Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees 2018: A look back at their careers

#2 Jason Kidd

Dallas Mavericks v Miami Heat - Game Six

The #2 overall pick in the 1994 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks, Jason Kidd is one of the two players on this list who hurt their NBA legacies by turning into underperforming head coaches - Kidd was the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets team with Pierce, Garnett and Joe Johnson on it in 2013-14, and then became head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for 3 and a half seasons before getting fired midway through their 2017-18 season.

But as a player, there are few point guards who can claim to be as effective as Kidd was on both ends of the floor. He was a sturdy defender who could guard up to 4 positions on the court - he was often the primary defender on LeBron James during the 2011 NBA Finals, causing James to shoot at below-par percentages and turn it over despite Kidd being all of 38 years old at that point.

He is 3rd on the league's all-time list of regular season triple-doubles with 107, and averaged 8.7 assists per game through 19 eventful seasons of playing in the NBA. He came into the league with almost no shooting ability, but moulded himself into a reliable 3-point shooter by his time with the New Jersey Nets, whom he led to 2 straight NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003. He was arguably the league MVP over Tim Duncan in the 2002-03 season, averaging 18.7 points, 8.9 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game.

Kidd is, in my book, the third-best two-way point guard in league history behind Gary Payton and CP3.