04/18/24
July 15, 2012
New Knick Jason Kidd Arrested for DWI: Just days after he signed with the New York Knicks, Jason Kidd crashed his SUV into a telephone pole in the Hamptons at 2 a.m. Sunday and has been arraigned on misdemeanor DWI charges. Kidd, 39, was the only person in the car and suffered minor injuries in the one-car accident. The gossip site TMZ is running a photo of Kidd taken at a club that night and claims, "Multiple witness tell TMZ that Kidd appeared 'incredibly drunk' ... after being carried out by a few friends, Kidd got in his car to drive off ... despite protests from his friends."
posted by rcade to basketball at 10:39 PM - 18 comments
Wait, is this right? Jason Kidd was carried out of the club and they still put him in his car? With the keys? WTF? How do you do that? I don't care how much the drunkard protests, if you had to carry him to his car, he's not OK to drive. That's not to exculpate Kidd from his actions, mind you, but come on! Nice friends there, Jason.
posted by NoMich at 10:23 AM on July 16, 2012
NoMich, he is a 39 year old man. Were his friends supposed to hold him down and wait for the police to come? Kidd and only Kidd owns this.
posted by bperk at 11:08 AM on July 16, 2012
I don't know about that. When a buddy is so drunk that he has trouble standing up, as a friend, you have a responsibility to protect him from himself. Bperk, I understand what you're saying about having responsibility for one's own actions, and Kidd most certainly fucked up. However, his friends were his last clear chance to avoid what could have ended up in tragedy, and they let him down.
posted by tahoemoj at 11:16 AM on July 16, 2012
Were his friends supposed to hold him down and wait for the police to come?
Why do the cops have to be involved at this point? He's Jason fucking Kidd, call him a car service or a limo or something. No one is going to turn away business from Jason Kidd and all of his money.
And I didn't say that he is to be completely acquitted of his own terrible decisions. I'm mostly saying that Jason Kidd has the absolutely shittiest friends in the entire world.
posted by NoMich at 11:36 AM on July 16, 2012
One of his friends should have taken his keys or driven him home. That doesn't absolve him of blame, but it's a major friendship infraction.
posted by rcade at 12:16 PM on July 16, 2012
Don't look at it as shifting the blame from Kidd to the others in his party; consider it expanding the scope of blame to encompass all of them.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:41 PM on July 16, 2012
Drunks are rarely reasonable, and you can't make them do what you want them to do. I've been around belligerent drunks, and you can't just take their keys away or call them a car service unless either they want you to or you are willing to get into a brawl with them.
I read the TMZ piece earlier and it said that his friends were protesting him driving off, which I think is their duty.
posted by bperk at 01:15 PM on July 16, 2012
"Friends don't let friends drive drunk" is the slogan for a reason.
I seem to remember ESPN talking about this signing as if it was a big win because now they finally have a mentor at the position. This is probably not the sort of mentorship the Knicks were looking for.
posted by feloniousmonk at 02:18 PM on July 16, 2012
"You are your own liqour control board" is also a slogan used in the fight against drunk driving.
posted by tommybiden at 04:35 PM on July 16, 2012
Ah New Zealand. Known to people around the world as "the place they filmed Lord of the Rings" and to the people who live there as "the place they filmed Lord of the Rings."
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:58 PM on July 16, 2012
Those Kiwis, always so smart! Can't wait to visit again next year.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:37 AM on July 17, 2012
I did some yard work for a wealthy woman in the suburbs who said that sometimes all she can think about is the New Zealand badminton team.
posted by beaverboard at 01:01 PM on July 17, 2012
Drunks are rarely reasonable, and you can't make them do what you want them to do.
This. I help out running a large beer festival every summer, and the entrance to the grounds is at the top of a hill. At the end of the day, we can't even get drunk people *to walk uphill*, much less call a cab.
posted by rocketman at 02:05 PM on July 17, 2012
running a large beer festival every summer
Very cool .. where's that at?
** no plans to drive home afterwards
posted by cixelsyd at 12:09 AM on July 18, 2012
Ah New Zealand. Known to people around the world as "the place they filmed Lord of the Rings" and to the people who live there as "the place they filmed Lord of the Rings."
posted by owlhouse at 02:43 AM on July 18, 2012
Jason Kidd's wrecked Escalade
posted by tommybiden at 10:15 PM on July 19, 2012
I saw this in the New York papers. You think Knick fans are screaming about the team getting Kidd and contemplating letting Jeremy Lin leave?