Jason Kidd

Phoenix Sun guard Jason Kidd keeps opposing NBA teams on their toes. He shoots! He plays tough defense! But most of all he passes. "I try to picture the play before it happens," says Jason.In the 1997-98 season, Jason was second in the NBA in assists with 9.1 per game. He also tied for the lead in triple-doubles.Off the court, Jason collects baseball souvenirs. His favorite collectible is a bat signed by Seattle Mariner Ken Griffey Jr.Comic CardsHere are some funny sports cards from kidsSon, go to your roomBrandon D., 11Cypress, Calif.

NBA games lost yesterday: 8.Total games missed: 187.Earliest estimated date season can start: Jan. 1.Negotiations: A session scheduled for yesterday was canceled.Projected player salary losses (through Jan. 1): $330 million.Today's best canceled game: Chicago at Phoenix. Michael Jordan and the Bulls take on Jason Kidd and the Suns.Pub Date: 11/29/98

NBA games lost yesterday: 5.Total games missed: 194.Earliest estimated date that season can start: Jan. 1.Projected player salary losses (through Jan. 1): $330 million.Negotiations: Nothing scheduled.Today's best canceled game: Utah at Phoenix. Two of the best point guards in the league, John Stockton and Jason Kidd, go head-to-head.Pub Date: 12/01/98

No. 1 Utah (64-18) vs. No. 8 Los Angeles Clippers (36-46)Season series: Utah, 3-1 (Utah, 95-90, on Nov. 2; Utah, 111-94, on Nov. 29; Los Angeles, 115-101, on Dec. 30; Utah, 107-94, on March 22).Last playoff appearance: Utah reached the conference finals last year, where it lost to Seattle, 4-3. The Clippers' last appearance was in 1993, when they lost in the first round to the Houston Rockets, 3-2.Key players: Utah -- Karl Malone (27.4 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 4.5 apg), John Stockton (14.4 ppg, 10.5 apg)

LANDOVER -- On this edition of the Washington Bullets, Calbert Cheaney is almost a forgotten man. But when the Bullets went to end a 17-game losing streak to the Phoenix Suns, Cheaney was the man that the Bullets went to.With the game tied with four seconds remaining in overtime last night, Cheaney took a pass from Rod Strickland and confidently sank a 13-foot baseline jumper that gave the Bullets a 115-113 win before a crowd of 14,911 at USAir Arena.And...

Opponent: Atlanta HawksSite: The Omni, AtlantaRadio: WWLG (1360 AM), WTEM (570 AM)Outlook: This is the start of a two-game road trip for the Bullets, who are facing the Hawks for the final time this season. The Hawks have won two straight games and hold the fifth position in the Eastern Conference; they are hoping to get to the fourth spot, which would give the team home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. G Steve Smith (18.2 ppg) and C Christian Laettner (16.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg)

Opponent: Dallas MavericksSite: USAir Arena, LandoverTime: 7:30TV/Radio: HTS/WWLG (1360 AM), WTEM (570 AM)Outlook: The Bullets look for a season sweep of the Mavericks, having recorded a 103-94 win in Dallas on Dec. 9. The Mavericks (8-20) have lost 12 of their past 14. Injured F Jamal Mashburn (sore knee) is considering arthroscopic surgery. G Jim Jackson (16.9 ppg), F George McCloud (15.1 ppg) and G Jason Kidd (13.7 ppg, 9.0 apg) are the top healthy players. For the Bullets, whose three-game winning streak ended on Tuesday, G Calbert Cheaney (sore right leg)

Just more than three years ago, the Phoenix Suns and the Chicago Bulls played an exciting NBA Finals, eventually won by the Bulls in six games. At the time, it appeared a rivalry, maybe countering that of the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s, was born.But there were no similarities to that Finals when the teams met on Wednesday. The Bulls won, remaining the only unbeaten team in the NBA (11-0). The Suns dropped to 0-10, the only winless team in the NBA.That is why Cotton Fitzsimmons quit as coach last week, and promoted Danny Ainge.

It opens with the theme music of "The McLaughlin Group," but the topic of discussion is not politics -- it's basketball. Specifically, the NBA's Rookie of the Year award, with members of the group raving about the skills of Washington Bullets forward Juwan Howard."

Less than a week after the six-player deal in which the New Jersey Nets sent Derrick Coleman to the Philadelphia 76ers for Shawn Bradley, both players made their debuts with their new teams on Wednesday. And, really, is anyone surprised at the result?Coleman, playing his first game of the season, scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help the Sixers end an 11-game losing streak against Dallas. And Bradley scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in New Jersey's loss to Minnesota.

