Jason Kidd Drives the Lane Photo by Greg Wahl-Stephens - AP	Carlos Beltran Does It Right Photo By Marisol Diaz

Included in the things we must be thankful for this Thanksgiving are those sports personalities we New York sports fans can count on each and every day of the season.  Those guys who may not always win the game but that you know are at least trying their hardest.  Not only do they perform well themselves but they inspire everyone else.  They make themselves available to the press and media types, are usually quite civilized, and once in a while even say something meaningful.  They're the leaders, the guys everybody else aspires to be.  And, best of all maybe, very often they do win the game.  Nobody on the local sports scene exhibits these traits more consistently than Jason Kidd and Carlos Beltran.

I first began paying attention to Jason Kidd back in September 2001 when Phoenix traded him to the Nets for Stephon Marbury, arguably the single biggest robbery in NBA history.  Only mildly interested in the New Jersey team prior to his acquisition, just the thought of having a real live point guard and playmaker actually prompted me to get a half-season ticket, the first of only two season-tickets I ever got for any sport.  The second was for the Nets the very next year.

Jason and the Nets were like magic that first season.  They RAN.  They reminded me of Bob Cousy and the Celtics from my youth.  Almost every Nets rebound became a fast break.  And they got plenty of rebounds with the young Kenyon Martin grabbing everything in sight.  With Kerry Kittles and Keith Van Horn on the wings, they'd rocket down the floor in a flash, often to end up being a lay-up or dunk.  You just had to be there.  No team's rocked the Meadowlands Arena as much before or since.  A more unselfish team I'd never seen, with contributors everywhere, Richard Jefferson, the rookie, Jason Collins and Todd MacCulloch at center, Aaron Williams at his best as a running power forward, providing speed and power along with K-Mart.  And they had a good time, they laughed, they high-fived all the way to the NBA Finals. 

 

But the guy who made it all possible was J-Kidd, Kidd making the impossible pass, the improbable shot, the rebound you needed the most.  I'll always remember the two series with Charlotte and then Boston.  The Nets took those series in 5 games and 6 games respectively, and when they won, they did it the same way each time, by running the other team into the ground.  But Kidd couldn't overcome Shaq and the Lakers in the Finals.  They lost in four games with Shaq getting every call.  Shaq and the Lakers played the most boring basketball ever seen, Shaq backs in to his opponent, elbowing him in the guts in the process and draws a foul.  What a joke !  I haven't been able to enjoy NBA basketball as much since that Series, when the best team went down in four.

His statistics are incredible for a point guard.  That magical 2001 season, he averaged 10 assists per game and only 3 1/2  turnovers. He stole the ball twice a game and had about 7 1/2 rebounds per game.  But stats don't begin to tell the story really.  Anybody who watched him play acknowledged that he was the most valuable player in the league by far, taking a heretofore hopeless and sorry group to the NBA Finals.  Shaq's brand of basketball was a bad joke and he had the other almost-convict, Kobe Bryant, to help him out. 

The same story was repeated in 2002-2003, of course, but by then the Nets had stopped running, figuring that to win the whole thing, you had to play half-court basketball.  It didn't work and hasn't worked since.  What a damned shame!  Of course, the Nets soon after announced that they'd be moving to Brooklyn.  That, for sure, got me off the season-ticket bandwagon, but I continue to enjoy watching the best pure basketball talent in the game today, Jason Kidd, the triple-double machine.

Then there’s my favorite game, baseball.  And my favorite New York player, Carlos Beltran.  Carlos only does everything, hits, hits for power, throws with the best of them, runs almost as fast as the best of them, and makes incredible catches in the outfield.  The language barrier inhibits his interaction with the media and the fans, but it’s his personality too.  The ungrateful Mets fans brow-beat him unmercifully in his first year, and baseball’s a funny game, especially for a streaky hitter.  

Nevertheless, Carlos tries his best to be personable and a team spokesman when none of his team-mates feels up to being one.  More popular Mets, David Wright and Jose Reyes, for example, are the fan-favorites.  Wright is a remarkably steady hitter but isn’t the smooth fielder he perhaps will be in a couple of years.  Reyes is the most exciting player in the game with his steals and his triples.  Carlos Delgado’s easy smile and great personality also endear him to New Yorkers, he’s like the mayor at first base.  But when times were at their roughest, during the stretch-run collapse, it was Carlos who would face the music.

Who else can a New York fan be thankful for? In football, of course, there are Tiki Barber, now retired, who played a great game but was a little big-headed for me, and Michael Strahan gives me the same feeling.  I am thankful for Eli Manning, though, despite his uneven performances and his failure to live up to the expectations as a Manning.  He’s got that easy smile no matter what.  He doesn’t take things too seriously and you are reminded that this is just a game.  He’s always trying and seems a little better than everyone else late in the game, despite the drops and missed blocks over the years.

Well, that’s about it, my thanks have been given, I can get back to my Turkey Day left-overs.  Happy Thanksgiving, every one of you.