Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Rumor: Jason Kidd wanted to leave Bucks to coach Suns

Heat Bucks Basketball

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd watches during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

AP

As Nets coach, Jason Kidd sought front-office control then, when that gambit failed, engineered his exit to the Bucks.

Did Kidd, whom the Bucks fired this week, try another wild ploy in Milwaukee?

Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times:

Coinciding with the erosion of his influence in the organization, several NBA sources told me Kidd wanted out of Milwaukee and was interested in the head coaching job with the Phoenix Suns.

Some speculated Kidd was paranoid that he was going to be fired. Some thought Kidd was using it as a ploy to leverage a new contract while some thought Kidd simply didn’t like Milwaukee, that the mid-sized Midwest city wasn’t a bright enough stage for him.


The Suns have an opening with Jay Triano serving as interim coach for the fired Earl Watson. Kidd also played in Phoenix.

But I can’t help but wonder whether people are just speculating, because – based on Kidd’s time in Brooklyn and other circumstantial evidence – this scenario sounds plausible. It might be more tantalizing than realistic, which wouldn’t interfere with the joy of gossiping about the possibility. People inside the NBA like juicy rumors, too.

The Suns can probably do better than Kidd. But was Kidd brash enough to believe they’d hire him if he got out of his current job? Hey, it worked once.