Mike D’Antoni on Jason Kidd’s incident: ‘You can’t do that’

Jason Kidd was fined 50,000 dollars by the NBA for his incident involving a soda spill against the Lakers on Wednesday night. Kidd was seen mouthing “hit me” to Tyshawn Taylor, and he did, causing Kidd to spill his soda all over the floor. That turned the situation into a timeout for Kidd and the Nets, who were down by 3 with a few seconds left, and out of timeouts.

Mike Fratello, who was calling the game for the YES Network, said that he used to do that all the time when he was coach, and it is an apparent strategy that coaches have used over time, but Kidd was caught red handed.

The Lakers are in Detroit on Friday night, and his opposing coach during the incident, Mike D’Antoni, had some not-so-nice things to say about what Kidd did to get an advantage, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN LA:

"“I knew he was going to get caught,” D’Antoni said before the Lakers played the Detroit Pistons on Friday when asked about Kidd’s being fined $50,000 by the league for the incident. “You can’t do that. That’s crazy. He can’t do that. It’s cute for a lot of people, but you can’t do that.”Both Kidd and Taylor initially denied the collision was planned but on Friday Kidd basically admitted it was intentional. “Paul [Pierce] got a great look, but the league fined me for something that I probably shouldn’t have done,” Kidd said. “We’ll move on.”Said D’Antoni of Kidd initially claiming innocence: “I don’t buy it.”D’Antoni said “you can’t do that” or “he can’t do that” no less than seven times in the two minutes he discussed the incident Friday, adding that it was “nuts” to try such a stunt.“That’s against the rules,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t think that’s very savvy or cool. I love Jason to death, he’s going to be a great coach, but no, you don’t do that.”"

Xavier Henry and Steve Blake caught on to the act, and they sat in on the Nets’ huddle, and there was nothing they could do about it. D’Antoni gave credit to them for being savvy:

"“I’m glad they did,” D’Antoni said of Blake’s and Henry’s bit of gamesmanship in response to Kidd’s move. “They should have.”"

I’m sure D’Antoni has never used any tricks to get an edge, so I’m glad he’s a moralist. All kidding aside, had Kidd not been seen saying “hit me”, this wouldn’t be a story, but alas here we are. The Lakers got the win, so they are happy with the outcome.