It was another offseason full of change for the Los Angeles Lakers as they decided to overhaul not only the roster but the coaching staff as well.
Head coach Frank Vogel received the extension he rightfully deserved but saw his lead assistant Jason Kidd leave for the Dallas Mavericks. Kidd was originally seen as a threat to Vogel’s job, but the two were actually able to build a good working relationship and work together to lead the Lakers to a championship.
In an appearance on the “Lakeshow Podcast”, Vogel reflected on his time with Kidd and re-emphasized how happy he is for him:
“How great of a story is that? I’m so happy. I could not be more happy for J. Kidd. He came in here knowing he had to sort of rebuild his image and put in the work, go back to being an assistant coach after being a head guy for several years and what an impact he had on our franchise. The culture that we’ve built, the system that we’ve put together, it’s something that Laker fans have to always be in gratitude to him and we’re really happy and excited for him. I hope he loses four times to the Lakers this year [laughs].”
There was a negative perception surrounding Kidd because of his past coaching stops, but Vogel saw a different side of the former point guard:
“This is a life lesson. When you hear negative things about people that you don’t know or have personal experience with, sometimes see for yourself what that person is like. He came in with great humility, had a great spirit of having fun with our group, using his experience to help us. He said it, just being a good teammate on the coaching staff. He just excelled with that, we developed a great friendship and obviously it resulted in him not only getting back to a head coaching spot, but a place where he won a championship as a player. So very happy for him.”
As soon as the announcement was made, Vogel came out and said that Kidd would be missed and that might very well be the case as the team tries to incorporate so many new faces. However, the Purple and Gold have all they need to succeed this year and it will be fun to see them make another run.
Jason Kidd reflects on time with LeBron James
One person who took Kidd’s departure hard was LeBron James, who had a good relationship with the former Lakers assistant. Kidd made sure to shoutout James when he briefly recounted their time together before beginning his new journey in Dallas.
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