Ousting Kidd would be ultimate payoff for Scotthttp://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8063704?MSNHPHMA
by Ian O'Connor
Updated: April 23, 2008, 1:35 PM EST 97 comments add this RSS blog email print On the afternoon of May 26, 2002, I thought Byron Scott was a complete joke. His New Jersey Nets had just blown a 26-point lead to the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, had just staged the biggest playoff collapse in NBA history, and these were Scott's two strategic moves in response:
1) He slept until 11 a.m.
2) He canceled practice at 11:30 a.m.
Coaches are supposed to do a lot of things after their teams choke, but sleeping in and rewarding their players with a paid holiday are not among them.
With the Celtics holding a 2-1 series lead, I thought Scott was hopelessly overmatched. I figured this would be the day that ultimately cost him his job, a notion hardened by the confession of one of his stars, Kenyon Martin, who was already talking in the past tense.
"It feels like we lost the series," Martin said.
Somehow, some way, his wasn't a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Nets won Game 4, Game 5 and Game 6.
Scott declared himself as a head coach right then and there. He didn't care that he'd be ridiculed for giving his players a mental health break in the wake of the Game 3 disaster, and for publicly admitting he repeatedly hit the snooze button rather than rise before dawn and watch that horror film of a tape.
Scott felt the pulse of his devastated team. He thought it needed love, not war, and his choice landed a practical joke of a franchise in the middle of its first NBA Finals.
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The New Orleans Hornets hold a 2-0 lead over the Dallas Mavericks because Scott's young point guard, Chris Paul, is embarrassing Scott's old point guard, Kidd, who had ordered Nets president Rod Thorn to dump his coach in a different life.
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New Jersey missed the playoffs with a 34-48 record after six consecutive trips because Kidd put his own agenda a country mile ahead of his team's. He wanted to play with Kobe Bryant last year, then decided he would stand a better chance with Dirk Nowitzki this year. It looks like the worst kind of bet. Not only is Kidd facing an early exit, but Scott is the one bum-rushing him out the door.
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But Kidd got his way and installed his man, Lawrence Frank, who hadn't made it out of the second round before he finished 14 games under .500 this year.
Frank and Eddie Jordan were the Nets assistants said to do much of the heavy lifting, with Scott merely in charge of dressing the part. Only now, Frank and Jordan are hurting in the lightweight East while Scott is living large in the wild, wild West.
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