Jason Kidd has withdrawn his name from consideration for the Portland Trail Blazers vacant head coaching job. Although there were rumors of Kidd and others being named for various jobs around the league, the announcement comes as a bit of a surprise. Kidd, who is an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, was the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for four years and before that the Brooklyn Nets for a season.
Woj of ESPN announced the news and Kidd had an interesting quote regarding the situation.
Lakers assistant Jason Kidd has withdrawn his name from consideration for Portland’s head coaching vacancy, Kidd tells ESPN. “Portland’s a first-class organization and will have great candidates…but I’ve decided not to be one of them.” https://t.co/UQgZ0YNxv5
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 6, 2021
It will be interesting to see if Kidd does take a head coaching job in the near future. However, it won’t be in Portland. Damian Lillard expressed interest in having Kidd as a head coach almost immediately after coach Terry Stotts was let go. The ESPN report mentioned this incident as making Kidd uncomfortable with pursuing the opening.
Jason Kidd is a Hall of Fame point guard and considered one of the best to ever play the position. While he hasn’t had much success in head coaching, perhaps his true value is in an assistant position. Or, he’d rather go back to the Eastern Conference perhaps.
