Who could've seen it coming? Who could've read Jason's eyes and delivered the hard words before the assault happened? Maybe his high school coach, Frank Laporte, the man who got Jason ready and wanted nothing in return. That's why it felt so pure, back in 1996, for Jason to keep his longtime promise to the man, pulling up in a big gold Cadillac and handing him the keys; Laporte couldn't speak for crying. So maybe Coach Laporte could've steered Jason straight, except that in '97 bone cancer ate him alive. Then there was Jason's godfather and his dad's running mate, Big Jim Hadnot, a scout for the Sacramento Kings and, later, the Nets. But prostate cancer got Hadnot in '98, and it was an ugly chase. "I truly think that's what took my dad, seeing his best friend deteriorate," Kidd says. "Mr. Hadnot used to tell Willis Reed about me. He used to send out tape of me when I was in high school. My dad watched him, a seven-foot giant, go down to bones almost. That took the wind out of my dad. He knew my two sisters were fine. I think he felt it was time to go." Steve and Jason had this routine. Steve, thanks to his TWA job, could fly anywhere for free, so he'd pop into towns where Jason was playing, and they'd stay in the same room, lie on the same bed and snore away the afternoons before games. Steve stayed with Jason during the 1999 playoffs, such as they were; Phoenix got swept by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round, and two days later Jason drove his dad to the airport. "I can still see us driving down the street, and I can still see him talking to me: 'Don't worry about this. You'll get them next year,'" Jason says. "I told him we'd be home by the weekend, and he was talking about going horseback riding. It's as clear as day: His getting out of the car, my getting out of the car and giving him a hug, then watching him walk away. It's very weird, like slow motion. That was the last time I saw him alive." Kidd is sitting on a couch in his family room in Saddle River, N.J. Joumana sits at the kitchen table with her back to him. Christmas is coming, and she's signing and addressing a stack of cards adorned with the family picture. T.J. shoves his Buzz Lightyear doll at Jason, asks him to open the wings so Buzz can fly, then makes his daddy get on the floor to play Pig and Flower. The Kidds' newborn twin girls, Miah and Jazelle, are in bed. Yes, Jason says, he came too close to losing his family. He wonders if things would have whirled so out of control had his dad been alive. "He would've known," Jason says. "He would've said, 'This isn't what you should be doing.' He was my closest comrade. We did everything together. It hurt me that he was gone." It hurts, too, that Steve never got to see T.J. grow and that the only men Jason ever really cared about impressing won't see him play this season, at his peak. But Christmas and its consolations are coming to the Kidd household, and these holidays will be unlike any others. Jason's sisters will fly in, and for the first time the entire family will be in the same room to open presents. Anne Kidd is coming, too, after a year in which her son has reached out to her as never before. Often she has arrived at work to find a message from Jason. "I'm thrilled," Anne says. "I've never enjoyed my trips back to see them as much as I have this year. I can't wait." Jason and Joumana still argue. But, Joumana says, he is communicating so well that the arguments never last long, and the silences melt away. She doesn't want to jinx it, but she thinks she might have finally grabbed the brass ring. "This is how life is supposed to be," she says. "You're supposed to be happy, communicate, be best friends, soul mates. I almost want to go around saving marriages: 'Are you sure? Have you tried everything?'" Jason won't go that far. He's still "under construction," he says. He's happy, the Nets are in first place, and when he's home, T.J. can't go to sleep without Jason lying next to him. T.J. hasn't started snoring yet, but that will come, the father and son drifting off together. Jason knows: He did serious damage, but some things remain. The boy still needs him by his side to sleep. His eyes still shine with the certainty that Daddy is the greatest man in the world. Issue date: January 28, 2002 -- "I don't look at favorites. That's for (reporters) and fans. I just go out and play."---- Jason Kidd --

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