Jason Kidd at 40: How the Nets shaped his career

Fred Kerber has covered Jason Kidd as both a Net and a Knick and on Sunday, the Post writer profiles Kidd on the occasion of his 40th birthday, which is next Saturday. In it, Kerber writes a lot about Kidd's time in New Jersey, quoting Rod Thorn and Byron Scott among others.

It's hard to recall any other time when the addition of a single player turned a franchise around, going from 26 wins to 52 and a conference championship in a single year. The roster barely changed that year, other Kidd replacing Marbury, but the Nets mindset changed, starting with the team dinner in training camp when Kidd said simply, "the losing stops now." And it did.

A lot of the profile deals with some of the uglier incidents of his time with the Nets: his role in getting the club to dump Scott ("Our top players, not only Jason, had lost confidence in Byron," says Thorn); his final days with the team, including the "migraine" game ("He told me, ‘I don’t want to play here anymore, you guys don’t want to win.’" says Thorn); and his other divorce, from Joumanna ("It was never a problem with us because it never went onto the court," Thorn again.)

But perhaps the most interesting quote comes from a kid who watched Kidd play at the Continental Airlines Arena, even shares his birthday, Kerber notes. "What always hit me was the pace, how he controlled the game and how smart he was as a player," says Kyrie Irving, who turns 21 Saturday. "His quickness? Unbelievable. Crazy."

• Veteran guard’s storied career has had ups & downs - Fred Kerber - New York Post