While Team USA goes for the gold in the Beijing Olympics, we’re digging into the Dime archives for a closer look at the players who will make it happen. For the duration of the Games, we’ll be re-running some of our best Dime Magazine feature stories on DimeMag.com.

Reprinted from Dime #40, April 2008

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A stack of books adorns a coffee table in the living room of a luxurious North Jersey high-rise. The titles are almost all of the same ilk, mostly photo compilations of America’s best golf courses and Jaguar catalogs – the passions and play things of rich men.

But there is one book in the stack that is not styled and glossy like the others; it is wrapped in plain, brown canvas with this title scripted simply down the spine: The Art of Being a Lion. This is the book — almost 250 pages documenting the hunting and leadership characteristics of the king of beasts — that best embodies its owner, Jason Kidd, leader of men.

He is the man his peers best believe can lead them to the Promised Land. For two years in a row, even while opposing GMs offered the New Jersey Nets bad contracts and bit players at the NBA trade deadline in return for Kidd’s services, the game’s ethereal elite – most notably Kobe Bryant and LeBron James – openly lobbied Lakers and Cavaliers management to deliver them Jason Kidd.

Until this past February though, Kidd looked to be destined to join the long list of NBA greats to play out contracts and leave the game without a championship ring. He had not one but two cracks at a ‘chip, leading New Jersey to two fruitless Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003, but since then, his teams have never come close to returning to championship form.

Just prior to this season’s NBA trade deadline though, Jason Kidd was given one more shot when the Dallas Mavericks stepped up and were willing to mortgage long-term projects in point guard Devin Harris and center DeSegana Diop in return for the opportunity to possibly win right now with Jason Kidd. How will it all play out? In a Western Conference whose powers bolstered themselves with deals to add Pau Gasol and Shaq, no one knows. But at least Kidd has a chance.

We visited with Jason in his Edgewater, N.J., apartment just a few days before the deal went through. The Kidd we found was hopeful that a trade would happen, but was prepared to carry on if things didn’t work out…

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Dime: I noticed a book in your condo called The Art of Being a Lion. Seems to be fitting reading for one of the best point guards of all-time. How does this relate to the position you play and your new situation?
Jason Kidd: Ha, you’ve got some good vision. That book is buried under some golf books I think. To be honest, I’ve tried to look at all aspects of the lion’s life – the way they lead, especially. And they’re feared. It’s how I look at basketball. I’m not a vocal person, so how do you demand attention without being loud? How do you separate yourself from the weak while still helping the weak? If I feel that I’m the strongest, I have to find the weakest and raise him up.

Dime: You’ve been to the NBA Finals twice, with both trips coming in back-to-back years. But since then, it feels like every year, the Finals have gotten further and further away. What does that do to a player’s psyche?
JK: You’re never promised to get back there. That’s what drove us the second time, against San Antonio. We had to be hungry. We had already knocked on the door. The first time I think we were just happy to be there, but then we missed winning it twice. You have to still stay hungry. We then lost to Detroit and they turned around and won a championship. From that point on we haven’t been close to that elite level and it hurts.

Dime: With the ring getting further and further away, did you feel lost in New Jersey?
JK: It’s hard. The business of basketball gets in the way. Some of it is luck, you know? You look at the trades this year – Phoenix is the best team in the West and they traded for Shaq. The core of that Nets group had been together for a while but sometimes things need to change. I think you always work on your game in the summer to get better. You just hope the front office works as hard as you do. But you’re just an employee; you have other people deciding your fate.

And a lot of times, these deals are just to add a piece while another team has to rebuild. It’s hardly ever star-for-star. You look at the Gasol deal … deals are done for financial reasons. We traded for Vince and not one person we sent to Toronto is still on that team. That’s the way it goes. The Shaq-Marion deal was the first real star-for-star trade we’ve seen in a long time.

Dime: When all of the trade stuff with you was going down – and it was playing out for several weeks – how did it affect the feeling in the locker room? You were their leader, but you clearly wanted out. Does that foster bad feelings?
JK: The thing about the Nets locker room is that we weren’t into talking about the business aspect of basketball. Unless you’re told otherwise, you have to play hard every night. You have to remember that you represent the back of that jersey too. You never want to point the finger at someone else.

Dime: I’ve been in many players’ homes over the years, and your place might be the first one I’ve ever seen with literally no memorabilia of your basketball career.
JK: Basketball has been a big part of my life. I’ve been doing this for a long time. The older I get, the more things I have surrounding me besides basketball. I have my kids and new interests. Look at my condo – it’s clean and simple. Most of the decorations are pictures of my kids. There’s really no basketball stuff. I’m not looking to be reminded of the Rookie of the Year trophy, you know? My friends know what I do, there’s no need to remind everybody all the time.

Dime: What are some of those new interests?
JK: I like to collect things. Wine is something new for me. I’m from the Bay Area with the Napa Valley in my back yard. It’s something I’m just starting to learn about. And being in the Tri-State area, specifically in New York, you meet a lot of people in all businesses and a lot of people who have made a lot of money. At some point, basketball will come to an end – what then? What interests me? What gets me excited? What else is there for me?

Dime: So then what’s the next step for you after basketball? It seems like elite athletes, after they retire, they’re always looking for some kind of competitive outlet. What’s your outlet going to be?
JK: It’s open right now. I’d love to be owner of a sports franchise. That would be the ultimate goal, the No. 1 thing, I think. Real estate is something that interests me. They’re not producing more land in the world, so that’s something competitive, a field where I could thrive. You know, I look at Steve Wynn – he’s the model of successful businessman in that competitive world. You meet people like that playing in the NBA. When I was in Las Vegas last summer for Team USA I spent a lot of time with him and learned a lot. When you do get to meet people like that and you get to hang out with them, you learn. You learn without going to school.

Dime: What will Jason Kidd’s legacy be? Even if you never get that ring, how do you want to be remembered?
JK: I hope I’m remembered as someone who came to work every day, and hopefully I can be thought of as a winner. Hopefully I can be known as a guy who can fix things. When I went to Phoenix, we immediately improved. I helped build New Jersey from the ground up.

And the other part of that are the numbers. People say I can’t shoot, but God willing, I will finish as a Top-10 three-point shooter for threes made. I want to finish as the No. 1 rebounding guard of all-time. Right now I’m No. 2 behind Oscar Robertson. I passed Michael and Clyde Drexler just last week. So I hope people think of me as the total player.