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| Jason Kidd could wind up in a suit on sideline. (Getty Images) |
The Knicks are so old their players spend a lot of time coaching. No, really.
In a profile for The Wall Street Journal, both Jason Kidd and Kurt Thomas are revealed as players with a keen interest in a future on the sideline. What's more, they're singled out as players teams could also target:
Two league executives said they believe Kidd, a future Hall of Famer, will be pursued in some capacity once he retires as a player. One said Thomas—who has played for San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, Miami's Pat Riley, Chicago's Tom Thibodeau and former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy—would get looks, too, given his pedigree and reputation.
The profile also talks about Kidd and Thomas spending time with coaches drawing up plays and how Raymond Felton describes Kidd as a coach already.
This one isn't hard to see coming down the pipeline. You have to be a pretty smart guy to have survived in the NBA as long as Thomas has and to constantly wind up on teams that win. Thomas is targeted by good teams because of the breadth of his knowledge and his work ethic.
And Kidd is Jason Kidd. Yes, he was a phenomenally talented athlete and player (still is), but his career has constantly evolved on account of his intelligence and basketball IQ. He's led teams from Phoenix to New Jersey to Dallas to New York and has the player-coach aspect to fall back on.
These things won't guarantee them being good coaches; a lot goes into that. But this is part of the formula for getting in the door.
