CGB HoF Round Of 32: Jason Kidd v. Joy Fawcett

by TwistNHook on Jul 28, 2009 3:00 AM PDT in Hall of Fame

We start with two of the greatest in their professions. Both have won multiple gold medals as US Olympians, and are among Cal's greatest.

For each athlete, you can vote in the poll; it closes a week from today at midnight. After the jump, you can read the athlete profiles written up by our commenters, and discuss in the comments your memories of each athlete and which one deserves to move on. (Check out the full bracket here. To check out the original nomination thread, click here. For those who want to track the CGB Hall of Fame posts exclusively, click here or right next to the timestamp above where it says "Hall of Fame".)

#1 Jason Kidd

via lh4.ggpht.com

Our basketball historian, LeonPowe, reminisces:

On the short list for best point guard of all time.

* In basketball history. Pac-10 Rookie of the Year. National Rookie of the Year. Pac-10 POY. Top 3 NBA pick. Top 5 pro assists of all time.

(I put Magic, Isiah, John Stockton and Oscar ahead of him . . .but I’d take Jason over Gary Payton, Bob Cousy, Walt Frazier, Kevin Johnson, Mark Price and Tiny Archibald.)

...

Overachieved in his freshman year (Sweet Sixteen), underachieved in his sophomore year (Bozeman’s biggest crime wasn’t cheating . . .it was that he couldn’t coach). But we finished 2nd in the Pac that second year and were ranked in the top 15-20 most of the year.

Now sit back, and watch some sweet Justin Kidd Cal highlights, capped off by the upset vs. Duke (to find out why I called him Justin, see the second video). These fourteen minutes are worth 10,000 words.

#8 Joy Fawcett

via graphics.fansonly.com

Great profile by Fawcett thanks to California Pete.

In the 1990s, Joy Fawcett became the world’s most famous soccer mom. One of the mainstays of the pioneering U.S. women’s national team (239 caps over 18 years), Joy played on the World Cup–winning sides of 1991 and 1999, and she also twice won Olympic gold in 1996 and 2004. While attacking players such as Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy attracted a bit more of the spotlight on those teams, Fawcett’s role was no less integral to their success. Indeed, Joy was a true fixture on the back line; she played every minute of every game in the 1995, 1999, and 2003 World Cups, as well as the ‘96 and 2000 Olympics. She did all of this while being mother to a growing family of three girls. A National Soccer Hall of Famer, Fawcett is arguably the greatest outside back the women’s game has ever seen. U.S. attacks often began with Fawcett’s accurate distribution from the flank, and she pushed forward enough herself to score 27 goals during her career on the WNT, most ever by a defender.

I first remember seeing the not-yet-married Joy Biefeld on the back page of the Daily Cal in the mid-to-late 1980s. This was a pretty dismal time for Cal sports, so any news of national-level success grabbed my attention. In 1986, the soccer stories were all about a young Brandi Chastain, who was national Freshman of the Year at Cal before transferring to Santa Clara. But ably stepping into her shoes in 1987 was Biefeld, whose offensive skills would be on full display. A three-time All-American, Biefeld amassed 55 goals and 23 assists during her Cal career, leading the Bears to the national semi-finals two years in a row. Joy was national player of the year in 1987, when she scored a school-record 23 goals.

Joy and her husband Walter now run Saddleback United Soccer Club in Mission Viejo.

Poll

Who moves on? Jason Kidd or Joy Fawcett?

Jason Kidd

219 votes

Joy Fawcett

34 votes

253 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 14 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

I still hate Kidd for leaving the Nets the way he did, but he still has to be in the CGB HoF. And if this leads to him deigning to give us an interview, well, I’ll just have to bury the hatchet!

No longer wanting an interview with Ryan Anderson.

by yellow fever on Jul 28, 2009 6:37 AM PDT reply actions

I can’t believe Fawcett has so many votes.

"We lose to Stanford in many sports, but if you want to make a Cal team quit, bring a weapon."
--Coach Clark

by carp on Jul 28, 2009 11:43 AM PDT reply actions

You believe 14 votes out of 88 is “so many”???

Contact me: bearsnecessities@gmail.com

by Avinash Kunnath on Jul 28, 2009 1:15 PM PDT up reply actions

I voted for Joy for purely selfish reasons: I like soccer a lot more than I like basketball. But if pushed, I supposed I’d try to support my selection of Joy on the grounds that: 1. she led the Bears to two national Final Fours, while Jason led them to none, and 2. Joy proved to be a complete player during her career, going from being a prolific striker at the collegiate level to being one of the all-time greatest defenders in the world. In contrast, Kidd never did develop a jump shot—the one glaring difference between his game and Magic’s.

Still, I begrudge nobody for voting for Jason, who is truly one of the all-time greats.

Go Bears!

by California Pete on Jul 28, 2009 4:24 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm a HUGE fan of both....

….and I love Joy Fawcett, but JK is THE MAN when it comes to Cal Sports. He’s in a league with Chuck Muncie, Jack Clark, and ……….well, maybe that’s it. Joy, bad match-up for you, ‘cause you’re AWESOME !!!!!!!!!

