PREP BASKETBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES : Kidd Would Like a Happy Ending : Basketball: Alameda St. Joseph guard, who has committed to Cal, hopes to close out a storied high school career by beating Mater Dei in State championship game.

He plays pickup games with NBA pros Gary Payton, Mitch Richmond and Todd Lichti. Hegets fan mail from Ohio and South Carolina. Girls wear his image on T-shirts. He signs autographed posters for hundreds at a local pizza parlor. Hammer once came to watch him play.

Jason Kidd commands celebrity status in the Bay Area, where he has become a legendary prep basketball player at Alameda St. Joseph High School the past four seasons.

Kidd, a point guard, has combined court charisma with a flat-out, fast-breaking style of play to become one of the biggest box-office attractions in state history. St. Joseph, a Catholic school with 470 students, has drawn an average of 12,000 fans to five games in the Oakland Coliseum.

“Jason Kidd’s following rivals any professional athlete in this area, with the exception of Joe Montana,” said Jeff Walbrun, an assistant at California.

How did Kidd, a middle-class teen-ager from Oakland Hills, become so popular? Quite simply, it’s the way he plays the game. Kidd plays by the code of a certain athletic shoe slogan: “Life is short, play hard.”

While Kidd’s passing skills have been compared to Magic Johnson’s, most coaches marvel at his endurance and ability to go full-out for an entire game.

“He brings an enthusiasm to the game that’s infectious,” St. Joseph Coach Frank La Porte said. “Jason’s play is infectious on the court and it spills into the stands.”

Although only 6 feet 3, Kidd has great leaping ability. What separates him from most players is his ability to see everyone on the court while going top speed.

Great players have the ability to elevate their teammates to another level. Kidd has elevated his teammates’ play considerably. St. Joseph, the defending State Division I champion, is 121-14 with Kidd in the lineup.

St. Joseph (31-3) will defend its title against Mater Dei (34-1) at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Arco Arena in Sacramento. Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight is well aware of the task ahead.

“You can’t stop Jason Kidd. You can only hope to slow him down,” McKnight said. “There isn’t a high school player that I’ve seen who could guard him one-on-one.”

Kidd averages 26 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and six steals. He burst into the national spotlight two summers ago when he attended the Nike Camp at Princeton, N.J. Kidd came into the camp with the reputation as the state’s No. 1 player and left as the top player in the nation in the eyes of many college coaches.

Kidd lived up to all the expectations this year when he was named Parade magazine’s national player of the year and became the state’s career assist leader.

La Porte, a former head coach at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., said he realized Kidd was a special player in an early tournament game.

“He threw a length-of-the-court pass, left-handed, while he was falling down,” La Porte said. “Another kid caught the ball and made a layup. Afterward, (Cal Coach) Lou Campanelli asked me if Kidd was a junior. He was a freshman at the time.”

But as Kidd’s reputation grew, so did the expectations. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget he’s still a high school player.

“I can’t satisfy people as easily as I can satisfy myself, and that’s all I want to do,” Kidd said. “I know some people will expect me to be Magic and Michael Jordan all rolled into one. But I have to just try to be Jason Kidd and do what I do best.”

Kidd’s best was good enough to attract virtually every college in the country. He narrowed his choices to Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Arizona State and Ohio State--and then announced he would attend Cal.

Kidd’s announcement was a shocker, considering that during the entire recruiting process, Cal was not among Kidd’s five choices. He never made an official visit to Cal and even Walbrun admitted everyone on the Bears’ coaching staff surprised when he made the announcement.

“It all happened in about three weeks,” Walbrun said. “Truthfully, he caught us off guard. But the closer it got (to signing), the more I think it hit Jason that Kansas or Kentucky was a long way from home. Jason’s family has been a special part of his career.”

Kidd said the opportunity to remain in the Bay Area, where he is an established player, and to play in front of friends and family, was a motivating factor. Cal administrators, anticipating big crowds with Kidd in the program, announced that the Bears will play eight home games at the Oakland Coliseum Arena next season.

“I wanted to stay home so my parents could watch me play,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to a big-time meat market.”

Or, as Walbrun reasoned, “Jason is a builder, not a sustainer. He has a chance to do something special at Cal.”

Walbrun figures he has watched Kidd play in 20 games and countless other times in summer camps and pickup games. He said he has done something spectacular in every game.

“He puts a smile on my face every time I’ve watched him play,” Walbrun said. “When the ball is in his hands, there is a great anticipation that Jason is going to do something special. Every game that I’ve watched him play, he’s done something that got the crowd buzzing afterward.”

La Porte said he could coach the rest of his life and never have another player like Kidd.

“He’s that rare package of talent and charisma,” La Porte said. “I have never had to motivate him. He’s always been the hardest worker in practice. The bigger the game, the better he plays. If there’s a television camera around, it’s showtime.”

Kidd has commanded so much media attention that La Porte refused media requests to interview Kidd this week.

“We had 20 requests from newspapers and television stations for interviews,” he said. “We’d never get anything done in practice if I allowed him to do all those interviews.”

Kidd probably will hold court with the press Saturday. Then, he’ll have his day Sunday in Alameda. The city has planned a parade for St. Joseph, win or lose, after the Division I championship game.

“You figure half the people in Alameda (population 75,000) have enjoyed watching Jason play over the past four years,” La Porte said. “It’s time they did something for him. He put the city on the map.”