Jason Kidd leans into youth baseball the same way the Mavs coach did with girls basketball

DALLAS — Jason Kidd had to choose basketball over baseball 30-plus years ago when it became clear the whiz kid of a point guard would be one of the top picks in the NBA draft.

The Hall of Fame player turned coach is now in a position to indulge one of his childhood passions, and Kidd is choosing a path similar to one he took with girls youth basketball.

The Dallas Mavericks coach announced Thursday the launch of JK Select Baseball, an ambitious vision with a long-term goal of more than 1,000 teams nationwide but a more immediate plan to build around a regional approach in the Dallas area.

''Our job is to invest in kids,'' Kidd told The Associated Press. ''We hope that we can give them some wisdom. We're also looking not just at the kids, but also can we find more mentors? Can we invest in them? Teachers, coaches, mentors, we've all been influenced in our life by one of those, and I think that we need to invest in those.''

Following his teenaged son, Chance Kidd, on the select baseball circuit was part of the motivation for Kidd in creating something similar to his JK Select Girls Basketball.

That basketball program based in the Bay Area, where Kidd grew up in California, was created not long after Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash on his way to a girls youth tournament in the Los Angeles area. Bryant's daughter, Gigi Bryant, was among those killed in the crash.

Kidd felt the need to do something to develop girls basketball as a way to honor Bryant and his daughter, and the elite-level program has produced 45 Division I athletes, including Texas sophomore Jordan Lee.

''I truly believe we want to talk about growth, about maturing, how to handle different situations, because I think sport helps that with life decisions,'' Kidd said. ''And so we want it to be a positive experience. We're not gonna get on base every time. As a pitcher, we're not going to strike everybody out. But we want to also talk about, or create, or foster, relationships because I didn't know that when I was a kid.''

Kidd grew up on the Oakland side in the Bay Area and was a fan of the Athletics, who now have a temporary home in Sacramento, California, before a planned move to Las Vegas in 2028.

Baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson was in his heyday with the A's when Kidd was young, and the No. 2 pick in the 1994 NBA draft was a teenager when Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire were the sluggers helping the franchise to consecutive World Series appearances from 1988-90.

After becoming a household name himself, Kidd forged a friendship with Tony LaRussa, who managed McGwire with the A's and St. Louis Cardinals. Kidd remembers getting invited to dabble in some baseball activities when LaRussa and McGwire were together with the Cardinals in the late 1990s.

''It's an incredible game,'' Kidd said. ''I just love, I mean, there's so many eras when you talk about baseball.''

Now in his fifth season with the Mavericks, Kidd has led trips to the 2022 Western Conference finals and the 2024 NBA Finals, which Boston won in five games. Luka Doncic was the on-court engineer for both of those runs before getting sent to the Los Angeles Lakers in the ill-fated trade that brought the oft-injured Anthony Davis to Dallas almost a year ago.

The injury-plagued Mavericks appear on their way to missing the playoffs for the second year in a row, but Kidd says he is energized by coaching 19-year-old Cooper Flagg, the rookie No. 1 pick. Meantime, the 52-year-old is also taking another step in what could be his life after coaching basketball.