK4 R1 F16)

Check out Part 1 of Kenyon Martin and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson‘s chat on Scoop B Radio. Part 2 will release via ScoopBRadio.com in mid-September.

One of the age old questions that any New Jersey Nets fan asks is: had Kenyon Martin not left, would the Jason Kidd-led team of the early 2000s that went to back to back championships have won a NBA ring or two?

Well, why not ask the man yourself?

“We would have had a couple of championships down, no doubt,” Kenyon Martin told me on yesterday’s episode of Scoop B Radio.

“I think we were a couple moves away. I think we needed at the time, we needed a true center to deal with a lot of the likes of Shaq and them. But I definitely think we would have had a couple of championships. Us and the Pistons would have battled it out. There is not a doubt in my mind what we could have done. Had management not made the decisions not to pay me.”

The Nets boasted talented led by all star point guard Jason Kidd. The team also heralded Kerry Kittles, Martin, Keith Van Horn and a young forward in Richard Jefferson.  In 2002 the Nets played the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals and were swept in 4 games. The Lakers were a behemoth of talent that included both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal and well-rounded supporting cast of Rick Fox, Robert Horry, Brian Shaw, Samaki Walker and Derek Fisher.

At 6’9, Martin covered everybody defensively. To quote gospel singer Shirley Cesar : You name it!  Martin revelled in the opportunity. “Oh it was a wake-up call just to see a well-played team played together,” said Martin.

“I have never been afraid when it comes to basketball, period. I’m not afraid to mix it up with guards or big men. But that experience there was a good team and we got to, but Shaq was dominant that series. We got to being out there and playing on that level, me holding my own, helping my team and putting them in a position to win. That meant a lot that I was there for my career and my confidence moving forward.”

The Nets would return to the NBA Finals in 2003 facing Tim Duncan, David Robinson and a Gregg Popovich-led San Antonio Spurs. They’d lose, but the Nets had a legitimate chance to win.

Martin thinks so too!

“Yes,” he said. “If we go home and win because we split in San Antonio. So we came home and they went up two games to one and we tied it up so it was 2-2. And we lost game five.

Added Martin:

“So that put us behind the eight ball having to go back to San Antonio to win a game. They had a good team, Tim Duncan played his ass off. He made plays, he blocked;  that is why he was the finals MVP. He played his ass off. I have to take my hat off to him, he played well. He put them on his back and they followed him. Guys made open shots when they had to and Stephen Jackson made threes in game six. It was a collective effort, but Tim [Duncan] definitely led them. But we definitely had an opportunity to win that.”

Kenyon Martin and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Credit: Eric Salvary

After the 2003 NBA Finals, things would change for the Nets. Jason Kidd would sign a 6-year, $99 million deal to stay with the New Jersey. The Nets acquired Alonzo who’d missed the season before due to his worsening kidney condition and after a 22–20 start to the season, Byron Scott was fired as head coach and was replaced with lead assistant Lawrence Frank. “We had a target on our back,” said Martin.

“People wanted to beat us and teams weren’t going to let us keep running through the east. So teams got better. “I don’t think we made enough moves to better our team, but we were right there. We still proved we were one of the better teams in the east. So it was one of those things, Indiana came in first and they came in first in the east. It was just one of those things man. Teams got better and I think we stayed the same.”

New Jersey would salvage their season after going on a 14-game winning streak at the midpoint of that season and would finish with a  47–35 record record and a Division Championship and number 2 spot in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

The Nets would sweep Hudson River rivals New York Knicks in round one of the 2004 NBA playoffs. They’d lose in round two of the NBA Playoffs to the Detroit Pistons, the eventual NBA Champions in seven games. The only constant thing in life is change. The Nets didn’t and the east got better. “Yeah that is what it is,” Martin said. “You gotta make moves man. You can’t stay the same. You have to make moves to get what you need and what you are missing. You’ve  got to make moves.”

Following the season, Martin was traded to the Denver Nuggets. When asked if he could turn back the hands of time, K-Mart was honest. “Yeah it wasn’t up to me man,” he said.

“They didn’t offer me a contract and that is what people don’t know. Like those people didn’t offer me a contract, you know what I’m saying? So when they offered me the year before, I left to go to Denver.  The summer before, they offered me 6 years $66 million. I turned it down and told them I would play the year out and see how it goes.

