Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
It started as a whisper, almost a rumor. There was a lot happening in that autumn of 2001, not all of it good, of course. But even the quietly terrific stuff could be obscured by what the Yankees were doing that October and November, trying to squeeze every last drop out of the last baseball dynasty.
It was after the Yankees were done that maybe you wandered over to the old Izod Center, when it was still named after Continental Airlines. If you did, you were among a select few seeking out the whisper, checking out the rumor. Word was, there was something of an irresistible basketball revolution happening in the relative obscurity of the Meadowlands.
Turned out they were underselling it. Jason Kidd had just begun his career as a Net, and he was in the initial stages of teaching his teammates — Kenyon Martin, Kerry Kittles, Keith Van Horn — and even his coach, Byron Scott, about the possibilities of a game unfettered by ego or counting shots.
“Just get open,” Kidd told them, “and I’ll make you happy.”