A Bucks head coach once made the entire team run sprints because one player had an Android and it screwed up a group chat
· Aug 2, 2021 · NottheBee.com

Okay I have to admit: this story hits a little close to home for me.

I'm totally that guy in the group chat that ruins every single video—causing it to be the tiniest, most blurry video you'll ever come across in your life—simply because I'm the one person in there with an Android.

And people get really mad at me for this.

However, I think Jason Kidd (then head basketball coach of the Milwaukee Bucks) took this a little too far.

See, Kidd had a pretty strict set of rules when it came to individual mistakes.

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.

Pretty harsh. Still a good tactic, nonetheless.

But one day back in 2014 when it was realized that center Thon Maker had an Android—which "caused an error" in the team's 95% iPhone group chat—stuff got real.

According to a new book, "Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP":

"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."

So that's amazing.

I'm going to guess they were on an airplane maybe, or at least somewhere where they didn't have service (but could still use iMessage)? And I bet the team would've been much better off with all iPhones, therefore having nearly-perfect communication over text. But either way, this is just a hilarious and over-the-top response from Jason Kidd.

"ALRIGHT EVERYBODY ON THE LINE," he might have yelled during the following practice, "EXCEPT YOU, MAKER, YOU STAND OVER THERE AND WATCH THIS. I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THIS NEXT TIME YOU'RE AT THE AT&T STORE AND YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING ONE OF THOSE PIECES OF GOOGLE GARBAGE!!!

K HERE WE GO. [Blows whistle]."

Man, this story made my day.

Because I'm literally that guy!

And I would've enjoyed watching my teammates run sprints in this situation. I really would've.

But you know I'd have been right there in line at the Apple Store the very next day.

I'm guessing that to this day every Bucks player has an iPhone. This probably had a lot to do with their championship season.

And for Jason Kidd's sake, I hope the Dallas Mavericks have Slack.

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