Added Martin:

“I made the All-Star team that year. So they made the decision not to pay me and it’s because the new management. It wasn’t because of Rock Thorn or because of Lawrence Frank, it was because of management. It was Bruce Ratner. He was the owner of the group that bought the team and they made the decision not to pay me. They didn’t even call me to offer me a contract. So I waited around and I waited around and they never called. I had to do what was best for me and my family.”

That summer that Martin was banished, they’d also trade Kerry Kittles to the Los Angeles Clippers and Rodney Rogers signed with the New Orleans Hornets. The Nets would later try to attempt a facelift by acquiring Vince Carter, but the team was never the same.

Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin. Photo Credit: NBA

Just for kicks and giggles, here’s the million dollar question: If K-Mart, Vince Carter were on the Nets with J-Kidd, would they have won a title? “Yes, without a doubt, without a doubt,” said Martin. “That is a great piece. We were running, jumping, having fun, being athletic and he would fit right in with that.”

Aside from the Nets days, Martin delved into other topics. His style of play resonates with today’s NBA. Martin thinks that it would fare in today’s league. “I can hold my own,” said Martin.

“That is the way to play the game of basketball. With another element added to it. I am a defender. I feel I can score with the ball when given the opportunities. I feel like I can hold the ball because I am not going to do things that aren’t my strong suit. I’m going to do what I do and yeah the floor is wide open for athletes to make plays and I’m going to be a two way player without a doubt. So I think I would fare well in this NBA.”

K-Mart shared with Scoop B Radio the time he and Alonzo Mourning had a war of words during morning shoot around. “It was one incident that we got into but it turned around,” said Martin.

“I think Alonzo looked at me like I should have been working as hard as he was in shoot arounds and stuff. I was never a shoot around guy I was never like that. I have never understood the purpose of shoot arounds you know, just being honest. Why are we here? I’m just going to go home and go back to sleep. That was my thing. Alonzo used to go dumb hard all the time because he was old school and he wants to go all the time. I guess I wasn’t doing that and I had sprained my ankle against Minnesota and I came back so we are practicing and it was an offensive rebounding drill and it’s me and RJ on the same team and him and whoever was on the other team. So we’re doing the drill or what not, so whoever gets the most offensive rebounds on the team’s got to run. However many rebounds you missed you had to do a round down and back or what not. So we are on the sideline laughing and joking and what not. They can’t keep us off the glass, but we were having a good time and it ain’t nothing fierce at that point.”

Kenyon Martin and Alonzo Mourning. Photo Credit: The Score

Added Martin:

“So ‘Zo got mad and go at me and was like: ‘why don’t you go and get your ass off the training table.’ I was like: ‘who the hell you talking about brah?’ So me being who I am was like: ‘you gotta be worrying about your own, my exact words were ‘You gotta worry about your own mother fucking kids and stop worrying about me.’ He didn’t like that too much.”

So who won the fight? “We didn’t even fight, there was no punches thrown so it wasn’t like that,” said Martin.

Martin said former Net Aaron Williams was instrumental in diffusing the situation. “Aaron Williams said: ‘nah just let him go,’” said Martin.

“Like boy I have seen your fight with Larry Johnson and I’ll wear you out in here. I have seen your fight. So that’s all that was. So after the fact, what I [realized that what I] had said was hurtful and so I apologized to him. That never got noted that I apologized to the man. Like maybe I took it over the line, you know what I am saying? But at that time I wanted that action like you are coming at me for no reason.”

Martin also weighed in on the comparisons made between his former Nets and Knicks teammate Jason Kidd and newly minted Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball. “I see the size comparison,” said Martin.

“He is tall and athletic like J-Kidd was coming out. I haven’t seen that. He passes the ball well. The floor is wide open right now. Kidd has that vision though. I’m not going to deny him that. I need to see a little bit more. I am a big J-Kidd fan, even before when I saw him in Dallas. I saw J-Kidd when he first came in and seeing the things he did. I guess against tougher defense. We will see the kid can play and I’m not taking anything away from him, but he needs to show me more.”

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The post Scoop B: Kenyon Martin Talks Nets Years, Vince Carter, Arguments With Alonzo Mourning, Lonzo Ball & Jason Kidd Comparisons appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

T.J. Kidd, Jason Kidd and Gary Payton conversing during NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League Game. Photo via Gary Payton/Twitter

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd is one of the NBA’s greatest point guards. 

Kidd impacted the game without being a big scorer and had a knack for making others around him better.

