01/07/05:
Q. (to Jeff Shleman, writer for ESPN) Who is just flat-out the best player you've ever covered or seen?

A. Kenyon Martin, hands-down, the best player I've ever covered on a day-to-day basis. Guy was amazing. Saw him become only the third player at Cincinnati to get a triple-double (Oscar Robertson was one of the others) and I watched him get so much better. And even though he tries to be a bad-ass in the NBA, Kenyon is actually one of the nicest guys I ever covered. He thought about questions before answering, was always willing to talk, etc. Plus it was simply amazing to see how far he came in terms of speaking. When he was young, he really struggled with his stuttering, but it got so much better.


06/30/04: "Hard to argue that anyone but K-Mart is the preeminent power forward in the game right now. He's added perimeter skills to his brutal inside package; a face-up game to his devastating transition moves; calmness and leadership to the fire that rages below the surface. - David Aldridge, ESPN.com

06/01/04: Found some great Wallpapers of Kenyon -
http://www.walls-cave.com/index.php?sub=1&team_id=18&player_id=66

04/30/04: Kenyon Martin is on the cover of the June issue of Slam Magazine. He is holding a broken backboard. In large letters across the front is the word "Rimwrecker". It’s a seven page article with lots of nice pics small and large. - Mike Ryan

05/01/04: "John Nash has known Rasheed Wallace for years. He followed him through his high school days in Philadelphia, then, in 1995, drafted him with the fourth overall pick of the first round for Washington. Five years later, Nash had moved on to become general manager of the Nets, and he sat in a Chicago gym and watched Kenyon Martin single-handedly bring his University of Cincinnati team from behind to beat DePaul. Nash walked out of the gym that night convinced that Martin would be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft, and he was right. When that draft arrived, Nash, with the consent of the Nets' president, Rod Thorn, picked Martin." - NY Times

Late March - Kenyon is featured by himself in a two page advertisement in Slam Magazine for Reebok and Finishline. - Mike Ryan

02/22/04: "It was one of those plays that had everyone in the locker room buzzing after the game. Kenyon Martin was playing help defense on Jamal Mashburn on the left wing. He switched over to the top of the key to play some more help defense up top, then saw Darrell Armstrong getting the ball in the right corner, where he was loading up for a 3-pointer.

Martin leapt from somewhere near the top of the key -- or was it somewhere near Weehawken? -- and swatted the shot attempt about eight rows deep. "Kenyon Martin was Superman," coach Lawrence Frank said. "I've never seen a block like that, guarding five people on one possession."

The block came midway through the fourth quarter and helped the Nets preserve what was then a 14-point lead. "He probably does have an S on his chest," Jason Kidd said. "That defensive play was something I've never seen before, in the sense of where he came from. He was guarding somebody on the other side, then he took a step from the top of the key and just jumped and blocked a shot. That's just unheard of. But that's why he's the All-Star and the defensive stopper on our team."

Martin's take? "It was just total effort," he said. "I was just trying to make a play. I was just trying to get there -- trying to make him miss or just get a hand on it. And I got a hand on it." - NJ Star Ledger


Nov 2003: Jay Z has started his own apparel line in conjunction with Reebok. His first athlete to sign on with him is Kenyon Martin.

08/26/03: "Tropical breezes and late nights, and a lifetime of memories for Nets forward Kenyon Martin and his wife, Heather, who are here on their honeymoon. Except that the tropical breezes have blown in downpours and the late nights have been 10 p.m. tip-offs for the United States men's basketball team at the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Martin is playing because he said Heather had assured him - while they ate lunch in Las Vegas two days after their wedding - that it would be a great opportunity for him. No matter that they were about to pack for their honeymoon in Aruba. It's still the Caribbean, right? "It's not the same," Martin said, shaking his head. "Not with all this rain."

He is not allowing the weather, or how he was suddenly selected as a substitute, to put a damper on the experience. Disappointed in May when he was not chosen for the team, Martin readily agreed to take Karl Malone's spot when Malone had to leave on Aug. 13 after his mother, Shirley Jackson Malone, died.

Solely focused and virtually acclimated after only a week on the United States squad, Martin has put aside the prickly contract situation with the Nets that erupted earlier this month. Martin's dedication has registered with his United States coaches. "You got to love a guy who changes his honeymoon midstream for basketball," the assistant Gregg Popovich said with a smile. "Does that make a statement or what? He's got guts."

