Last summer, after he had signed on to play for the Knicks in what turned out to be his final season as a player, Jason Kidd was arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI) after he crashed his SUV into a tree. Fortunately, nobody was injured.
Now comes time to pay that bill and Kidd is going to own up to what he did — which likely means a suspension by the league will follow.
Kidd will enter his plea to the court Tuesday, reports the New York Daily News after speaking with Kidd’s attorney.“He will say that the drinks he had that night rendered him intoxicated,” his attorney, Edward Burke Jr., was saying on Monday morning. “What Jason is going to do is stand up and own this.”
About time. Burke, who comes out of Sag Harbor, L.I., and has handled a lot of high-profile cases in his time on the South Fork of eastern Long Island, explained that as part of the plea arrangement with the office of the Suffolk County District Attorney, Kidd has agreed to make school appearances on Long Island in the fall, which will be taped and can be used later as public-service announcements if the DA’s office chooses to use them that way.
Good. Kidd should have a price to pay for getting a DWI.
The league will almost certainly suspend Kidd for the first couple regular season games after the plea is entered. The league has traditionally suspended players a couple of games for DWIs and that is not likely to be different here.
Which means it will probably be the Nets Game 3 when he makes his coaching debut. As Bondy notes, that is a small price to pay