[1] Kidd played college basketball for the California Golden Bears and was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 1994 NBA draft as the second overall pick.

At St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda,[7] under the guidance of coach Frank LaPorte, Kidd led the Pilots to consecutive state championships, averaging 25 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds and 7 steals his senior season.

The all-time prep leader in assists (1,155) and the state's seventh-highest career scorer (2,661 points), Kidd was voted California Player of the Year for the second time and also a McDonald's All-American.

Kidd was also named a finalist for both the Naismith and Wooden Awards as college basketball's top player and subsequently opted to enter the NBA draft in 1994.

Mashburn's injury combined with deteriorated personal relations between the immature leaders of the team resulted in the Mavericks taking a step backwards instead of further development.

[11] Kidd was traded to the Phoenix Suns with Tony Dumas and Loren Meyer for Michael Finley, A.C. Green, and Sam Cassell during the 1996–97 season.

[15] In the playoffs, Phoenix was eliminated in the first round by the San Antonio Spurs led by their Twin Towers duo, David Robinson and Tim Duncan.

Kidd, who broke his ankle late in the regular season, returned during the playoffs to help his team to beat the defending champion San Antonio Spurs and advance to the second round for the first time in his career.

On June 28, 2001, after five seasons in Phoenix in which the team made the playoffs each year, Kidd was traded, along with Chris Dudley, to the New Jersey Nets for Stephon Marbury, Johnny Newman, and Soumaila Samake.

Kidd joined the franchise as the team was constructed around a sophomore Kenyon Martin, veterans Kerry Kittles and Keith Van Horn, along with rookies Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins, and Brandon Armstrong coming from the draft-day trade for the seventh pick Eddie Griffin.

[22] Under Kidd's guidance, the young Nets team prospered through the playoffs, won the Eastern Conference title and advanced to the franchise's first-ever appearance in the NBA Finals.

In the playoffs after splitting the first four games with the Milwaukee Bucks, the Nets recorded a 10-game winning streak, while sweeping the Celtics and the Detroit Pistons on the way to their second consecutive NBA Finals.

As an unrestricted free agent in the 2003 offseason, there was speculation that Kidd would join the defending champion Spurs and replace Tony Parker as their starting point guard.

He made a full recovery and returned to the court for the 2004–05 season in December, during which the Nets acquired star swingman Vince Carter from the Toronto Raptors.

In the playoffs the Nets beat the Indiana Pacers in six games in the first round, but later in the conference semifinal they were defeated again by the Miami Heat, the eventual champions.

On February 13, 2008, the Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey Nets reached an agreement on a trade to send Kidd and Malik Allen to Dallas for Devin Harris, Devean George, Jerry Stackhouse, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, two first-round drafts picks (in 2008 and 2010), and $3 million, but the trade fell through when George invoked his (Early) Bird rights, as was stipulated in his contract at the time.

[41][42][43] The Mavericks hoped that Kidd would provide leadership to the team that for years had been labelled as weak mentally and help Dallas and its franchise-player Dirk Nowitzki win their first ever NBA championship.

[42] The Mavericks made a strong playoff push following the trade, but despite a 51–31 record, they were only able to secure the seventh seed in the highly competitive Western Conference.

The Mavs then swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, with Kidd successfully guarding Kobe Bryant in decisive moments of close games 1 and 3.

[48] In the Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kidd was partly responsible for guarding young and athletic superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

With 39-year-old Kidd averaging career lows in minutes, points and assists for the regular season, the defending champions were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the 2012 NBA playoffs.

On November 28, Kidd was fined $50,000 by the NBA for instructing his player Tyshawn Taylor to bump into him and intentionally spilling a cup of soda on the court in order to stop the game so his team could draw up a last-second offensive play against the Lakers.

Under Kidd's guidance, the young team improved from franchise-worst 15 wins in the previous season, finishing with a 41–41 record to advance to the playoffs as the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference.

Milwaukee achieved that feat despite losing their 2nd draft pick overall Jabari Parker in December to a knee injury and trading star guard Brandon Knight to the Phoenix Suns in February.

[84] Kidd, along with Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison has been credited with improving the organizational culture and creating an environment more favorable to players than was present under former coach Rick Carlisle.

[86] In 2024, following a season where the Mavericks failed to reach the playoffs, Kidd led the Mavericks to their first NBA finals appearance since their 2011 championship-winning playoff run, where they beat the fourth-seed Los Angeles Clippers 4–2 in the first round, top-seed Oklahoma City Thunder 4–2 in the second round, and the third-seed Minnesota Timberwolves 4–1 in the Western Conference Finals.

His 107 career triple-doubles are sixth all-time, trailing Russell Westbrook, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Nikola Jokić, and LeBron James.

[99] Although Kidd was considered a poor outside shooter when he began his pro career, he retired ranked third all-time in the NBA in three-point field goals made.

[95] He considered his NBA championship with Dallas and his two gold medals in the Olympics as tied for the top highlights of his career, followed by the co-Rookie of the Year he shared with Grant Hill.

On February 15, 2007, Joumana Kidd filed a counterclaim for divorce,[101] claiming that Jason, among instances of abuse, "broke her rib and damaged her hearing by smashing her head into the console of a car."