“It wasn’t about money. It wasn’t about headlines. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to win, and that’s why I played.”
In life, in order to reach some sort of success, you must have self-discipline. Self-discipline is defined as “the ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it,” by Google dictionary. However, self-discipline is not something you magically attain as you grow. As a kid growing up in San Francisco going all the way to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Jason Kidd’s story is one that encapsulates self-discipline and everything that comes with it.
In grade school, we were all asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Some marveled at the idea of being an actor while others dreamed of being a firefighter, astronaut, or teacher. By the second grade, all Jason Kidd wanted to do was be a professional athlete. While sitting in class, Kidd would draw himself on a court, making sure to include whatever jersey number he aspired to wear. When I spoke with Jason, he recalled “role-playing how they were going to introduce my name when I took the field or came onto the court.” When it was recess time, he envisioned himself as Magic Johnson or Julius “Dr. J” Erving.
To work toward this walloping dream, Jason spent nearly all of his free time playing sports. Even on days when he wasn’t up for another soccer practice, he persevered. His parents taught him what commitment meant, and if they could work all day and still make sure Jason was on time for every practice, the least he could do was return the favor by giving it his all.
As he grew older, Jason shifted the majority of his focus to basketball. He would spend countless hours on the court, working on all aspects of his game. Kidd noted, “I was always traveling to play in a basketball tournament somewhere. I thought that was just the norm as a kid growing up. I loved to play. I would play anywhere.” By the time he was in middle school, Jason’s passion for the game had helped mold him into one of the best players in all of California. Still, that wasn’t good enough for Kidd, who recalls attending a basketball camp in Kansas while he was a seventh grader. It was an opportunity for young Jason to play with some of the most talented high school players in the nation. He said, “To be the best, I wanted to play against the best throughout the country.”
His eventual high school basketball coach, Frank LaPorte, recalls the first time he saw Jason at a summer youth tournament. In a 1991 interview for the San Francisco Chronicle, LaPorte said, “He did some things out there that even amazed coaches. One approached me and wondered if he was a junior [in high school]. I said, ‘No he’s a freshman.’ Everybody knew. As an eighth grader, Jason Kidd was the talk of the town.”
Because of LaPorte’s vision and belief in Kidd’s abilities, Jason, a freshman in high school, was put in front of cameras to do media interviews. LaPorte knew the sky was the limit for his new star player and wanted to get him comfortable and prepared for what he will have to go through for years to come.
By the time Kidd was an upperclassman, all of America had started to take notice. As a junior, he finished the year averaging 25 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists, and 6 steals per game. After practices, Kidd would set aside time to open up fan mail. Kidd, when asked about the fan mail, told the LA Times in 1991, “Younger kids mostly write and tell me I am their hero. They tell me they’re my number one fan and that they want to be my friend.”
St. Joseph’s gym had a seating capacity of just eight hundred, but, because of the attention on Kidd, games against rival schools had to be played in larger venues. In a January win over Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, Kid dropped 35 points and hauled down 11 rebounds in front of a crowd of five thousand at Cal State Hayward. This doesn’t include the hundreds of fans who were shut out at the door.
Media requests for interviews with the St. Joseph star were so excessive that Coach LaPorte had to stop answering his phone and returning texts.
With Kidd’s incredible play, Alameda St Joseph, with a record of 30 wins to 3 losses, made it all the way to the state championship to square off against Los Angeles Fremont. Up to this point, Southern California teams had dominated the Northern California squads in the state final, having won nine straight contests.
Early in the game, it looked like that trend would continue. Fremont led by 6 at half-time and racked up a 10-point lead late in the third quarter. However, St. Joseph’s 10 to 0 run had the score knotted up. It was then Kidd’s time to shine in front of nearly fifteen thousand fans and show why he was considered the nation’s top player. In the final three minutes of the state championship, Kidd, who was playing with 4 fouls, notched in 7 points, 3 steals, and 2 assists. He would finish the contest with a game-high 25 points, 8 rebounds, 7 steals, 4 assists, and 1 block. Kidd’s epic performance gave St. Joseph their first state title in school history. In a post-game interview with the LA Times in 1991, Fremont coach Sam Sullivan said the obvious: “Kidd is a fantastic ballplayer who carried his team and won them a championship.”
Following the game, hundreds of avid, hopped-up fans waited outside the coliseum for Kidd’s autograph. It was an exciting time for the Bay Area. Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and the San Francisco 49ers had just won Super Bowl XXIV. Rickey Henderson, Dave Stewart, Mark McGwire, and Dennis Eckersley had pioneered the Oakland Athletics and won the 1989 World Series. And now, there was eighteen-year-old Jason Kidd, as popular as anyone in the state.
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton, a native of the Bay Area, summarized it best in a 2018 interview with ESPN. “Joe Montana was doing the things in the ‘80s—winning Super Bowls,” Payton said. “I had left [for college] in ’86, and then J came in and all of the sudden, they [Montana and Kidd] were the biggest things in the Bay Area at the time.”
Despite all this attention, Kidd stayed grounded. In our interview, he said, “Whenever I saw the newspapers, I just read about Joe Montana and how successful he was as a professional. That’s what I paid attention to. It wasn’t so much me being in the newspaper. I focused on the superstars in the Bay Area that I wanted to be like.”
In the summer following the state championship, Kidd was given the opportunity to practice with the Golden State Warriors. Playing with guys like Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin, Kidd was quickly humbled. “As someone who just won a state title, you feel like you’re on cloud nine. I got to see I still had a long way to go.”
Eager to improve his game, Kidd also spent that summer practicing with Gary Payton, who was five years older than Jason and a member of the Seattle SuperSonics. Rather than taking it easy on the teen, Payton showed no mercy. After one day of working out with the former number two overall pick in the 1990 NBA draft, Kidd went home to his parents and cried. Payton did not let him score one basket and, in typical Gary Payton fashion, talked a lot of trash, constantly reminding Kidd that he was still just a high schooler. Kidd recalls the advice his parents offered as they looked at their son with tears in his eyes: “You gotta go back. You’re not just gonna sit here.”
From then on, Kidd approached each practice with a positive attitude. “Showing how far away I was just made me that much hungrier,” he said. The goal of becoming a professional athlete was still his focus, and surrounding himself with the best was an easy way to elevate his game. Spending time with people who are better in a particular field causes one to push themselves harder while also focusing on the fundamental aspects of the challenge ahead.
As a senior, with thousands of “Jason Kidd” jerseys and posters being sold at school, Kidd did not disappoint his fan club. While averaging 25 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds, and 7 steals, Kidd led St. Joseph to another state championship. To add to his trophy case, Kidd received the Naismith Award, an award given to the nation’s top high school player and was named the state’s player of the year for the second time in a row.
With dozens of schools begging for his talents, Kidd decided to stay in-state and attend the University of California, Berkeley.
Despite coming off two straight losing seasons,