For the time being, Kidd remains with Nets

NEW ORLEANS — Jason Kidd is in town, presumably to play for the East in tomorrow night's NBA All-Star Game.

But this is one All-Star Weekend when no one should presume anything.

In Kidd's case, he was all but traded from the New Jersey Nets to Dallas until the Mavs' Devean George invoked a somewhat obscure clause in the collective-bargaining agreement and refused to be included in the deal.

That left media outlets from virtually everywhere swamping the league office for several days with questions about whether Kidd would play for the East or the West, whether the West might now have 13 players, whether Kidd or Allen Iverson would start for the West, whether the East would have to replace one or two players.

The answer was universally the same: The Kidd/George situation was unprecedented. No one knew.

"I'm a Net," Kidd said yesterday, "so, hopefully, I should be on the East. I'm happy to be here...to represent the older generation. Everything else that's been publicized will work itself out. I have no hard feelings either way this goes. Sometimes, the business of basketball gets in the way.

"I was at peace with it either way, because I know Rod [Thorn, the Nets' president/general manager] did everything they could do to send me where I would have a chance to win. [The Nets] got a pretty good deal back in return. It was a win-win for everybody."

Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who will coach the East, gently injected a touch of humor into an otherwise tense, sensitive situation, saying, "If the trade goes down [today], he's still in the East and I'm going to play him...until the last 2minutes. Then we won't trust him."

No worries there. The league office is shut down for All-Star Weekend. The trade deadline is Thursday.

The Nets were to send Kidd and former Villanova star Malik Allen to the Mavericks, then later send Antoine Wright to the Mavs in a separate transaction for a second-round draft choice. The Nets were to receive Devin Harris, former 76er Jerry Stackhouse, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, George, $3 million and first-round draft choices in 2008 and 2010.

There had been an assumption that the Nets would buy out Stackhouse, and after the league-mandated 30-day waiting period, he would return to the Mavericks. That, Thorn said, would have been an illegal agreement, and that he would not have been a party to it.

Stackhouse had gone to the point of saying, "I get 30 days to rest, then I'll be right back. I ain't going nowhere."

According to an ESPN.com report yesterday, the league has ruled that Stackhouse can be included in the trade, but that he cannot return to the Mavericks. The deal remained on hold, with varying speculation on permutations that could make it work.

"I'm perfectly willing to take Stackhouse," Thorn said.

George is invoking a clause concerning a player who was with a team on a 1-year contract, then signs again on a 1-year contract. That gives him "early bird" rights, allowing that team to then be able to go over the salary cap to sign him again. If he is traded, he loses his "early bird" rights.

Another caveat to this is, the Mavericks are under no obligation to re-sign George.

"I've been in the league 40-some-odd years and I've never seen anything like this," Thorn said. "Allegedly, he had asked to be traded a couple weeks before, and 'bird' rights were not an issue. Why it became an issue, I'm not sure."

The various details of the trade had become public knowledge. Both teams had informed the players to be included; the Nets held Kidd, Allen and Wright out of a game, even though George and some of the other Mavs continued to play. Thorn said the process had begun with the league, which has to approve any deal.

"I saw Dirk [the Mavs' Dirk Nowitzki] walking around," the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant said wryly. "I don't know how he's dealing with this. If you were that close to getting Jason Kidd, you'd be a little [upset]."

Kidd said he did not know George, other than to play against him.

"I guess the 'bird' rights are important to him," Kidd said. "In life, when you make decisions you can't make everybody happy. That's just the way it goes."

It was left for Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, who has changed teams several times, to weigh in on Kidd/George.

"Every time I was supposed to get traded, I did get traded," Billups said. "I don't know what Jason's going through. I know mentally and professionally he's strong enough to deal with it. He's one of the best I've ever seen at dealing with adversity. I know he's probably looking forward to getting that thing done and having a chance to win out West."

As for George, Billups said: "He's doing what's right. He's worried about himself, his own future. Every player should worry about that. He's holding up something big for both teams, but you've got to do right by people if you want to get something done." *