That could be what this revamped team needs as it enters the second round of the qualifying tournament. Playing with newfound resolve, the Americans are trying to repair their shattered image from last year's sixth-place finish at the world championships.

Only two current United States team players - Elton Brand and Jermaine O'Neal - and Popovich, were members last year, when the United States. team when it first lost, 87-80, to Argentina in the second round. The rematch will be Tuesday. "I don't mean to downgrade anybody, but if we go out and play the way we're capable of playing, we should win," Martin said. "I want to beat everybody."

Martin was winded in his first and only intense practice fresh off the red-eye flight from Las Vegas last Tuesday, but Coach Larry Brown played him in the first quarter of the opening game against Brazil. "He's been fantastic, been a quick learner, and adds some aggressiveness and toughness, that's what we're going to need," Popovich said.

That is what Martin brought to the Nets last season. But after the Nets, having committed $126 million to Jason Kidd and Alonzo Mourning, did not offer him the maximum contract extension, Martin asked to be traded, a person close to the Nets said earlier this month. The Nets discussed a possible trade with Portland. "Whatever happens will happen; I've got nothing to say, nothing to do with it," Martin said today. "I'm a Net." Despite his reported trade demand, in his heart he wants to remain one. "I'm starting to put my life in order, where it needs to be, doing everything the right way, staying out of trouble, taking care of my family, trying to be a good husband," he said.

The couple's two children, 2-year-old Kenyon Jr. and 4-month-old Cierra Reign, are with their grandmothers during the tournament, so Martin and his wife can enjoy the experience.

For Martin and his teammates, it will be worthwhile only if they see gold at the end. Tonight, Martin had 2 points and a team-high 7 rebounds, playing 17 minutes as the United States defeated Canada, 111-71, behind Allen Iverson's 28 points in the second-round opener. "When I'm out there, I'm going to be Kenyon," Martin said. "Somebody says I can't do something, I'll prove them wrong." - NY Times

08/21/03: "Kenyon Martin apparently will just have to wait to get his contract done. And that wait likely will go to next summer, teammate Jason Kidd believes. "I don't think they're going to get K-Mart done until next summer," Kidd said last night before the U.S. Olympic qualifying team played Brazil here. "He made that decision, I think. I don't know if they're still talking now, but from what I understand they're just going to wait till next season. He's in no position to get it done right now." Martin, added to the (Olympic Qualifying)team here this week to replace Karl Malone, has declined comment on his contract. "This is not about Kenyon right now. It's all about this [tournament]," he said. While the Nets figure to save several million, the danger they face is having an unhappy Martin all season." - NY Post.com

08/19/03: Because of the recent death of Karl Malone's mother, he has decided not to play for the US Olympic team. In his place is Kenyon Martin. The ESPN article today mentions that Kenyon also was recently married.

"Martin boarded a flight Tuesday morning to San Juan and was expected to join the team at its afternoon practice. Martin, who got married Saturday in Las Vegas, is not guaranteed a spot on the 2004 team, USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller said.Martin becomes the third member of the New Jersey Nets on the roster, joining Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson. "This is somewhat unexpected, but it is a great opportunity for Kenyon. He's certainly deserving of this kind of honor and we're looking forward to having him join the team," Brown said. The U.S. team plays its first game Wednesday night against Brazil.

The 6-foot-9 Martin, a three-year NBA veteran, gives the American team another natural power forward along the front line. The U.S. team is using Tim Duncan and Jermaine O'Neal, who play power forward on their NBA teams, as centers. Elton Brand is the other big forward.

Martin was a member of the 2001 Goodwill Games team that went 5-0 in Australia, needing overtime to defeat Brazil. "This is a great opportunity. I'm very pleased to be added to the team," Martin said in a statement. "I already have a couple of my teammates on the team so we should have a lot of fun."

