- Jason Kidd reportedly punished the Milwaukee Bucks team over a group chat issue in 2014.
- Center Thon Maker had an Android while the other players had iPhones, causing a group chat error.
- Kidd made the entire team run sprints, saying Maker's Android was an example of "not being united."
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Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd won't tolerate Android users on his team.
Kidd reportedly punished the entire Milwaukee Bucks team because one player had an Android phone during his stint as Bucks head coach in 2014, according to an excerpt in the upcoming book "Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP" by Mirin Fader.
Fader writes that Kidd was a strict, hard-nosed coach with the Bucks from 2014-18 and brought an interesting coaching tactic that punished the rest of a team for a single player's mistake. If a player slipped up during practice, then Kidd would make every other player run sprints, while the player who made the mistake had to watch from the sideline.
The tactic would instill physical punishment on the team to encourage players to hold each other accountable while using psychological punishment on individual players to promote a more urgent mental focus.
Kidd employed this tactic when former Bucks center Thon Maker, who last played for the Cleveland Cavaliers this January, caused an error in the team's group chat by using an Android instead of an iPhone.
"At one point center Thon Maker didn't have an iPhone, messing up the team's blue-bubble iPhone group chat," the book excerpt read. "Kidd was upset about it and made the team run because Kidd felt that Maker not getting an iPhone was an example of the team not being united."
During Kidd's four-year tenure in Milwaukee from 2014-18, the Bucks went a combined 139-152 and never advanced past the first round of the playoffs before he was fired halfway through the 2017-18 season.
Kidd spent the last two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach before being hired as the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks on June 28.