PHOENIX -- As he held hands with wife Joumana, Jason Kidd
said Saturday that he will not accompany the Phoenix Suns on their
upcoming six-game road trip.
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Instead, he said, he will concentrate on mending and
strengthening his relationship with her.
Kidd and his wife appeared with their 2-year-old son, T.J., to
talk to reporters in the players' family lounge at America West
Arena less than 48 hours after he was arrested on a misdemeanor
assault charge accusing him of striking his wife.
"Right now, basketball is secondary and my wife and my family,
we've made an agreement that I'll return to play basketball," Kidd
said, "but right now is not the time to play basketball."
Just an hour or so earlier, Suns coach Scott Skiles said Kidd
would make the trip but didn't know when or if the Phoenix star
would play. The team left Saturday afternoon for Salt Lake City,
where the Suns play Utah on Sunday.
Joumana Kidd said Thursday night's incident might end up helping
her family.
"Jason and I have had turbulence in our relationship," she
said. "What happened the other night was good in a sense because
it brought us a lot closer together. And we're going to support
each other through this and get through this."
Kidd, who is to be arraigned Wednesday, echoed her sentiments.
"The big thing is I love my wife and the things that I've been
telling her of late is that we're going to be closer and stronger
when this is all over with," he said.
The couple asked that the media give them privacy.
"We're just like normal people and we have normal lives, normal
issues," Joumana Kidd said. "I thank the media for having so much
concern and curiosity, but we do need a little bit of privacy to
get this behind us. So no more helicopters and vans, and I would
appreciate it so we can get past this."
The couple did not take any questions.
Kidd was arrested Thursday evening after his wife called police
in Paradise Valley, an affluent suburb where they live. Police said
he admitted that he hit his wife.
She told police that Kidd had spit a french fry into her face,
then hit her in the mouth.
Police said she had a swollen lip and was bleeding in her mouth
when they arrived.
In the 911 call, Joumana Kidd told police "there's a bad
history here," indicating this was not the first such incident.
She said the couple had been arguing throughout the day, and
that she was going to the gym and asked her husband to feed and
take care of their son. Kidd grabbed a french fry from the child's
plate and put it in his mouth. She told him not to eat the boy's
food, and he spit the fry in her face, according to the police
report.
She also accused him of kicking in her bedroom door when she
locked herself inside.
Joumana Kidd is perhaps the most prominent wife of an athlete in
Phoenix. She appears regularly on local television, and Kidd has
credited her with settling him down after turbulent early years in
his NBA career in Dallas.
"The Suns have been very supportive in letting us make all the
decisions, Joumana Kidd said. "Like I said, I can't explain how
much I love my husband and my family and that we're going to be
OK."
Kidd, a member of the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal
in Sydney, gave no indication of when he would return to the Suns.
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ALSO SEE
Kidd apologizes for arrest, sits out Friday's game
AUDIO VIDEO
 With his wife Joumana by his side, Jason Kidd says he will be taking some time off from basketball.
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