Jason Kidd is a member of the Dallas Mavericks. Again. Finally.
The long-discussed, once-scuttled and ultimately reconfigured deal to bring Kidd from New Jersey back to the team that drafted him was finalized Tuesday. He was reintroduced in Dallas 14 years after the Mavericks made him the No. 2 pick.
Back then, Kidd was supposed to help turn around one of the worst franchises in sports. Now, as one of the league's best point guards, he's seen as a crucial piece in the Mavs' pursuit of a championship.
"There's no bigger reward than to have that championship trophy in your hand," said Kidd, who lost in the NBA finals twice with the Nets. "That's why I'm here. Because Dallas has its eye on that prize."
The eight-player deal, in the making since before the All-Star break and talked about a lot longer than that, sends Kidd, forward Malik Allen and guard Antoine Wright to Dallas.
The primary piece headed to New Jersey is point guard Devin Harris. The others are center DeSagana Diop, swingman Maurice Ager, forward Trenton Hassell and retired forward Keith Van Horn. New Jersey also gets two first-round draft picks and $3 million.
Van Horn and Hassell replace Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George in an original trade proposal. Stackhouse's presence in the deal was muddled by plans to get him back to Dallas — within the rules, although in a way the league frowned upon — and George used his veto power to block his involvement.
"It's been the most amazing, interesting trade we've ever done, and we've done some doozies here," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. "I've never seen anything like it, but all's well that ends well. We got the right guys."
Kidd wasn't the answer in Dallas a decade ago, and he was shipped to Phoenix after 2 1/2 seasons. Five years later he was traded to the Nets, who went to back-to-back NBA finals in 2002-03.
New Jersey hasn't made a long playoff run since, and Kidd started talking trade a year ago, when he almost went to the Los Angeles Lakers. He went public with his latest trade demand last month.
"He's a once-in-a-lifetime type of guy to play with and coach," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "He's had an unbelievable impact on everyone in this organization and we wish him nothing but the best."
Cuban, who was a Mavericks season ticket holder the last time Kidd was in Dallas, is essentially gambling that the 1 1/2 seasons he'll have Kidd is worth more than the 4 1/2 seasons left with Harris running the offense.
Kidd, of course, is a proven commodity, but he turns 35 next month and is a decade older than Harris.
"In any business there's lulls," Cuban said. "Everybody was waiting for the postseason to start. You can't just say, 'OK, turn it on in the postseason.' I think Jason ... being that iconic All-Star will spark a lot of people."
SHAQ SETS SUNS DEBUT: Shaquille O'Neal says he is ready to run with the Phoenix Suns. Really.
"I'm going to be looking to get out like Randy Moss and Terrell Owens," he said Tuesday after going through his final workout before making his debut with the Suns on Wednesday night against his old team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
The prospect of the 7-foot-1, 325-pound O'Neal, at age 35, fitting in with the high-octane Suns has been ridiculed across much of the NBA.
The Lakers' Phil Jackson, O'Neal's former coach, said Shaq's role would be "taking the ball out of bounds and waiting for the other team to get back."
"He's a jokester, and that's funny, very funny," Shaq said without smiling. "Ha-ha. Very funny."
Suns coach Mike D'Antoni says people will be surprised about how well a motivated O'Neal can move, and playmaker Steve Nash was elated with the trade that brought O'Neal from Miami for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.
PHOENIX, DENVER TO PLAY OUTDOORS: The Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets will play the first outdoor game in modern NBA history during the 2008-09 preseason.
The exhibition game on Oct. 11 at the 16,000-seat Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif., will be televised by TNT.
The game follows the NHL's successful outdoor game on New Year's Day in Buffalo, N.Y.
"What will happen here will be historic," Rick Welts, the Suns' president and chief operating officer, said Tuesday. "More importantly, I think this will be a lot of fun. Most of us learned how to play basketball outdoors. This had the perfect circumstances to do it in the NBA."
It won't be the first NBA game to be played outdoors. The Suns defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in a preseason game on Sept. 24, 1972, at a baseball stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Welts said the ideal weather in October and the facility made it possible to hold the event. The tennis stadium is home to the Pacific Life Open, one of the major events on the men's and women's pro tours.