Coach Jason Kidd of the Brooklyn Nets was fined $50 thousand for intentionally spilling his drink on the court to sneak in some instructions. It was mentioned that this was an old tactic. Mark Cuban provides the video.

Dallas Mavericks owner shared the video of a game against the Chicago Bulls. In the video, Jason Kidd was still the Mavs point guard. Dallas franchise player Dirk Nowitzki was on free throw line for a couple of foul shots. The Bulls had no more timeouts and Nowitzki had one more free throw.

It wasn’t in the camera view, but there was a long lull in between foul shots. As the camera pans out, the reason for the lull was a couple of mop boys on the Bulls sideline. It was Del Harris who spilled his drink. Harris was an assistant to coach Vinny Del Negro, although he has had head coaching stints with the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets.

Notable in the video was Jason Kidd discussing with the official at the 1:27 mark. Perhaps that was when he logged into memory. The tactic of calling a time out in between free throws to ‘ice’ the shooter is almost a fundamental call, but in this case, the Bulls were out of timeouts. The video was in 2009, and it highly unlikely that this is the first time it was used.

Jason Kidd owns the distinction of being the first ever to be fined. With more video cameras at different angles, nothing seems to escape the field of vision anymore.
Mark Cuban did not mention his intent in sharing the video. It didn’t have any effect on the Commissioner’s decision to fine him. It can be recalled that Cuban has a feud with Kidd when he bolted the Mavericks to play (and eventually retire) in New York instead, with the Knicks.