Remember Jason Kidd’s bowling ball pass to Lucious Harris?

That said, many have compared his style of play to  Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball.

“It’s a great compliment,” Kidd told the Los Angeles Times recently. “But everybody is different at the end of the day. There’s always comparisons of the great players in this league. Of Magic [Johnson], Michael [Jordan], Larry [Bird]. There’s always guys who come before for these young players to be compared to. It’s a great compliment. We’ll see.”  

Kidd was a human triple double machine during his career and he turned the then – New Jersey Nets into contenders.

Check Out Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson Talking Lonzo Ball with Brandon Nix on New York’s FloEmpire Radio

T.J. Kidd caught up with RESPECT Magazine’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson, talked NBA and more. Photo Courtesy of New York Daily News

Jason Kidd’s son, T.J. Kidd was a fixture at Nets games during the team’s New Jersey days at Continental Airlines Arena and Izod Center.

T.J. was featured on RESPECT magazine earlier this week and reflected on those Nets days.

Now a sophomore at a Los Angeles-area college, he’s still connected to the game and is a fan and being in the LA area, he’ll see lots of Lonzo Ball, the Lakers’ number 2 pick in this years draft. “I believe that Lonzo is a great basketball player,” TJ Kidd told me by phone yesterday.

“High basketball I.Q,. great passer. He has without a doubt the potential to be great and do great things in the NBA. I think there are some similarities between the two. But I think at the same time, they’re playing in two different eras.”

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The post Scoop B: T.J. Kidd Says It’s ‘Hard To Compare’ His Dad, Jason Kidd & Lakers’ Lonzo Ball appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

T.J. Kidd caught up with RESPECT Magazine’s Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson, talked NBA and more. Photo Courtesy of New York Daily News

The Brooklyn Nets have been busy this offseason. Just yesterday they traded for the rights to Allen Crabbe and they shipped Brook Lopez to the Los Angeles Lakers for D’Angelo Russell. While the Nets are rebuilding, thought it would be pretty cool to take a walk down memory lane!

Remember that Big Head Kidd with a mustache running around Continental Airlines Arena in the early 2000s? 

I don’t have the smallest cranium in the world, so I’ll leave the head jokes to a minimum.

However, the big headed ‘Kidd’ that I was referring to, happens to own a huge part of the fabric that was the New Jersey Nets during their Eastern Conference Championship years in 2002 and 2003.

Literally just a kid at the time, T.J. Kidd, son of former Nets point guard legend and then former Nets coach, Jason Kidd was an NBA courtside and media darling way before Riley Curry became one via social media. When the Warriors won their first championship in 2015, many gave Riley a hard time for climbing under tables and speaking into the microphone, while her dad, Warriors All-Star Steph Curry was speaking at the podium. Kidd thought it was overblown. “I was thinking she’s just being a kid,” T.J. Kidd told me by phone. “And she’s just getting to spend time with her dad as any kid should be able to do.”

As for T.J., dude was a star! Check out T.J. Kidd on MTV Cribs starting at the 5:16 Mark

“It brought back a lot of fond memories. It was all about getting to spend time with my dad. That was the most important thing, because they are always on the road playing and you don’t get to see them much during the season unless they’re playing at home. I was just lucky enough to be around him when I could, when he was playing. So I think it is important that kids in those situations get to spend time with their parents when they can.”

T.J. Kidd is all grown up now. He’s a sophomore college student in the Los Angeles-area. I caught up with T.J. Kidd and discussed a number of topics including: the nostalgia of looking at old pictures from his childhood, the state of the Nets, the Milwaukee Bucks and what it was like when his dad returned as the head coach of the now-Brooklyn Nets.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: How cool was it to live in that era? What do you remember?

T.J. Kidd: I remember bits and pieces of it. And now I see pictures that my mom will show me or one of my friends will be like: “holy s**t you got to meet Kobe!” And I’m like yeah. It was cool because that era of basketball was something special.

Jason Kidd free throw routine. Photo Courtey of Ball Is Life

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You and your dad actually had a system where he would say hello to you by blowing kisses to you from the free throw line, correct?

T.J. Kidd: Yes he did.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You see guys like Jeff Hornacek he would rub his face I think Mark Jackson he would pinpoint at the free throw line. How did the blowing of kisses from the free throw line come about?

T.J. Kidd: I think it just kind of came it was just routine like a lot of guys now and I think one day he just decided that’s what it meant

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: He just did it and you understood it?

