Jason Kidd Traded! Or, we Finally Got DeSagana Diop!

Jason Kidd and Malik Allen were traded today for:

– Devin Harris (niiice)
– DeSagana Diop (strong + expiring contract)
– Jerry Stackhouse (can we buy him out? We already have a North Carolina shot-taker)
– Devean George (expiring contract)
– Maurice Ager
– $3 million in cash
– 2010 first-rounder

WHEW. They’re buying out Stackhouse, and he’ll likely rejoin the Mavericks. And Antoine Wright might go to the Mavs for a second round pick. I’ll Miss ‘Toine Wright.

Kidd gets what he wants. The team looks entirely different today; the Nets have been officially blown up. Will Devin Harris be the future at the point or will Marcus Williams? Will Carter and Jefferson be able to coexist without Kidd slinging passes? Will the Nets tank the rest of their games and try to get Michael Beasley? Will fans come to games before the Nets move to Brooklyn?

Jason Collins traded for Stromile Swift

Jason Collins, it was a nice run as an unoffensive center, a fine man, and the beginning of a tradition of Twin Centers from Stanford. You held up to Shaq in the finals, and when a role player gets traded, it’s usually near the end—the next team never knows what to do with one team’s role player. Unless that role player can do something more than set screens. You’ve bricked a lot of free throws, but you were part of the Jersey resurgence; no one can giggle when they hear the name Nets now; that treatment is reserved for the Knicks.

Enjoy Memphis, now that you have been traded for F/C Stromile Swift, disappointing #2 overall pick from LSU. Who is part of a line of disappointing young players from LSU (see: Thomas, Tyrus).

I used to get excited about Stromile Swift in a Nets uniform– he’s been a rumor coming here forever– but after 7 years, if you’re not making waves in the Association, you never will.

Jason Kidd Comes With the Truth: He Wants to be Traded

From NJ.com and ESPN, Jason Kidd states:

“I’m not mad at anybody,” Kidd told the Web site. “Sometimes, when you ride a wave, you get to the end and that’s all there is. That’s where we are.”

“It used to be if I got a triple-double, that was an automatic win,” Kidd said. “That’s just not the case now. We tried to make this work. We’ve found out it doesn’t. It’s time for us all to move on.”

This has been “does he want to be in Jersey” question has been dragging out for a long time.

More:

Kidd is not exactly being treated like a pariah, but word spread quickly among his teammates about his trade request — even though the team deliberately didn’t pass out the daily press clips — and one teammate found it odd that he was seen eating breakfast alone yesterday at the team’s hotel.

A letter from a reader to the Newark Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro on Jason Kidd, the rumors of his petulant behavior and off-court life, and this article from Charley Rosen, which talks about Kidd halfway down:

Hi, Dave: Who is the real J-Kidd? With such awesome virtues displayed on the court — i.e. selflessness, composure, max effort, competitiveness, sacrifice, desire, awareness, vision, anticipation — I assume that he’d be kinda similar in ‘real’ life. If you didn’t see it already, check out Rosen’s 2 paragraphs on Kidd: What a nasty picture painted. Despite Hall of Fame caliber play, he’s been traded from every team he’s played on (and counting), the numerous past and current personal problems, issues with so many of his coaches, the migraine strike. . . .Hmmm. Who is this guy?
Rich Wong

RW: The short answer? Don’t know, don’t care. Great player, good guy, but that’s where my interest really ends. There are certain things even public figures should keep private, and the rest of us have to accept that you can’t know someone unless they let you in; that you can’t know a people, a place, a family, an individual, a process, or anything until you know precisely the forces that shaped their motives and spirit. So the truth is, the only people who know the guy are the ones who know the secret handshake. And since that’s the case, we reach for the impertinent crap that we think defines his character – stuff such as tantrums in the boss’s office (inane – he wasn’t even in the office that day), his girlfriend’s pregnancy (also totally untrue), crotch-grabbing at 2 a.m. (can’t wait to read that court transcript), the great migraine strike of ’07 (which will forever be unsubstantiated), and oh, dear diary, I can’t wait to read what tomorrow will bring. The point being: This has been a really stupid two years, Kidd has been engulfed by the trappings of fame or victimized by a public thirst for the sensational (take yer pick), and rest of us are sick of playing How’s Jay’s Head every two weeks. His amazing real-life adventures don’t really have any impact on his team, and he is tired of being in the presence of those who believe the opposite to be true. Which is why he hasn’t spoken with the media in a week and may not do so until the last ding-dong of eternity.

One MORE Post

Thanks to Kelly Dwyer’s blog on Yahoo’s NBA Experts section, I have now seen Richard Jefferson give the Atlanta Hawks’ Shelden Williams the poster dunk. Extra points for having the ball bounce off of the former Duke player’s body, recovering on the ground.

Jason, Now With More Kidds

Rumor has it that Jason Kidd has a new girlfriend named Hope Dworaczyk– a model who may have been one of the other women he was tricking around with when his ex-wife Joumana claimed he was a cad. Anyway, Hope is expecting. Come on, J-Kidd, you just got divorced, and you’ve got two kids, and you love the NYC party life. Wear a glove, man. Don’t be Larry Johnson. You don’t see Richard Jefferson with baby mamas. For all you know, you might get traded to Dallas this year. Models don’t want to leave New York for Dallas.

If you want more salacious details of Jason Kidd’s love life, check out the Big Lead’s coverage.