The Player's Tribune just published an essay penned by newly-inducted Hall of Famer Jason Kidd. In the write-up, the former Dallas Mavericks guard shared an interesting anecdote involving himself and former Mavs teammate Dirk Nowitzki. As it turns out, up until this day, Kidd is still wondering if Nowitzki was being serious that one time he gave Kidd a bit of shooting advice.
As described by Kidd, the typical shooting session quickly turned into a very peculiar situation after Nowitzki handed out some out of this world advice.
“And I swear, Dirk’s advice — it was the wildest advice of my entire life. It made zero sense to me at the time, and yet it seemed to make all the sense in the world to Dirk.
“‘Spacing your fingers just like this. Tuck your arm. Spread your feet like this. Release the ball like this.'
“It was all making sense. I was following along. That’s when he got this serious look on his face and said, ‘The key to shooting is, you have to breathe.'
“‘O.K., Dirk. Got it.'
“‘No. Through your eyes. Breathe through your eyes.'
“BREATHE. THROUGH YOUR EYES??”
That is probably one of the weirdest suggestions given. Ever. Be it in the context of basketball or otherwise.
Nonetheless, provided that it came from one of the greatest shooters of all-time, then surely Kidd had to take it seriously, right?
“I didn’t know how to respond. We kept shooting and Dirk was just kind of shaking his head at me. Maybe he was punking me? To this day, your guess is as good as mine.”
This is simply legendary. Had it not come from an inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, then surely it would have been easier to shrug it off as a tall tale.
The world will forever be grateful to Jason Kidd for all that he has contributed to the sport of basketball. And for this epic story, as well.
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