T.J. Kidd: Yeah.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Are you interested in a career in basketball after college?  

T.J. Kidd: I’ve been looking outside of that, but I love basketball. I was born into it it’s been a part of my life ever since I was born and whatever knowledge I can share and give to people has always been a huge part for me being able to do. That has always been huge

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You’re being humble because you actually did play at Bergen Catholic High School in Northern New Jersey. What was your game like in high school?

T.J. Kidd: Team ball mostly, just making the extra pass, taking charges and going after loose balls. I wasn’t really much of a scorer.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Were you more of a passer? Were you a defender? Who would you compare your game to?

T.J. Kidd: Kind of like a Brian Scalabrine

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Veal!

T.J. Kidd: Yup Veal!

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What has your college experience been like? You’re in LA and you’re and east coast guy that must have been a transition.

T.J.Kidd: It was. LA is just a whole different animal to be coming from New Jersey everything is just so fast paced in New York and New Jersey. You just put your head down and do your thing out there, but here is just everything is so laid back and the weather is so nice

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Are you more of an In & Out Burger fan?

T.J. Kidd: I mean, I was raised on McDonalds.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: So that’s a no to in and Out Burger?

T.J. Kidd: It’s not a no. It’s just I’ll go with McDonald’s as my choice In and Out has great burgers though.

T.J. Kidd, Jason Kidd and Gary Payton conversing during NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League Game. Photo via Gary Payton/Twitter

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Okay we’ll go with that. We talked about your time growing up watching the Nets and being in New Jersey. After winning a NBA Championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, your dad, Jason Kidd actually made a transition back to the New York Metropolitan area playing for the New York Knicks. Did it feel like déjà vu?

T.J. Kidd: It did. It was definitely déjà vu especially seeing him in a Knicks uniform

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Yeah because you either had to watch the Nets on YES  or the Knicks on MSG. How cool was that experience for you because you actually got a chance to see Kenyon Martin again.

T.J. Kidd: That was very cool I think that’s actually one of my reasons why I really loved just watching him play with Kenyon again.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: That was pretty dope! Then you got déjà vu a third time. Your dad became head coach of the Brooklyn Nets in 2013. How cool was that?

T.J. Kidd: That was really cool being able to go back with the Nets with him as coach. It was almost like getting a chance to re-live my childhood again.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: That was dope and then getting a chance to see the jersey retirement as well.

T.J. Kidd: That was a fun night. It was surreal to be on the floor watching the jersey go up into the rafters.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: The thing that I think is really cool about your dad is the fact that he went from retiring and then immediately becoming an NBA head coach. Derek Fisher, similarly did the same thing a couple of years back. Is your dad a trendsetter for doing that?

T.J. Kidd: I’ll say that he was a trendsetter in that regard. I mean, I feel like a lot of those guys will be great head coaches. Like,  I think with Derek Fisher, the triangle was a tough offense to run and that he was able to do what he did in New York in such a short amount of time I think is great.   

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Yeah I think Derek Fisher’s transition was harder than your dad’s because he had Paul Pierce, Deron Williams, Kevin Garnett and Joe Johnson. He had all those other Pieces that he basically took over a system that was a threat to the Miami Heat. They Just didn’t make the cut.

T.J. Kidd: A lot of people will say yeah but they still lost but it’s like you run into LeBron eventually in the East.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What do you like to do for fun?  

T.J. Kidd: I’m playing golf, I’m watching basketball, I’m investing a lot of time into watching basketball, and I’m a big pro wrestling fan.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Really who’s your favorite wrestler?

T.J. Kidd: I’m going to have to go with John Cena.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What do you think of the Milwaukee Bucks going into next season?

T.J. Kidd: I think they got better every single game that they played last year. I think that they still have some things to learn. But I think they will be a great team in the future. They say, ‘Own the Future,’a lot. But I think but I think they’re getting closer to the future. The future is now. But I think Giannis is going to definitely be an All-Star again. He should win the NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year, this year.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: I’m fascinated by the whole Nets era. You said you remember bits a pieces. What specifically do you remember?

T.J. Kidd: I kind of remember having my own locker.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Are you serious?!

T.J. Kidd: Yeah they gave me a little one. It was an empty one. So they just put stuff that I had in there, but as I got older I didn’t really mess around with it but it was fun when I was younger.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: It had your name on it and everything?

