All the anger, all the venom, was spit out of his system on that December night in Jersey, Jason Kidd promises. He dropped the F-bomb on then-Suns coach Scott Skiles, passed Stephon Marbury silly and marched into the news conference declaring that he had a glorious time "kicking the ass" of these Phoenix Suns.

	Jason Kidd took December's game against Stephon Marbury and the Suns personally.

This was the vicious, vindictive side of Kidd the New Jersey Nets never had seen. Yet this time, he insists, it's gone. No more end zone dances. No more disdainful diatribes. No more blinding Suns rage.

After all, just take one look at those pitiful Suns that promise to deliver the father and son Colangelos an all-expensed trip to Kidd's new neighborhood, Secaucus, N.J., for the draft lottery this May. Just look at them now. Come on down, Jerry and Bryan, and grab Rod Thorn's old seat beside Crumbs Krause. The Nets GM won't need it. Truthfully, the Nets ought to pay for the Suns hotel suite in the swamp and leave them tickets to a Nets playoff game that weekend. They owe the Suns. They owe them everything.

The Suns gave them basketball's best point guard, Jason Kidd.

"There's a lot of construction going on in Phoenix," Kidd said. "... I'm not going to take any jabs at anybody. It's all there in black and white. Everything is coming to light.

"The truth is coming out."

Kidd won. The Suns lost. That's the truth he's trying to tell you on his return to America West Arena on Wednesday night as a New Jersey Net. They're winning the Eastern Conference now. He's an MVP candidate. Yes, Kidd won. The Suns (28-32) have collapsed completely without him. They're going to get worse, and they could stay that way for a good, long time. The Suns fired Skiles. Marbury was busted for drinking and driving. They traded Rodney Rogers and Tony Delk to the Celtics to clear cap space. It's a downright disaster.

Yes, the Suns could miss the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, and there's a genuine sense they're starting over. Again. As players leave town, they confirm the obvious now: Everything collapsed without Kidd. These Suns are so down and out, they've even elicited the sympathy of the man making it his personal mission to destroy them every chance afforded him.

	“	The history of the Colangelos is they don't stick around with a coach very long. And also marquee players. History has repeated itself. ”
		— Jason Kidd

"The history of the Colangelos is they don't stick around with a coach very long," Kidd said. "And also marquee players. History has repeated itself."

What will happen Wednesday night? What will the Phoenix fans do when Kidd is introduced? Cheer? Boo? "50-50," Kidd guessed.

They truly never forgave Kidd for hitting his wife a year ago, the prelude to the Suns trading him for Marbury. And maybe they'll blame him for forcing the trade out of town that turned a 50-game winner into a sub-.500 lottery loser. The Colangelos had every right, as a moral choice, but this was a bad basketball trade. This was horrible. For a franchise that sold Dr. J 25 years ago, the Nets never recovered until now. Until Kidd.

Still, the Colangelos insist on a code of conduct for their players, and the players seldom stray. Marbury came close to punching his ticket out of town with his DUI arrest, but the Suns wouldn't have been able to find close to value for him. No, the embarrassment of compounding the Kidd trade made moving Marbury impossible. They'll have to make the best with Marbury. And as history will note, when times get tough, Marbury wants no part of professional patience.

He has played well for the Suns, but they're finding out too: Stephon is a little rain cloud, still too immature to lift everyone around him. His old coach, Byron Scott, wondered three months ago, whether maybe Marbury just is what he is. Maybe he'll never change. Maybe he'll never grow.

This isn't Jason Kidd's problem now. Anyway, he swears he's done chasing vengeance on these Suns. He returns to Phoenix today, where last June he heard of his trade to the Nets from a radio station calling him on a cell phone, him and his family sitting in the drive-thru lane of a fast food restaurant. Between Skiles and the Colangelos, he had a lot of anger. Now, one's down, and one's out, and well, this lost franchise speaks for itself.

"A lot of the characters have changed," Kidd said. "A lot of the faces have changed. (New coach) Frank Johnson is a good friend of mine. There is nothing personal. Now I have a team in first place. The most important thing to me is returning (to New Jersey) in first place, and we have four games that will test us, so my job is to return back in first place."

Three months ago, on Dec. 5, Kidd climbed into his car, turned down Route 17 South destined for the Nets-Suns game at the Meadowlands and challenged himself: He wanted to beat the Suns without shooting the ball. He wanted to prove a point. He wanted to prove his greatness. He almost did it, too. His way.

Nothing personal? No one believes Jason Kidd. This time, I Told You So comes on the court of America West Arena. He is right. The truth is out. What else is there to say here?

Adrian Wojnarowski, a sports columnist for The Record (Northern N.J.), is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.