1 Pie for breakfast: Good morning, sleepyheads. The Orioles and Red Sox are on MASN HD at 11 a.m. 2 Pi for dinner: The Bowie Baysox are celebrating 3.14159265 ... during a 7:05 p.m. home game against Erie. 3 Plate coverage: The Athletics' Jason Giambi visits his old pals at the new Yankee Stadium (ESPN, 7 p.m.). 4 Dishing it: Pass time with Jason Kidd and Tony Parker in the Mavericks-Spurs playoff game (9:30 p.m., TNT). 5 Last slice: Polish your clubs and check out baltimoresun.

Improper anchoring caused boat accident nfl An agency investigating a deadly boating accident involving two NFL players and their two friends in the Gulf of Mexico concluded it was caused when the vessel was improperly anchored and the boat capsized after one of them tried to throttle forward to pry loose the anchor. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's investigation also cited carelessness and operator inexperience as contributing factors. The errors came when a storm front was moving in, making the water very rough.

Angels drop out of bidding for Teixeira baseball The Los Angeles Angels have dropped out of the bidding for free agent Mark Teixeira, according to Angels spokesman Tim Mead, who yesterday confirmed a report by FoxSports that the Angels are moving in a new direction. The Angels were believed to be offering an eight-year deal worth between $160 million and $165 million. The decision was characterized as final, so it differs slightly from the announcement by the Boston Red Sox last week that they are not "a factor" in the negotiations.

BEIJING - That the best relay swimmer of a generation should go it mostly alone on a daily basis has almost an old-school feel. No uber-controlling coach on the deck barking out orders, and certainly no one telling him what he can and can't do out of the pool. If Jason Lezak needed someone to time his practices at home in Irvine, Calif., he would have his wife do it, at least before she recently started her job as an emergency room nurse in Anaheim. Jason Lezak and high maintenance won't be found in the same sentence.

NBA Dallas@Phoenix 10:30 P.M. [TNT] I realize it's a little past a lot of folks' bedtime, but maybe Shaquille O'Neal will make his Suns debut against the Mavericks. Then again, maybe not. In either case, Dallas-Phoenix is good NBA TV, with Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire on the Suns' side and Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard for the Mavericks (with maybe Jason Kidd on the way).

Marquise Kately came east to start over a year ago, trading the University of California and college basketball's big time for Morgan State and college basketball's hinterland. To Kately, it didn't matter that the Bears haven't had a winning season since 1989, haven't won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference since 1977 and have never played in the NCAA Division I tournament. "I already know all that," he said, brushing aside Morgan's dismal past. "We're trying to make history now." As much as anything, Kately came east to play for Todd Bozeman, a former Cal coach who was starting over himself in Baltimore in 2006 after recruiting sanctions kept him out of the NCAA for 10 long years.

WASHINGTON - Eddie Jordan saw the warning signs from a distance, even though he didn't know for sure exactly what damage had awaited him. An hour before tipoff at MCI Center last night, the Washington Wizards coach didn't know if his team would have to deal with Shaquille O'Neal. But he did know that O'Neal wasn't going to be the only Heat player making his strategizing a thoroughly miserable task. Shaq, Jordan pointed out, was one of "five or six" players in the league capable of doing that.

WASHINGTON - The Washington Wizards' season has been too sad to label any particular defeat the most heartbreaking, but last night's 103-99 overtime loss to the New Jersey Nets was especially deflating. The Wizards (23-52), in their first home game after a five-game Western swing, surrendered a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the Nets, scoring just one basket in the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter. "We just weren't good enough in the end to win the game," said Washington coach Eddie Jordan, a former Nets assistant.

WASHINGTON - For two years, Eddie Jordan had a front-row seat to the magic that Jason Kidd can produce on a basketball court, as lead assistant coach of the New Jersey Nets. Jordan had a front-row seat again last night, this time as the new head coach of the Washington Wizards, and he didn't at all like what he saw. Kidd provided a clinic of point guard play, pacing the Nets to a 98-85 win over the Wizards in their home opener. Kidd had a game-high 30 points and took over in the fourth quarter, hitting a back-breaking pair of three-pointers as the Wizards threatened to challenge the defending two-time NBA Eastern Conference champions.

Three-time NBA All-Star Vince Carter shoots hoops for the Toronto Raptors. But when it comes to video games, he's a Madden man. When he's on the road with the Raptors, Vince always drags along a PlayStation 2. "I mostly play sports games," Carter says. That means Madden NFL Football and NBA Live 2004, the latter of which sports his mug on the cover. "I'm really good at football, less so at the basketball." Isn't that kind of ironic? Maybe not as much as you'd think. "I play as the [Miami]