T.J. Kidd: It was like a piece of tape I think.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Wow that’s pretty funny, you were like the honorary sixth man

T.J. Kidd: Kind of like, I remember I was always around before they would run out of the tunnel. Then I would go sit down and cuddle with my mom before my mom and dad split up.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: That Nets team to me really missed Kenyon Martin when he went to Denver that ushered in the Vince Carter era you were a little older at that point what do you remember about that era.

T.J. Kidd: It was exciting it was an exciting thing to watch because I knew my dad was going to find Vince around the rim.

Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter as members of the New Jersey Nets. Photo courtesy of COMPLEX

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Yeah him and Richard Jefferson. What was it like to see RJ play in the NBA Finals with the Cleveland Cavaliers? People call him old now!  

T.J. Kidd: Yeah it’s funny like to see Vince and RJ be old now. RJ deserved to win last year he was one of the guys that deserved a ring.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You got a chance to see your dad actually win a championship in 2011. I remember when people used to tease him and call him ‘ason Kidd’ because they took the J out of his name because he had no jumper. But in all seriousness when he played in that Dallas Mavericks / Miami Heat Finals in 2011, my man J-Kidd was hitting key jumpers. How cool was that to see him win a ring towards the end of his career with Dallas?

T.J. Kidd: It was cool. I think I was in eighth grade at the time. And I remember telling one of my friends at the beginning of the year, Dallas is gonna win a title this year. And they were like, ‘no stop!’ It was right when LeBron went to Miami and they formed the big three. So just watching the playoffs and looking at when they were down 0-2 to Portland in the first round and something just happened and they started balling. They swept the Lakers in the second round and Phil Jackson retired. And then they beat OKC 4-2 and got Miami 4-2.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Did you go to that series between Dallas and Miami?

T.J. Kidd: I was never able to make it because I had school and school comes first

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: That series stood out because everybody was jumping on the Miami bandwagon. it was their first year but when you really go back and look at the tale of the tape, I think the thing that stood out was the play of Tyson Chandler

T.J. Kidd: Yeah Tyson was huge

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What do you think the current Nets team needs to do to put a winning product on the floor/

T.J. Kidd: I think they’re headed in the right direction. They have a good coach in Kenny Atkinson and I think that they’ll eventually stop suffering from the repercussions of that Boston trade.

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: That Boston trade you said a mouthful. The Boston Celtics had the first pick in the draft and they went to the Eastern Conference Finals and had a good off season in the acquisition of Gordon Hayward. When you look back at the Boston trade to get Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Kevin Garnett, do you think the Nets made the right decision?  

T.J. Kidd: I think it was a good decision at the time absolutely but you should always take into consideration that you’re going to have to field the farm, just to be able to build and win now.

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The post Scoop B: T.J. Kidd, Son Of Jason Kidd, Talks Growing Up Around Nets, Riley Curry, Brian Scalabrine and State Of Milwaukee Bucks & Brooklyn Nets appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Above The Rim Podcast’s Justlin Lee welcomes Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson to the taping of his show in Brooklyn, New York. Photo Credit: Fred Ennette Scoop Vision Media

If you want scholarly hoops talks mixed with pop culture and conversation about hoops from the past and present, Justin Lee is your guy! The Above The Rim Podcast, recorded in the great borough of Brooklyn is the scene of the crime, and Lee, better known to the hoops world as Jus Blaze holds court on his weekly podcast which analyzes the NBA landscape while also featuring guests giving their opinions.

I appeared on episode 11 of Above The Rim Podcast and discussed round 1 of the 2017 NBA Playoffs, Clyde Drexler, Larry Johnson and the Charlotte Hornets and the New York Knicks and Phil Jackson’s growing Carmelo Anthony saga. We also discussed Lance Stephenson’s return to the Indiana Pacers and the notion that Paul George may be the second best player in the NBA’s Eastern Conference behind LeBron James. Is a New Jersey Nets’ Jason Kidd in his prime better than the Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook? Can the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics ever rise out of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ shadow? Are the Atlanta Hawks with the combo of Paul Millsap and Dwight Howard competitive enough? Will the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul and Blake Griffin finally get over the Western Conference Playoffs doldrums?

Oh yeah there’s also Joe Johnson talk!! 

You’ll love the conversation! Above The Rim Podcast is surely an NBA Podcast for the everyday fan!

Check It Out Below! 

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The post Scoop B: Talking Hoops, Catching Up With Justin Lee & Above The Rim Podcast appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.