Jason Kidd Withdraws From Consideration For Trail Blazers Head Coaching Job

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Jason Kidd, Trail Blazers
Jason Kidd has withdrawn his name from consideration for head coach of the Trail Blazers, despite Damian Lillard's endorsement.

Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd says he will not take over the head coaching position for the Portland Trail Blazers in the wake of Terry Stotts' departure. Blazers star guard Damian Lillard has said he wanted the team to bring in Kidd for the role.

"Portland's a first-class organization and will have great candidates for its head coaching job, but I've decided not to be one of them," Kidd told ESPN, Sunday. "Whoever they choose will have big shoes to fill from Terry [Stotts]."

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Kidd, a Hall of Fame point guard, has experience serving as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks in his time since retiring as a player. He joined the Lakers in 2019 and won the 2020 NBA Championship with the organization.

“Jason Kidd is the guy I want,” Lillard told Yahoo Sports on Friday night.

With Kidd out of the picture, ESPN reports that the team will pursue Jeff Van Gundy, Chauncey Billups, Mike D'Antoni, and Juwan Howard. They have yet to officially request permission to speak to any candidates. 

Under Stotts, the Blazers maintained a 402-318 record through his nine seasons as head coach.

"I have the utmost respect for Terry and what he has accomplished these past nine seasons," president of basketball operations Neil Olshey said in a statement. "This was a difficult decision on both a personal and professional level but it's in the best interest of the franchise to move in another direction."

[Via]


About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.
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