Kidd almost went to Portland

http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2008/02/vocal_kidd_hindered_trade.html

Quote :

If Rod Thorn had had his way, Jason Kidd would be in Portland right now, and the Nets point guard of the future would be Jarrett Jack....

Thorn would only identify the team as "a midlevel team out west," but several league officials confirmed it as the Trail Blazers -- which, in fact, is the only midlevel team out west nowadays.

The Blazers were to send Jack and Raef LaFrentz to the Nets along with other cap-fillers for Kidd, but the Nets captain sabotaged the deal by publicly requesting a deal on Jan. 28 -- either inadvertently or otherwise.

According to those league officials, who chose to remain anonymous in order to avoid meddling in Portland's affairs, the Blazers never wanted to assist Dallas in obtaining Kidd; they wanted the 34-year-old point guard for themselves to help raise a team of promising kids in the midst of a 3-5 slide.

But as soon as Kidd announced that he could no longer play in New Jersey, Blazers officials concluded that he wouldn't be content playing for an up-and-coming team in Portland, either.

Bill Simmons is also reporting that the Blazers made a strong push for Kidd, but once Kidd got wind of the deal, he made it known he didn't want to play in Portland.

Simmons even gives one of his patented "trade ideas", which is naturally WAY off... It doesn't even involve Jack. Plus, he once again, has us trading Fernandez. Does he just really not want us to have this guy?!?!

Anyway, outside of that, Simmons gives us a nice plug saying that Kidd would have had a better supporting cast in Portland than he'll have in Dallas.

so Rod Thorn was OK with shipping out Kidd for Jack and LaFrentz???

I wonder what the "cap fillers" were?

Kidd's salary is 19.728 million.

That would mean Portland would have to send back 15.7 million in salary to meet the 125% + $100,000 rule. I believe Portland still has a little over $100,000 in TPE left from the NY trade as well.

So Lafrentz and Jack total 13.6 million so Portland would have to come up with 2 million more in 'filler'

I guess it could be accomplished with Lafrentz, Jack, and Frye for Kidd and Malik Allen.

And Thorn was OK with that while KP backed out??...hard to believe