One of the most beautiful things about professional sports is the respect the younger generation has for the players they watched growing up. In one such case, former Sacramento Kings point guard Jason Williams touched upon his love for rival PG Jason Kidd who was the 2011 champion with Dirk Nowitzki. Williams appeared on ‘The OGs’ podcast and joined his former teammates Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller to discuss his adulation towards Kidd.
Advertisement
When the trio were discussing their favorite players, Williams revealed that he had been a huge Jason Kidd fan ever since Kidd was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in 1994.
“Growing up, yeah gotta be Jason Kidd. That’s the only jersey I ever owned was the Dallas Mavericks 5 jersey,” revealed Jason Williams.
The former passing maestro also highlighted that he wasn’t aware of Kidd’s ethnicity, but the guard’s playstyle had a deep impact on him. Kidd’s ability to scoop up a rebound, go hard at the rim, and at the same time, make passes from difficult angles made a deep impression on the electric passer.
He added, “I didn’t know the bro was white or black when he was at cow. All I saw bro was gonna get that jun off the glass, dribble that up the floor, and maybe dunk on you or throw that thing.”
Since Williams went up against Kidd 36 times, he came up with a rather underhanded strategy to stop him. He used his middle finger and thumb on Kidd’s rib cage to unsettle him because he knew no other way of countering. Williams disclosed, “My goal was to put these fingers in his side in his rib cage.”
This was the only tactic that the guard came up with because he was afraid that if he let Kidd loose for just a moment then he would draw a double-team and then hit the open man through his incredible vision. Despite playing against such a threat, Williams managed to hold his own for most parts.
Jason Williams-Jason Kidd head-to-head yielded surprising results
Throughout their career, Williams and clashed 36 times. In those 36 instances, there were 20 games when Williams and his squad came on top against the resilient PG and his team. In the Regular Season affairs, Kidd and his team did come on top with the barest of margins, having a 14-13 edge.
However, Williams and his squad had a substantial playoff record edge of 7-2 games. In the 2001 Western Conference first round, Williams’ Kings defeated Kidd’s Suns 3-1. Meanwhile, in 2006, Williams’ Heat defeated Kidd and the Nets in six games.
In both instances, “White Chocolate” played for the much-loaded rosters while Kidd was carrying much leaner teams. In terms of individual stats, Kidd’s points per game were 12.9 to Williams’ 11.5. He grabbed 6.6 rebounds a game compared to Williams’ 2.2. Meanwhile, in terms of assists, the former Nets Guard had 10.3 while Williams dished 4.6, indicating that the rebounding and assists numbers had a huge gulf.
Therefore, while Williams’ teams did win more, Kidd was arguably a better player by a mile. The two performed different duties for their squads, Kidd was usually the floor operator while Williams could afford to relinquish playmaking duties often. One huge similarity between the two was their brilliant passing that left fans wanting more.
