Jason Kidd Quotations

A lot of late nights in the gym, a lot of early mornings, especially when your friends are going out, you're going to the gym, those are the sacrifices that you have to make if you want to be an NBA basketball player.

We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees.

I think we're going in the right direction.

My biggest fear had always been getting hurt, and not being able to leave the game as a player on my own terms.

I'm a football guy at heart; maybe I should have played football for a living instead, because I play a lot of football videogames, I'm really into them.

I came in the league as not a shooter, not a scorer. My game was to play defense and make my teammates better. The most important stat to me was that left column - winning. Nothing else matters.

When I was a little kid I used to play with guys twice my age, so, I was the last one picked, so if I picked I knew that I had to get the ball to the scorer if I wanted to stay on the court, so that was pretty much my job.

The business always gets in the way of basketball.

There's always room for improvement. We have a nucleus that's pretty good. You want players that will help.

Hard work does pay, and you just have to continue to work, and you got two guys, when you're talking about Gary and myself, we have a God-given talent, but we worked at it and we're happy to be where we are today.

Oh, I think, watching Magic, him being one of my... I'm one of his biggest fans, and just trying to emulate what he did, going out on the playground, and also playing with older guys.

I've got to play free agency out, and I've got to look at all of my options.

There are many really good teams in our conference this season. Miami, Indiana and Detroit will be our fiercest opponents this year. But we just have to focus on our game and be patient with the realistic hope that we'll be on top after all is said and done.

I'm a high-risk taker on the court in the sense of trying to squeeze things in there.

Kobe enjoys that situation. Stepping up and making the big basket or being involved in a key play.

I think that realistically we can shoot for the title this year. If we stay healthy and be persistent throughout the season, I think we have good chance to go all the way.

If there wasn't any business and it was just strictly basketball, then there would be no issue, it would probably be done by now. But the team has to protect.

Yeah, I play a lot of their games. Going way back to Bulls vs. Lakers to the later Live stuff, I go at it quite a bit. More than anything tough, I play Madden.

I don't care what sport you're talking about. What you see with great franchises is structure - a structure that doesn't just take you from year to year, but day to day.

The 76ers currently play very good basketball, and we don't. However, we are still only one win behind them. If we continue to improve, we should be on the top of our division at the end of the regular season.

He understands what I like to do, and I know what he likes to do. Right now, he has the upper hand in that, and right now, I got to find a way to take away his comfort.

He gets out of bed with 20 points. I tease him all the time about how he shows up at the arena and already has 20 points. He's that good.

He can stretch a defense. He's a big threat. They missed him in Game 2.

He kept sending somebody to the (scorer's) table, and I kept shaking him off. It was like a pitching coach calling a fastball and I wanted to throw the curve.

I think both teams are pretty evenly matched in the sense of them being able to slow down the game, and for us, we want to speed it up and get into the open court. It's just a battle of whose will and whose makeup will be for 48 minutes.

That defensive switch and Jacque's two shots won the game for us.

It doesn't matter if it's Game 1, Game 2, Game 3 or a Game 7, they're all important. We'll have to try to eliminate our mistakes and get ready for Game 4.

That won the game for us, (Jefferson's defense) and Jacque's two shots.

Winning can get boring. Hopefully we learned that tonight, giving up 37 points in that fourth quarter.

We have a long ways to go. We didn't play any defense. Again, it's no gray area with us. If we don't play any defense, we're not going to win. Chalk this one under no defense.

Unless we were the Ninja Mutant Ninja Turtles, there was no mutiny.

We didn't show up. We didn't play any defense.

When you get older, you begin to appreciate (triple-doubles) more. When you can get a triple-double, that opportunity doesn't come every night. I probably stayed in longer than I should've, but I wanted to stay on the floor and try for it.

Everybody talked about his past or being soft or a guy who doesn't like to compete when it gets tough. He's shown us everything but that.

Our defense the one thing that stands out the most. Our offense will come and go, but we are stopping people at the other end.

The big thing was playing defense. That's the blueprint of this team, if we're going to have any success is getting stops. We did that at the right time.

It shows the growth and how fast we turned things around. It shows we are going back in the right direction.

It kinda caught us off-guard. As the game went along, we started to understand what was open. There was a period where we were just settling, but in the long haul, we made the right adjustments at the right time.

It's great that we won 14 in a row, but I think the big thing now is for us to keep that swagger, that hunger to get better and not get complacent. The big thing for us right now is we've got some good teams that we're about to play. So nothing against Charlotte or Atlanta, but now we got Cleveland coming in, and then we go to Milwaukee and Chicago, so we can't play the way that we have these last two games if we're going to have any chance to win.

In the back of your mind, you have confidence that you have done something right and you can look at it on tape. But at the end of the day, it is 0-0 (in the playoffs) and the first one to four.

I rather it happen now than Game 7 in the Finals or an important game. I am not trying to downgrade this game as not important but those type of things happen. We have counted on Vince in the two years that he has been here and he has room for error.

Hopefully, it will be a wake-up call for us. The big thing is for to continue to get better and play for 48 minutes. (The winning streak) is great but it can also be dangerous if you become complacent and feel you can turn it on when you want.

My job is not to scream and yell, my job is to cheer you and be positive. If you miss four shots, I'm still going to pass to you.

Every team that I've gone to has had trouble winning games. I guess that's what I've been put on this earth to do, to fix it.

I also play a little bit of Tiger Woods once in awhile. Get on the golf course there, and pretend that I'm beating him.

Winning is the best deodorant.

...and that's what separates the professionals from the taxpayers

I've learned a lot at home and been able to take what I've learned at home to the court.

Growing up, Magic Johnson was my idol. He was a good example. He could always pass the ball extremely well and get his teammates involved.

I love the competition no matter at what age.

I'm a big fan of the game. Seeing these young guys play at the level that they are, I just wish I was 22, 23 years old so I can handle the game the way they do.

Good teams beat you with speed. Great teams beat you with spacing and timing.

Michael, if you can't pass, you can't play. - Coach Dean Smith to Michael Jordan in his freshman year We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees.

Passing is contagious. There's nothing better than making the pass that gives someone an easy hoop.

I have had some bad shooting games but that doesn't stop me from getting the ball to my teammates

Yeah, I'm excited about it, my teammates are telling me to look at the basket, so that's what I'm trying to do.

I try to anticipate exactly where my teammates are going to be. Sometimes I look good. Sometimes I look bad.

Championship teams are built on being prepared, playing unselfishly and being held accountable

For the guys who were here before with the 14-game winning streak, we would love to try to tie that or break that. That is hopefully a goal we are setting.

You can't say winning is boring. Hopefully we learned that tonight, giving up 37 points in that fourth quarter, we almost pulled the plug. Hopefully that will be a wake-up call for us.

This is a goal that as a team we set, to try to come out of our division and build from there. We reached our goal, but we can't be satisfied.

You've got to keep it. You worked this hard. You don't want to just give it away. We have to come out with the mind-set of what we did in Games 2 and 4.

You've got to give them credit for coming back. We've got a lot of respect for them.

All of the sudden we win two games on the road and the streak started there.