Gifted Kidd Goes After Rookie Of The Year Award

Point guard Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks hasn’t been shy in expressing his desire for the NBA’s rookie of the year award, on the court or off.

Kidd was selected rookie of the month for March and is off to an even better April with the first two triple-doubles of his career.

“At the beginning of the year, everybody had given it to Grant Hill,” Kidd said of the Detroit Pistons star. “But things have gotten a little interesting. There’s still another month left to make things even more interesting.”

Kidd had 11 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds for the franchise’s sixth triple-double in Dallas’ 111-94 blowout of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It came just 48 hours after the fifth such feat in club history, when he had 19 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in a 130-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

The victory over the Timberwolves also was significant because it gave the Mavericks five straight wins at home for the first time in four years and it was coach Dick Motta’s 300th win in Dallas.

The headlines Kidd has been drawing may help him close the gap in the rookie race with Hill, who started the NBA All-Star game as its leading vote-getter.

And Kidd, who has led Dallas’ 20-win improvement over last season, has not given up on the award.

“I won’t concede anything until the last day,” Kidd said. “Let’s judge it on the whole season.”

‘I agree with Jason, dad’

After Kidd got his triple-double against the Lakers on Wednesday night, the guy who guarded him, Nick Van Exel, saw his young son walk into the L.A. dressing room wearing a Jason Kidd jersey.

Nick II announced that he was terminating Nick III’s allowance “for the whole month.”

Strickland making amends

Rod Strickland is trying to patch up his recent public feud with Portland Trail Blazers coach P.J. Carlesimo by promising he will stick to business on the basketball court.

“I can play for him,” Strickland said. “That’s my job. I have to do that. I’m here with 12 guys on this team. We have to play together. I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me.”

His comments were a sharp contrast to his comments about Carlesimo last weekend in Philadelphia:

“I don’t like him, and you can write that,” Strickland said at the time. “I didn’t like him in the beginning, and I don’t like him now. I’m just going to play these last 14 games, and that’s it.”

Strickland and Carlesimo have talked since the March 31 loss to the 76ers, when Strickland played less than 4 minutes and had a shouting match with his coach at halftime.

Carlesimo had benched his starting point guard for failing to be on the team bus to the airport after a March 30 win at New Jersey. The Blazers departed immediately after the Nets game for Philadelphia, but Strickland stayed in New York.

Strickland still won’t say exactly what bothers him about Carlesimo, or why he wasn’t on the bus that took the Blazers to the airport following the New Jersey game. But Strickland said Carlesimo is changing his style.