SLAMonline Top 50: Jason Kidd, no. 30

by Marcel Mutoni

Nobody stays great forever. It’s a non-negotiable fact of life. Basketball players, musicians, politicians, writers, movie stars, comedians. They all fall off and fade away at some point or other. There any number of reasons for this, but two seem to stand out: 1) age, and 2) the public simply grows tired of their act.

For Jason Kidd, it’s the former. And Kidd was great, unbelievable even. From 1995-2003, there’s a large body of evidence that strongly suggests that the man affectionately known to some as Ason Kidd may have owned an additional pair of eyes, which he glued to the back of his head prior to each and every game he played in.

Jason Kidd, in his prime, was one of the most enjoyable athletes to watch on the planet. On most days, he was credited with a triple double the minute he rolled out of bed; he was once robbed of an MVP; he led the New Jersey Freaking Nets to consecutive NBA Finals appearances (!!!); and perhaps most impressively, dude has bagged a simply stunning amount of super models over the course of his career.

None of the above matters, of course. Not for the purposes of this exercise anyway. Mavs fans certainly don’t care about what Jason accomplished prior to donning a Dallas uniform. They’re Janet Jackson right now, crooning, What Have You Done for Me Lately? Not a whole lot, it turns out.

Kidd was underwhelming in every way for the Mavericks last season, and appropriately enough, his team was ushered out of the postseason by the guy currently holding Jason’s old title of ‘Universe’s Greatest Point Guard’.

The NBA is No Country League for Old Men, and Jason Kidd and Tommy Lee Jones have about an equal chance of keeping up with the Chris Pauls and Deron Williams of the Association – none.

Which is not to say that he’s completely useless; Kidd is still a very good basketball player, perfectly capable of dazzling us with a performance here and there. His time, though, has come and gone. Clear-eyed Mavs fans know it, and soon enough, Mark Cuban will come to this realization as well (if he hasn’t already).

You guys and gals are more than welcome to stick around here and debate whether or not Jason Kidd deserves the ranking he got until you turn blue in the face; I’m going to YouTube old Mavs highlights, and try to spot how many times Jason purposely ignored Jimmy Jackson on the break while Toni Braxton sat courtside, suggestively crossing and uncrossing her legs.

Want more of the SLAMonline Top 50? Check out the archive.