Berkeley, Calif. ? Cal picked the perfect way to fire up its basketball fans Saturday: bring Jason Kidd into the building.

The Golden Bears retired Kidd’s No. 5 jersey before playing second-ranked and unbeaten Stanford. His uniform joins Kevin Johnson’s No. 11 and Alfred Grigsby’s No. 4 hanging from the rafters in Haas Pavilion.

“I’m very honored,” said Kidd, who played for the Bears from 1992 to ’94 and led them to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. “When coach (Ben) Braun approached me about retiring my jersey, I didn’t think I did enough to get it retired, but he did.”

Fans chanted “We Love Jason!” before he was introduced.

The New Jersey Nets’ guard flew Saturday afternoon to Northern California from Los Angeles, where he will play for the Eastern Conference in his sixth NBA All-Star game today.

Kidd was joined by his family and three of his former Cal teammates, including Grigsby.

During his first year in Berkeley, Kidd earned national freshman-of-the-year honors and led the country with a school-record 110 steals.