Kidd says he's sure Phoenix traded him not because of his arrest or because the Suns were tired of first-round playoff exits, but because the Phoenix coach "was intimidated by me. The team, in an overall sense, didn't respect him. They respected a player more than they respected a coach, and so there was a threat of, 'If you don't get Jason to believe in it, then the team won't believe in it.' I think he felt threatened." "I have no idea what that means," Skiles says. Both he and Bryan Colangelo say that in the four years Skiles and Kidd overlapped in Phoenix, they never heard a word of this from Kidd. "It's disappointing," Skiles continues. "I felt we had a good relationship. I was really fond of coaching him, and people in the organization bent over backward to embrace Jason." No, Skiles and Colangelo say, what persuaded them to unload Kidd for Marbury was Marbury's youth (he's four years younger than Kidd) and the fact that the Suns weren't much fun to watch anymore. Whatever the reason, the ugly spousal-abuse publicity made Kidd easier to cut loose. After Joumana stopped hiding in the bathroom that night, she dialed 911, thought better of it and hung up. The dispatcher called back, and Jason answered. Joumana expected him to lie and say the call had been a mistake, but he handed her the phone and sat down. For a second she thought he was daring her to turn him in; for a second she hesitated. His face showed no defiance. Maybe if T.J. hadn't seen him hit her ... but T.J. copies everything Jason does. He wants to sit how Jason sits. He cries only when someone takes him away from Jason. Joumana told the 911 operator, in a tape that was quickly made public, "There's just a bad history here. I told him this would be the last time, and he popped me right in the mouth." Asked later if she needed medical attention, Joumana said, "Don't worry about me. This is minor compared to what I usually go through." Jason and Joumana insist that the assault was an isolated event. He says he's never asked her why she said what she did in the 911 call, but both claim it was her way of upping the ante in their showdown -- "her call card to see if I would play or walk," Jason says. Joumana prides herself on her frankness, and only when asked about the 911 call is she less than convincing. "That was not intended as in, 'This is nothing compared to fights we've been in in the past,'" she says. "That was not intended at all. This was a sole incident. Yes, right. Yes." Kathy Redmond, who since 1997 has headed the Colorado-based Coalition Against Violent Athletes, says, "Many times the wife backs down, but the things that come out the first time usually are the truth. The 911 tape perks up my ears because it says there might be a problem. But maybe this is what it took. That could be why he decided to take these steps to get all this help -- the reason for his extraordinary response." The moment Joumana made the 911 call, Jason says, "I knew she did the right thing. I saw this as a way of getting help and saving my family. Of understanding that I have a great wife and a beautiful son and that they were next to the bottom of my priorities." Riding in the back of the police car, he says, "as soon as I started thinking about it, and us, my mind was a lot clearer. It was weird. I could see. I felt free. I felt better as a person. I know I did something wrong, and it doesn't sound right, but after everything was done, I knew what was important in life and what came first." Joumana heard him talking like this on the phone from the police station, and she didn't buy it. It sounded almost too good, and in the days after, she kept expecting him to change back to his "Jekyll-and-Hyde thing," she says. "But he didn't change. That night he remained the same, the next day he remained the same -- I had a restraining order, but he couldn't care less, he wanted to see me. His attorney was begging him to stay in his hotel room, so he had his attorney call me to make sure I didn't leave. I thought, He's for real." Jason took four games off to devote himself to his family. Suns owner Jerry Colangelo publicly said Jason should take as much time as he needed, although privately, Jason and Joumana say, Bryan Colangelo pressured him to come back. (Bryan responds, "If I was guilty of doing my job, which is monitoring a situation, attempting to determine an outcome while maintaining a competitive product, then I am guilty. But never was there the intent to apply pressure.") Jason calls the Suns' position "two-faced," and Joumana calls the organization "hypocrites." Still, Jason sent a letter of apology to every Suns season-ticket holder. -- "I don't look at favorites. That's for (reporters) and fans. I just go out and play."---- Jason Kidd --

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