The first overall pick of the 2000 draft, Martin averaged 16.7 points and 8.3 rebounds last season for the Nets, who went to the NBA Finals for the second consecutive year." - ESPN.com


08/03/03: "The Nets are in no danger of losing Martin, who still will get paid $5.1 million for the coming season. Next summer, he'll be a restricted free agent, which means the Nets can retain Martin simply by matching any other team's offer.
Martin's production has increased in all three seasons since the Nets made him the No. 1 overall pick of the 2000 draft. He is one of the league's best on-ball defenders, and has grown more comfortable and versatile offensively as well, a 3-for-23 shooting performance against the Spurs in the last game of the Finals notwithstanding.
Last season, he averaged 16.7 points and 8.3 rebounds, raising those numbers to 18.9 and 9.4 during a playoffs in which he was simply dominating at times. If Martin can sustain that production during the coming season, chances are he'll get his maximum contract soon enough. But Thorn apparently wants to see Martin do it before he commits more YankeeNets money to the 25-year-old burgeoning star." - NJ Star ledger

07/16/03: "Martin, who showed up at the Boston Pro Summer League on Tuesday night to watch the Nets play against the Spurs, is a restricted free agent. The Nets plan on giving Martin an extension when they're allowed. He reiterated he wants the maximum, between $80 million and $90 million over six years. "That's it," he said. "We got everybody else I wanted here. All I'm looking forward to, just playing. We'll see what happens in the days to come. It won't be long." - Bergen County Record

07/11/03: "Jason Kidd agreed to a six-year, $99 million deal to stay with the New Jersey Nets on Friday, rejecting an offer from the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs." - Sporting News (and somewhere, Kenyon is smiling. . . . )

06/19/03: "Kenyon Martin helped carry the Nets for 100 regular-season and playoff games, all the way to a 2-2 tie in the NBA Finals with the Spurs. Then he produced the two most conspicuously dreadful of his professional career as the Nets lost the series.

He will remember those two far longer than the 100. "I wanted to perform so well so bad. I just didn't do it," Martin said as he and the rest of the Nets officially shut down their season Wednesday with meetings at the team's practice site. "Everybody else will probably remember the hundred. I'll remember two." Actually, coach Byron Scott said, he'll probably have some company because, "Everybody seems to remember your last game."

That one rekindled 9-year-old memories of John Starks' 2-for-18 Game 7 for the Knicks in the 1994 Finals against the Rockets, as Martin shot 3-for-23 and scored just six points in the Nets' series-ending 88-77 Game 6 loss to the Spurs. That, though, came two days after his 2-for-8, four-point performance while suffering from a stomach virus in the Nets' 93-83 Game 5 loss.

Those back-to-back meltdowns are almost certain to brand him, especially cast in the light of his postgame criticism of Keith Van Horn following last season's Finals-ending Game 4 loss to the Lakers. That's why, besides the standard consolation he got from Scott - "We wouldn't have been there if Kenyon Martin didn't play as well as he played throughout the playoffs," Scott said - the Nets' coach also told him to stay away from newspapers this off-season. Still, the questions will follow Martin, questions about memories he said are "still fresh in my head. I've got to get over it. Have a long time to do that, so I'll be all right."

They could also arise when he sits down to discuss a contract extension with the Nets on or after Aug. 1, talks about which Martin said, "I'm not selling myself short." That suggests he would like something in the vicinity of the six-year, $57.5 million maximum offer the Nets can give him.

Yet, Scott believes Martin needs to remember Games 5 and 6 as a means to drive him this off-season when he's working on his game. "You've got to use that type of anger and that type of disappointment to make you better for the next year," Scott said. "You use that as motivation, to come back next year and play even better ... Let that be his driving force."

"I'll deal with it," Martin said, "come back and work on my game. Work even harder this summer and make myself a better player and better person. It is going to be tough to get out of my head, but I can do it. I have faced other things before" - such as the broken right leg that prematurely ended his final college season. [It just takes] time. It'll be rough, but OK." - Bergen County Record


06/13/03: "First, Kenyon Martin had to conquer the physical stuff – the mangled leg suffered late in his senior season at Cincinnati that some thought would be career threatening. Next up was the mental meat grinder. He had to defuse that loose cannon in his head. It didn't take long for perhaps the best athlete ever to come out of Bryan Adams High School to fix those problems. Time took care of the first. His basketball sense took care of the second. But there was another issue to address – that little detail of acceptance, of proving that the No. 1 overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft was worthy of that designation. This would not come quite so conveniently. Sometimes, it takes a big whack to the side of the ego.

