Former NBA superstar and newly-named head coach of the Dallas Mavericks Jason Kidd also currently carries a 6-handicap. Though he’s a skilled golfer now, that wasn’t always the case. On this week’s episode of Subpar, Kidd explained to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz how taking up the game was a humbling experience.
“I started in high school. Our basketball coach was also the golf coach,” Kidd said.
One of Kidd’s basketball teammates was also on the golf team. When he brought Kidd out to play, Kidd says that, as a baseball player, he was expecting golf to be a piece of cake because hey, the ball’s just sitting there, right? If only the game were so easy!
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“They gave me a 5-iron, they put the ball on the ground, and I was like, I don’t even have to guess,” Kidd said. “I swung, and there was a divot that went about 10 yards and the ball was still standing right there. I was humbled, and from that point on I was hooked.”
In case you’re wondering if Kidd ever considered pursuing golf over basketball in high school, Kidd joked that the team would have lost every match with him on it.
“[My coach] knew exactly what to do,” Kidd says. “He teased me about golf to humble me, because I felt I was pretty good in basketball. He made sure that he kept me level-headed and took me out to golf. And that definitely humbled me.”
For more from Kidd, including what it was like to play golf with Michael Jordan, and the best golfers in the NBA, check out the full interview below.