During Dallas Mavericks intro, coach Jason Kidd addresses 2001 domestic violence plea
Jason Kidd, the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, knew the questions were coming. And so did Mavs owner Mark Cuban and team president Cynt Marshall.
How does the team square Kidd’s past guilty plea for domestic violence with the organization’s stated emphasis on accountability and zero tolerance for such indiscretions?
Kidd was contrite, if not candid, for the unnamed mistakes in his past during a 40-minute press conference introducing Kidd and general manager and team president of basketball operations Nico Harrison.
They sat at a dais between Marshall and Cuban on the floor of the American Airlines Center Thursday morning.
“The journey I’ve been on has not always been perfect, but we learn from our mistakes,” said Kidd, who was drafted by the Mavs in 1994 and played parts of eight seasons with the club, including the team’s lone title in 2011.
In 2018, Kidd was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He has second-most number of assists in the history of the league and he made all-NBA first team for five straight season from 1999-2003.
Kidd had been an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers before the Mavs announced the hire two weeks ago. It’s his third time as head coach. He coached the Brooklyn Nets in the 2013-14 season and the Milwaukee Bucks for three and a half seasons, going 183-190 overall.
Kidd said he’s still assembling his Mavs coaching staff.
As for his past, which includes a conviction for domestic violence for striking his wife in 2001, and later a driving while intoxicated conviction in 2012, Kidd conveyed that he has learned and grown by being honest about his anger management.
“This is a serious matter. The first step is you have to get help. If you don’t get help, nothing changes. You have to get help,” he said. “A lot of people are afraid to talk. It’s alright to talk. Because when you carry that type of weight, nothing good comes from that.”
Marshall said she had several phone conversations with Kidd about his past. She signed off wholeheartedly on Kidd, and said he’ll live up to the organizations values she outlined as character, respect, authenticity, fairness, team work and safety — both physical and emotional safety.
“We talked about those values and how we demonstrate those. We talked about our code of conduct. And what we expect from people who are on the payroll,” she said. “We talked about his past, some of the history. He walked me through his journey. At the end of that process I very much felt we were doing the right thing.”
Marshall, who was hired by Cuban in the wake of an organization-wide scandal in 2018 that detailed a hostile workplace, including sexual harassment and domestic violence. She was hired to clean up the mess and announced a zero-tolerance policy at the time.
“I didn’t feel like we were undermining our zero-tolerance policy or our values or our code of conduct at all,” she said Thursday. “I think we’ve brought in two leaders whose values are aligned with ours.”
Marshall said she judged Kidd’s character based on their conversations and consulted with a couple experts, although she did not classify the fields of the experts.
Kidd called the conversations “great” and said he hopes he can lead his players and co-workers better by learning from his past issues.
“No one is perfect. To be able to talk about mistakes so someone else can learn from [them] is big, as a coach, as a parent,” he said. “These are the opportunities we need more of. I’m here to help as a basketball coach, as a father, and as a teammate.”
Cuban addressed the subject while carefully staying away from naming Kidd’s past transgressions. He leaned heavily on Marshall’s credibility.
“It was something we were going to have to understand before we could make a decision,” Cuban said. “I turned to the person who really is one of the rocks of this organization.”
Cuban made it clear that it was former coach Rick Carlisle’s decision to leave. In the case of the previous GM Donnie Nelson, Cuban was more proactive.
“I just thought it was time for a new voice,” he said, of Harrison, who has been with Nike for 19 years. “How you build a championship team has changed. Sometimes you have to look to have a different tool set.”
Cuban thinks Kidd has the personality to engage today’s NBA player.
“He’s a voice that could lead our players and create a culture on the court and off the court that really motivates them to perform,” he said.
Marshall was asked how women upset at Kidd’s hiring should feel.
“I can’t speak to all of the women out there. As a domestic violence survivor myself, I can tell you what I’ve told myself,” she said. “It’s inappropriate, it’s not right what [my family] went through and we’ve gone through our own process, our own journey. My heart goes out to anyone who has suffered at the hands of another person.”
Despite the nature of some of the questioning, Kidd expressed his excitement of his new job.
“I’m a kid in the candy store because this is a dream come true,” he said. “I know we have the best fans in the country and I can’t wait for the opportunity to raise another banner here.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 4:34 PM.