I'd like to smell the Roses before I die.

by BTown85 on Jul 28, 2009 9:57 PM PDT up reply actions

aw crap.

I was writing a semi long comment about how JKidd has a jump shot now, but I acidentially hit back on my browser. Anyways – he hit 46% from 3 point land last year and 40% this year (hitting 106 out of 300 something)

Although Bill Simmons is right, a lot of it is because he is shooting wide open 3s because no one guards Jason at the 3 point line.

by LeonPowe on Jul 28, 2009 6:57 PM PDT reply actions

Kidd as a soccer star

I remember reading once, many years ago, that Kidd’s best sport as a youth was soccer. With his size, quickness, phenomenal vision, aggressiveness, work rate, etc., I’ve long wondered just how phenomenal a soccer star he could have been. Would he have been a big, powerful lethal striker in the mold of, say, Drogba or Ronaldo (the Brazilian), or would he have been a physical center-back somewhat akin to Onyewu? Or would he instead have been an over-sized play-making midfielder—a Zidane or Ribery, but in a larger package, thus revolutionizing the position as Magic Johnson did for the point guard? He’s certainly done well for himself on the basketball court, but I can’t help wonder, if only …

I have a theory that the all-time greats in certain sports owe their transcendent greatness due to natural talent and hard work, obviously, but also to the good fortune to grow up in the right time and place that put them onto the path of the sport for which they are uniquely gifted. Michael Jordan, for example, might have developed into a pretty good baseball player, maybe even a major leaguer, if he had chosen that sport, but he clearly was made for basketball like few others. Likewise, Wayne Gretzky maybe would have made a decent basketball player or golfer, but it truly was his gift to grow up in hockey-obsessed Canada. Similar stories could be told for the likes of Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher, Michael Phelps, etc..

What if Kidd had grown up in Buenos Aires or Munich or Manchester, rather than Oakland? As a Cal fan, it’s a question I’d rather not ask. But as a soccer fan, it’s a question I can’t help but ask.

Go Bears!

by California Pete on Jul 29, 2009 10:26 AM PDT reply actions

Funny you should say that

Here’s some footage of Kidd at Nash’s yearly charity thing in New York.

Steve Nash’s charity soccer match at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Chinatown, New York 06/25/08. Sorry for the lack of goal footage! Didn’t have the camera on the whole time.

Featuring:
Steve Nash
Thierry Henry
Jason Kidd
Baron Davis
Leandro Barbosa
Juan Pablo Angel
Claudio Reyna
Jozy Altidore
Robbie Fowler
Steve McManaman
Raja Bell
etc.

Contact me: bearsnecessities@gmail.com

by Avinash Kunnath on Jul 29, 2009 12:05 PM PDT up reply actions

Marc Stein also wrote about it.

LINK

The big surprise: Another slam dunk. It was J-Kidd in a runaway.

I had it way wrong in my preview story when I suggested that Kidd, like Baron, didn’t have a soccer background.

“That was my first sport,” Kidd informed me when he got to town.

You could tell, too. Just like Nash, who has so often credited his soccer upbringing with helping him see the game better on hardwood, Kidd’s famed court vision transferred easily onto the turf. The game’s first goal came from a slide-rule, cross-field pass from Kidd to Kalou and Kidd was later denied a goal of his own only by the crossbar.

In short, my Dallas neighbor represented the Southwest Division worlds better than I did.

Contact me: bearsnecessities@gmail.com

by Avinash Kunnath on Jul 29, 2009 12:10 PM PDT up reply actions

That does it. I have a new sports fantasy: play a pick-up game of soccer with Jason Kidd, Joy Fawcett, and anyone else who cares to show up. To Jason and Joy, on the off chance that either one of you is reading this: my regular pick-up game in SoCal is Sunday mornings at 10 AM. I’m sure the group wouldn’t mind if you joined in.

Go Bears!

by California Pete on Jul 29, 2009 1:00 PM PDT up reply actions

“I remember reading once, many years ago, that Kidd’s best sport as a youth was soccer.”

It might have been, as someone pointed out there’s a quote where he says it was his first sport…but I’ll just add one piece of knowledge I have. Back when I was a kid playing CYO in the Oakland diocese, my team was making its way to the diocese finals and we came across a program that had records for single games, diocese finals, the whole diocese tournament and what not. Jason Kidd’s name was all over the place. Even in his grade school days he was a great fit for basketball…

by Missing Barry on Jul 29, 2009 12:35 PM PDT up reply actions

Michael Phelps was born for swimming. I read an article last year that said his body was literally the flawless swimming body. It is absolutely perfect. There is no way he wouldn’t be a swimmer. Also, he doesn’t do running because he is apparently pretty damn clumsy.

All aboard the Jahvid Best rickshaw!

by rollonubears on Jul 29, 2009 1:35 PM PDT up reply actions

There is no way he wouldn’t be a swimmer.

What if he was born in Saudi Arabia? WHERE IS HE GOING TO SWIM?

Contact me: bearsnecessities@gmail.com

by Avinash Kunnath on Jul 29, 2009 3:33 PM PDT up reply actions

Oil.

All aboard the Jahvid Best rickshaw!

by rollonubears on Jul 29, 2009 3:47 PM PDT up reply actions

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