Jason Kidd has been involved in two embarrassing collisions in the last two years. One was into a telephone pole. The other was into point guard Tyshawn Taylor and involved a cup.
He now appears to be in the midst of crashing and burning for the third time as the Brooklyn’s head coach.
Lawrence Frank was the highest-paid assistant coach in all if sports entering this season earning a million dollars a year. However, that structure allegedly led to an awkward situation in which Kidd felt Frank’s underling.
Frank may now has the best contract for an assistant coach in all of sports after Kidd disrespectfully banished him from the bench to handle “daily reports”. In the NFL, when your defense is getting hammered, the defensive coordinator gets sacrificed to save the staff. That's essentially what Frank's role was with the Nets.
Via USA Today:
Kidd cited philosophical differences with Frank as reason for the change. A person with knowledge of the move told USA TODAY Sports that Kidd and Frank disagreed on defensive strategy, and Kidd was upset that players were going to Frank first with questions about defense.
Part of the disconnect also appear to stem from Kidd's insecure sense that Frank was exerting too much authority on the bench according to ESPN's Marc Stein and Ohm Youngmisuk.
Multiple league sources told ESPN.com that there was "friction" and a difference of philosophies between Kidd and Frank since the start of the season. Sources say the relationship soured after assistant coach Joe Prunty was chosen as interim coach instead of Frank when Kidd served a two-game suspension to start the season. Two sources say Frank appeared to be hurt by the decision.
The relationship was further frayed by a blowup between the two at the team facility after Kidd returned from the suspension, sources confirmed. That incident was first reported by Yahoo! Sports.
Multiple team sources also say Nets players side with Kidd, respect the first-year head coach and prefer to hear one voice. Kidd initially allowed Frank and assistant coach John Welch to handle the defensive and offensive duties. But Frank had the most head-coaching experience on the staff, and often his voice was the loudest at practices. Two sources say Nets players felt Frank was over-coaching earlier in the season.
It’s good to know someone was coaching. This isn’t very surprising at all. You don’t hire a former player to coach a championship-ready roster and then surround him with his former head coach when he was a member of that same franchise to be an assistant coach to show him the ropes. It’s compounded by the fact that Frank is not that much older than Kidd. Frank wants another chance to be a head coach in this league and probably deserves one. It had to be difficult for him to tutor Kidd instead of just taking the reins himself. In retrospect, and even at the time, it appeared like a strange setup.
This entire situation has been a bumbling mess from the start and the Nets are kidding themselves if they believe Frank’s dominant personality was at the root of their troubles. As a player, Kidd retired second on the all-time career assists list behind John Stockton, but who knew he this good at passing the buck?
