Jason Kidd punished entire Bucks team over one player not using an iPhone: “An example of the team not being united”
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/jason-kidd-punished-entire-bucks-162700803.html
Publish Date: 2026-05-30 15:45:00
Source Domain: sports.yahoo.com
When Jason Kidd coached the Milwaukee Bucks, he had a rule: if one player made a mistake during practice, he punished the whole team by making them do sprints while the erring player watched.
However, in the book “Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP,” Mirin Fade wrote that Kidd took that rule to another level, punishing the team in practice after center Thon Maker messed up their Apple iMessage Group by using an Android phone while chatting.
Advertisement
“At one point center Thon Maker didn’t have an iPhone, messing up the team’s blue-bubble iPhone group chat,” the book excerpt read, via Business Insider. “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.”
Kidd didn’t want to see green in the group chat
After his first season as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, where he went 44–38, the Milwaukee Bucks traded two second-round picks to Brooklyn to hire Kidd as their head coach, a move that also led to the firing of Larry Drew.
Advertisement
His time in Milwaukee is often cited as an example of how strongly he emphasized unity, even extending to how players communicated with one another.
A “blue bubble” group chat is an iMessage conversation in which all participants use iPhones. In these chats, messages appear in blue bubbles and features like read receipts and typing indicators are enabled because the conversation is fully within Apple’s system.
If even one participant uses a non-Apple device, the chat turns green, indicating SMS/MMS messaging instead, which lacks those advanced features.
Advertisement
According to the book, Kidd believed team unity was affected by this, feeling that the group wasn’t fully connected until rookie Thon Maker got an iPhone (or another Apple device) and joined the team’s iMessage group chat.
Related: “I live in a 30,000 sq ft house by myself. You don’t think I know I messed up?” – Shaquille O’Neal on accountability for family…
