The second week of summer basketball has begun. We’ve seen NBA veterans trying to stick around. We’ve seen rookies trying to prove their worth. We’ve seen an NBA offseason that is, officially, less than a week old but has still given us a mountain of stories.
It’s been an amazing off-season. But as we head into the Las Vegas portion of the summer, a pair of jokers has shown us that stupidity never takes a break.
Jason Kidd, originally signed to mentor Jeremy Lin, has been busted for DWI.
Knicks point guard Jason Kidd was arrested on a drunken-driving charge after police said he crashed his SUV into a telephone pole in the Hamptons on Sunday, days after signing with the Knicks.
Treated at a hospital for minor injuries after the crash, Kidd was arraigned on a misdemeanor driving-while-intoxicated charge and released without bail, Southampton Town police said.
I know the Knicks are probably not going to match Houston’s huge offer sheet on Lin, but maybe they should. They might need him to mentor Jason Kidd.
Kidd’s no stranger to trouble. He was arrested 11 years ago for hitting his then wife during a domestic dispute. He tried to make up for that by blowing her a kiss when he took free throws. Now that he’s been busted for DWI, we’ve got exclusive footage of his new free throw routine.
That might result in a 10 second call.
Kidd signed with the Knicks last week. He’s made a significant amount of money. No matter how drunk you are, you can’t dial 666-6666? His name and mug shot are now splattered across New York’s front pages. The Knicks have been a franchise filled with folly, and they’re not getting better right now trying to “win now” with pieces that are in no way ready to do so. The Kidd (and Marcus Camby) signing (to THREE year deals, no less) was, in a way, following the Celtics mode of bringing in veterans to fill key roles around other major contributors.
But unlike the Celtics, the Knicks continue to find the wrong guys. Kidd’s embarrassment is magnified by a big apple-sized looking glass. And when you add it to Amar’e Stoudemire’s disastrous ending to last season, the Brooklyn Nets might start to drive a little wedge between the Knicks and their fans.
Stoudemire’s little boxing match with a fire extinguisher was only slightly more stupid than Kyrie Irving’s 1-on-1 with a wall.
Irving, the team’s young star and the NBA’s reigning rookie of the year, broke his right hand slapping a padded wall in practice on Saturday and is expected to miss two months.
“It just really alters all the plans we had this summer as far as summer league was concerned,” Cavs coach Byron Scott told reporters in Las Vegas on Sunday before the team opened summer league play against Charlotte. “That was Plan A. We didn’t have a Plan B going into this because you just never imagine that happening.”
[…] “That was just something stupid on his part,” Scott said. “As soon as I saw it …. I didn’t see him initially hit the thing, but I saw when he came down the court he was kind of holding his hand. I said, `What did you do?’ The first thing he said was, `Something stupid.’ So he knew right away it was something he shouldn’t have done — just a little anger at not making a pass or the pass wasn’t completed.
I like Kyrie Irving, and generally speaking, he’s not a stupid kid (unless you count challenging Kobe Bryant to a game of 1-on-1 stupid). But this was a stupid thing to do and it’s robbing Cavs, and NBA fans, of his budding stardom (watch what he does to Kobe, Kevin Durant, and James Harden at the :23 mark here).
All it takes is a split second of stupidity to cost you and your team. So instead of Cavs fans thinking about finally taking that step forward and getting back to some of the pre-“Decision” success… they’re hoping that he doesn’t miss too much time in the regular season. For a team like the Cavs, any time without Irving will be costly.
The Las Vegas Summer League is in full swing, but this pair of Jokers has taken the focus off basketball for a little while.
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