Report: Bucks Considered Firing Jason Kidd Last Year over 'Old-School Approach'

The Milwaukee Bucks considered firing head coach Jason Kidd as early as last year because of his "old-school approach," according to a Tuesday report from Jared Zwerling of Sports Illustrated.

According to Khadrice Rollins of SI.com, per Zwerling's report, "Kidd would 'play mind games' with some of the players during film sessions and timeouts, talking trash and not comforting players. Zwerling's sources add that along with the lack of communication between Kidd and the players, management also felt that Kidd wanted too much personnel control."     

The Bucks fired Kidd, 44, on Monday. He went 139-152 in his three-plus seasons with Milwaukee, leading the team to two playoff appearances, both of which ended in the first round.

There was a mixed reaction to his firing on Twitter: 

"I enjoyed my time in Milwaukee. There's no regrets," he said, per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. "We took an organization that was in a bad place and shined a light on it. They're still young in running their race. Giannis [Antetokounmpo] is young in running his new race, as one of the best players in the world."

Kidd also said that Antetokounmpo took the news hard, per Shelburne:

"'He called me and said, 'Coach, this isn't right what they're about to do, but [they] are gonna let you go,'' Kidd told ESPN.

"Kidd said he replied, 'I had a feeling that was gonna take place.'

"To which Antetokounmpo responded, 'What can I do? I'll call the owners, I'll call my agent.'

"Kidd said he told him, 'There's nothing you can do. All you can do is tell the truth. That's it.'"

Per Zwerling, the Bucks players and their agents were informed of the team's decision before Kidd knew. Kidd told Shelburne general manager Jon Horst and team president Peter Feigin informed him of the move in a pizza restaurant 15 minutes after he spoke to Antetokounmpo.

According to Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports and Matt Moore of the Action Network, Kidd's pull with ownership waned significantly in the lead-up to his firing:

"

I was ambivalent on the Kidd situation a month ago, and since then it got so much worse and you started hearing he wasn’t as close with ownership as I thought he still was.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) January 22, 2018"

Former assistant coach Joe Prunty is serving as the team's interim head coach.