With only 8.3 seconds remaining in the game against the Brooklyn Nets last night, head coach Jason Kidd pulled out his bag of old schools tricks in order ice Jodie Meeks at the free throw line and get one more chance to talk to his team with no timeouts left.
The Los Angeles Lakers were up 96-94 following a made free throw by Meeks, but the sharpshooter had one attempt left. In order to step up a play for the Nets and give Meeks more time to think about his second attempt with the game on the line, Kidd intentionally bumped into Tyshawn Taylor as while carrying a drink in his hand that spilled all over floor and gave Brooklyn one more chance to set something up in an attempt to send the game into overtime following the made free throw by Meeks.
Although Kidd’s trick worked, kind of, the future Hall of Famer denies planning the collision with Taylor in order to delay Meeks’ final free throw a little bit longer via Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com:
“Cup slipped out of my hand while I was getting Ty,” Kidd said of “Cupgate.” “Sweaty palms. I was never good with the ball.
“In the heat of the battle, you’re trying to get guys in and out of the game, and the cup fell out of my hand.”
Despite Kidd claiming that he didn’t intend on colliding with Taylor in order to slip the drink on the floor, the replay is telling to say the least with Kidd clearly saying, “Hit me.”
Tayler also denies purposely running into Kidd after seemingly being told to do so by the head coach via Mazzeo:
“No [Kidd didn’t say that]. I wasn’t paying attention. I just kind of bumped him. I didn’t even know he was holding [anything]. [But] coach was drinking a soda on the sideline. I was like, ‘What’s he doing?’
It’ll be interesting to see if Kidd is assessed a fine from the NBA for his actions on Wednesday night.
Although Kidd maintains that he didn’t purposely drop the drink and Taylor also claims he simply wasn’t paying attention, it seems fairly obvious the future Hall of Famer meant for this to happen. The NBA may look to set an example by fining Kidd in order to prevent any other head coaches in the league pulling the same trick in the future.
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