Milwaukee welcomes Jason Kidd into the fold, nobody told the acting coach!
Okay, follow me on this because there should be a pop quiz afterward that would confuse you like a chemistry experiment. After the Nets allowed Jason Kidd to talk to the Bucks, Kidd was soon hired as coach.
There was only one problem here; the Milwaukee Bucks already had a coach in Larry Drew, who they had just hired in the previous offseason. Here’s where it gets good. It was reported that Drew and most of the Bucks front office had no clue that the negotiations were going on. The Bucks compensated the Nets with two second-round draft picks.
Jason Kidd won the Bucks over with accepting the challenge of coaching Milwaukee’s No. 2 overall draft pick, Jabari Parker, out of Duke. Based on Kidd’s second-half performance and playoff run, it looked like a very good idea to all involved.
Except to Larry Drew, who got thrown under the bus and fired in an ugly mess.
The next season, Jason Kidd coached a young Milwaukee Bucks team to the playoffs that featured Giannis Antetokounmpo winning the NBA’s Most Improved Player award and Malcolm Brogdon winning Rookie of the Year honors. A seven-game push of the Toronto Raptors also occurred.
Kidd became the first coach to lead two different teams to the playoffs in his first two years.
Kidd was given a ton of credit of developing the “Greek Freak” and grooming him into the dominant dunk-filled player that we all know and love today.
Eventually, the roster got stronger with Parker getting better. With a second straight playoff appearance, the Bucks were looking for big things in the third year, especially when they pulled a good trade, bringing Eric Bledsoe in from Phoenix.
There was one thing, though.