Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd seems to have a weird negativity towards Christian Wood.
It reared its ugly head earlier this season, and it happened again on Saturday night.
Following a surprising loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kidd decided to throw his new big man under the bus.
It was stunning:
Jason Kidd mentioned a few times, unprompted, that Mavs changed their closing lineup to keep Christian Wood in tonight.
Mavs blew 16-point lead in last 4:14 in OT loss.
Kidd: “You guys didn’t ask me the question I was waiting for, but I guess you guys got the answer to that.”
— Callie Caplan (@CallieCaplan) October 30, 2022
Jason Kidd made a point to mention that the Mavs tried a different closing lineup during the clutch meltdown vs. Thunder. “We left C Wood out there with that group and it didn’t go well on either end,” Kidd said.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) October 30, 2022
Wood, for his part, has been nothing but gracious despite his coach’s weirdness.
Fans immediately noticed what Kidd was doing. They subsequently took to social media to react:
Jeez Jason, did you have to do him like that? pic.twitter.com/Dk1FiATTg5
— overthinkingthenba (@overthinkingnba) October 30, 2022
Great! Blaming a specific player for that whole clown show will surely go down well.
— Bernardo Drummond (@berdrummond) October 30, 2022
Jason Kidd finna lose Woods…outta all the times we lost this year he’s the first player he singles out
— Teddy Mollywater (@TrukYoGurl17) October 30, 2022
Bold move calling out Wood
— oontakok (@oontakok) October 30, 2022
It goes without saying that Kidd’s way of doing things has in the past garnered some strong responses from Luka Doncic. The fact that Kidd’s own son hates him and has exposed him online is also telling.
That said, this behavior is surprising even for Kidd.
The Mavs are a bit of a dumpster fire so far this season.
The photos speak for themselves. https://t.co/RvN4QaNj7n
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 29, 2022
Coming off last year’s Western Conference Finals run expectations were high, but so far, the team is underperforming.
Will that change at some point in the foreseeable future?
Time will tell.
Related: Kevin Durant Gets Brutally Honest About Kyrie Irving Drama (Video)
Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.