No longer Ason Kidd

[Vinyard]

DALLAS -- The first step in any self-help program is to get over the denial.

 

So for the Dallas Mavericks' Jason Kidd to become a great 3-point shooter, he first had to admit that he wasn't one.

 

And make no mistake, he's a great 3-point shooter now. You don't attempt 414 3-pointers and make 42.5 percent like he did this season without having the skill.

 

But it wasn't always this way.

 

For more than a decade, the scouting report said to ignore Kidd in 3-point range. Let him fling away. Turn a passer into a shooter, as the NBA saying goes.

 

"It's always been in my DNA to get the ball to my teammates," Kidd says. "I've always said that I could make a shot. It's just a matter of getting the fundamentals down and believing in it."

 

Kidd spent the first dozen seasons of his long career shooting the ball poorly from the perimeter. He was so good at passing it to teammates and driving it to the basket for easy layups or dump-off passes that the shot was considered a bonus when it went in.

 

In time, Kidd grew tired of having that hole in his game. He didn't like it when people said he couldn't shoot. And he hated it when he lost the post-practice shooting games with teammates. Even when you have a lot of Benjamins, you don't like losing them to friends who treat it like free money.

 

So Kidd knew there was only one way to fix this. It was going to take work. And help from somebody who knew what they were doing.

 

Enter Bob Thate, the New Jersey Nets' shooting coach in 2005-08. He and Kidd only had a friendly-nod relationship until 2006.

 

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/17/2122109/kidds-point-hes-now-a-shooting.html#ixzz0lUmeilOh