Jason Kidd's journey as a head coach

It's not how you start, but it's how you finish. I cannot think of another way to describe the season Brooklyn Nets' coach Jason Kidd has had as a first-time head coach.

Coming into the 2013-14 regular season, the Brooklyn Nets were responsible for the most expensive roster in NBA history and hope around the organization rose as the Nets' salary cap space fell. Nets' general manager Billy King decided to bring in Kidd to replace P.J. Carlisimo as well. Doubt was the name of this game. Kidd became the object of league-wide debate whether his ability to lead as a player would translate onto the sidelines. The expectations and scrutiny placed on Kidd to deliver the Nets to as much as an NBA Finals appearance with the names he had on his roster could not have been higher. But that hope was short lived as the season began for the newly-retired NBA player.

The Nets started the season losing 21 of their first 31 games and by early November, Kidd was labeled “the worst coach in the NBA”. Kidd was also fined $50,000 for purposely spilling a drink to a force a stoppage in play and a timeout the Nets did not have. In the offseason, Kidd sought after his former coach Lawrence Frank to join his coaching staff but reassigned Frank to handling "daily reports" by Kidd in December. Kidd raised many eyebrows while under the magnifying glass of his critics. The start to the season had many questioning whether Kidd's legacy as an all-time great Net would be forever tainted.

Brooklyn had no where to go but up. In the new calendar year, the Nets are 28-12 and have climbed the Eastern Conference standings slowly but ever so steadily. The Nets have been in search of an identity from 2008, when the Dallas Mavericks acquired Kidd as a player from the New Jersey Nets, to now. The prodigal son has returned and the Nets are shaping up to be a tough out regardless of which seed they find themselves in by the end of the regular season.

“It’s a marathon,” Kidd said. ”That’s the nice thing about the NBA season. You can be judged on the first game, but the ones who know best, you’re not judged until the end.”

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