Jason Kidd partners with Cal to bring defending champ UCLA in for a charity exhibition
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Jason Kidd has been involved with girls basketball for the past five years with his own AAU team.
Now the former NBA star and coach is partnering with alma mater California by putting on an exhibition game Wednesday against defending champion UCLA. Proceeds from the event will benefit Kidd’s foundation.
“We talked about the foundation and the things that we’ve done for youth and for young ladies in basketball with the JK Select program in Northern California and also launching last year here in Dallas,” Kidd said. “So this is another opportunity to bring eyes to the ladies’ game and we’re really excited to be able to do it in the Bay Area.”
Kidd was thrilled to bring the Bruins to Cal — an idea suggested by Bears coach Charmin Smith. The two former Pac-12 Conference opponents will play in Haas Pavilion for the first time since 2024. It’s the first time the defending champion will play at Cal since Stanford did it in 1993.
“We’re really excited to be able to do that,” Kidd said.
Smith said she mentioned to Kidd and his group that UCLA wanted to play this year and that the exhibition game would work well for that. She hopes bringing the defending national champion to the area can become a yearly thing.
“I hope that a team would be willing every year to come out,” Smith said.
UCLA coach Cori Close was happy to be playing Cal in the event.
“Charmin does an excellent job and I know it will challenge our team to grow,” Close said. “But I love even more the way Charmin impacts her community and her players in the way she leads. I hope we can continue playing Cal, year in and year out.”
Kidd said he saw how the late Kobe Bryant started to lift up women’s basketball and wanted to do the same.
“I felt can I help?” Kidd said. “Not be Kobe, but can I help pick up that light and keep it shining? There’s a lot of us out there that are trying to help bring light to women’s sports.”
Besides the game, Kidd said there will be a chat with former NBA guard Gary Payton as well as former Cal player Reshanda Gray.
Kidd also said his foundation will have an auction with Sotheby’s in November to raise more money.
“We hope all of this will bring eyes to what we’re doing for the Jason Kidd Foundation,” he said.
Smith loves to see Kidd involved with women’s basketball.
“We appreciate his investment in girls basketball. He has an amazing club team that’s really successful,” she said. “I like having Jason Kidd’s name linked to our sport. I think it’s really obvious to see right now, girls basketball, women’s basketball is something worth investing in.”
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