"When I was a little kid I used to play with guys twice my age, so, I was the last one picked, so if I picked I knew that I had to get the ball to the scorer if I wanted to stay on the court, so that was pretty much my job"
About this Quote
The subtext is about learning power dynamics before you can name them. On a playground, hierarchy is immediate and unforgiving. Kidd doesn’t romanticize grit; he describes a role. “Get the ball to the scorer” reads like humility, but it’s also strategy. When you’re the smallest, you can’t demand touches; you control the game by controlling access. Passing becomes leverage. The “job” language is telling: he’s talking about labor, not play, and that’s why it lands. It echoes how many kids learn to navigate older peers - by being useful, by reading the room, by trading ego for inclusion.
Contextually, it’s an origin story for a specific kind of star: the facilitator whose dominance is indirect. Kidd’s greatness always carried that paradox. He didn’t need to be the loudest or the flashiest; he needed to be the one everyone else depended on. The quote turns a childhood slight into a professional ethos: status comes later. First, you earn minutes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teamwork |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Kidd, Jason. (n.d.). When I was a little kid I used to play with guys twice my age, so, I was the last one picked, so if I picked I knew that I had to get the ball to the scorer if I wanted to stay on the court, so that was pretty much my job. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-was-a-little-kid-i-used-to-play-with-guys-100381/
Chicago Style
Kidd, Jason. "When I was a little kid I used to play with guys twice my age, so, I was the last one picked, so if I picked I knew that I had to get the ball to the scorer if I wanted to stay on the court, so that was pretty much my job." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-was-a-little-kid-i-used-to-play-with-guys-100381/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When I was a little kid I used to play with guys twice my age, so, I was the last one picked, so if I picked I knew that I had to get the ball to the scorer if I wanted to stay on the court, so that was pretty much my job." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-was-a-little-kid-i-used-to-play-with-guys-100381/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.




