Jason Kidd roasts LeBron James, brings up Lakers superstar’s meltdown in 2011 NBA Finals

Jason Kidd threw a bit of shade at Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James when asked what his favorite memory of the four-time MVP is.

2011 was the year Kidd finally got his championship ring as a player on the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas got it done by defeating James’ Miami Heat in the NBA Finals four games to two.

That season, James joined the Heat after publicly announcing he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers on his own ESPN special entitled “The Decision.” His move to leave the Cavs, not to mention how he did so on national TV, led to many around the league rooting for him to fail.

Miami won the first game of the championship series and looked to have Game 2 in hand, only to blow a sizable lead and lose. From that point on, the Heat’s chances of winning it all started to crumble, as James experienced perhaps the worse individual meltdown in NBA Finals history.

Of course, he redeemed himself by winning his first title the following year, then going back-to-back in 2013 with an outstanding performance in Game 7 versus the San Antonio Spurs.

Before facing off against James for all the marbles, Kidd was a teammate of his on Team USA when it recaptured the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Along with Kobe Bryant, Kidd was the major difference compared to 2004, when the squad could only muster a bronze medal.

Later on, Kidd was a member of the Lakers’ coaching staff under Frank Vogel, which gave him the opportunity to finally be on James’ side. The two won another championship in 2020, but Kidd left after the 2020-21 campaign to become the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks.

The two had some similarities as players, as Kidd, like James, was also an outstanding floor general who got his team into a fast-break game and got the ball to his teammates at the right time and the right place.

After averaging 12.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game over 19 seasons, the University of California, Berkeley product was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.