Jason Kidd: "I felt like I was home, I really did"

In an exclusive interview with Mike Lupica Thursday morning, Jason Kidd spoke of how nervous he was on Monday as he arrived at PNY Center in East Rutherford for his interview with Billy King, the interview that would set the stage for his hiring as Nets coach. Then, as he got out of the car, things changed.

"I felt like I was home, I really did," Kidd said. "I felt like I was home all over again once I was inside my old practice facility. This was the place where we practiced when we made our runs to the Finals. Whatever nerves I felt on the way over there, they really did settle inside me once I walked up the stairs."

According to reports, it was Kidd's "aura" or "supreme confidence" that impressed the Nets brass which at one point included Mikhail Prokhorov on the phone from Moscow.

But, Kidd tells Lupica, pursuing the Nets vacancy wasn't on his list of things to do when he thought of retiring ... with two years left on his contract with the Knicks. Golf was. It was his agent who suggested that the two of them start thinking about the future now rather than later. Jeff Schwartz certainly knew what was going on with the Nets. He represented Deron Williams, C.J. Watson, Tyshawn Taylor, Mirza Teletovic and Jerry Stackhouse last season.

"I thought to myself, all right, ‘let's take a look at your resume, Jason,’" he told Lupica. "’You have no financial background. You have basketball, that's what you have, for your whole life.’ So next was going to be basketball. Jeff started to put out some feelers. Obviously one of his first calls was to Billy. And then things started to move up warp speed after that."

By Monday, he was back at the PNY Center. By Wednesday, the job was his. Of course, not everyone believes Kidd will be the success he and King think he will be. Punditry ran wild before Thursday's press conference.

• New Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd says ‘I’m home’ in exclusive interview with the Daily News - Mike Lupica - New York Daily News
• Nets Owner Calls Jason Kidd a Born Coach - David M. Herszenhorn - New York Times
  
• Jason Kidd must prove to be vocal leader as coach of Brooklyn Nets - Ian Thomsen - Sports Illustrated
• A bold move made maybe a bit too early - Doug Smith - Toronto Star
• Nets Look To Kidd For Another Culture Change - John Schuhmann - NBA.com
• The NBA Coaching Carousel, Vol. 2: Jason Kidd edition - Kelly Dwyer - Yahoo! Sports
• Are You Kidd-ing? Nets GM Billy King Presses Panic Button With Hiring - Steve Lichtenstein - WFAN
• Brooklyn Nets smart to hire Jason Kidd - Ian O'Connor - ESPN New York
• Kidd’s success with Nets will depend on his relationship with Deron - Mike Vaccaro - New York Post