When Martin didn't make the Eastern Conference All-Star team this season – while Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Indiana's Brad Miller somehow did – he took it personally. And for the rest of the season, he played like an All-Star in every sense.

Starting after All-Star reserves were announced, Martin averaged 29 points and 13.3 rebounds in the next three games. He went on to average 19.8 points in his final 32 regular-season games. If that didn't do it, then one other snub certainly did. At the end of the season, he was left off not only the all-defensive first team, but the second team, as well. "It was absolutely astonishing that he didn't make the first or second all-defensive team," Nets coach Byron Scott says.

After having his leg put back together, then being supplanted as bad-apple poster boy by Indiana's Ron Artest, these two blows hurt. But the 6-9 Martin is enjoying one heck of a last laugh. He's square in the middle of the NBA Finals for the second year in a row with the New Jersey Nets, and his play is a big reason the Nets have positioned themselves as a force in the Eastern Conference for years to come, regardless of the outcome in the Finals against San Antonio. "I just tried to keep getting better, tried to see how much better I can be in this league," Martin says. "There are things in the game, instead of just trying to show up and play."

That would be all the distractions from the media, his friends and other outside influences that can make the court seem like an oasis. But the stuff that really mattered never bothered Martin. "All of that other stuff, I had before – the tools," he says. It was a matter of "just thinking about the game a little bit more."

There is little doubt that Martin has ability. It's just taken a little time for everybody to figure that out – even himself. He knew early on that his niche in the NBA would not come immediately. "I think I'm pretty prepared for what's going on," he once said. "I think I can be one of the best players in this league when I get a couple years under my belt."

He was 22 when he said that as a rookie. Now he's 24 and, in spite of what some people who vote for All-Stars might think, he is one of the best forwards in the league. He won over at least one skeptic with his play early in the NBA Finals. "I was so impressed," ABC commentator and Hall of Fame center Bill Walton said. "He was the guy I was most concerned about, and he played the best. I thought Jason would be great and that Kenyon Martin would be the problem. And what happened in Game 1 was the exact opposite. Kenyon Martin was great and Jason Kidd was the problem."

Kidd has alternated between bad and good games in the first four games of the Finals. But Martin has been perhaps New Jersey's most consistent player. He leads the team in points, rebounds, blocks and steals during the Finals. Martin has handled himself well against Tim Duncan, who has played like the MVP he is throughout the playoffs, ravaging just about everything in his path.

Against the Nets, he's been great. But perhaps not dominant. The 30-point games that flowed from him against the Mavericks in the conference finals have been absent since Game 1. Martin has had a little something to do with that, as has Dikembe Mutombo.

Duncan has averaged 23.8 points and 16.3 rebounds in the Finals. But Martin has put up respectable numbers in every game, which is part of why the series is tied at two wins apiece.

One of the most interesting aspects of Martin is that his emotions no longer are part of the equation on the court. Nobody expects him to waylay anybody, which was a distinct possibility in his first season in the league.

"Kenyon is maturing," Scott says. "The fact that every day we have watched film and he got a chance to see some of his fouls has helped. And what is considered a flagrant foul, 15 years ago some of those fouls were just what they were – hard fouls. But the league is a little watered down as far as physical play. It's not like it used to be. So he learned from watching tape what he could do and what he could not do."

It's called the learning curve, along which Martin has moved nicely. But he hasn't forgotten his roots. Many of his family members still live in Dallas, including his mother and sister. They and others made the trip to San Antonio for Games 1 and 2. "It was cool to see them," Martin says. Cool because they accepted Kenyon Martin for what he is even before he became big time." - Dallas Morning News


06/03/03: "Kenyon Martin is about to pose for some photographs with his month-old daughter Cierra Reign when he excuses himself to go upstairs to change clothes. He returns to the living room of his five-bedroom Closter, N.J., home wearing a pink Kangol hat that matches his daughter's outfit. As he gently scoops up tiny Cierra into his massive palms, Martin begins to purr at her, whispering to his daughter who has only been home for a little over a week after being born prematurely on May 3. "There is nothing stronger than a bond between a father and a son," Martin says. "But they say it gets better when you have a little girl."

Is this the same man who has the words "Bad-Ass Yellow Boy" tattooed on his chest? The man labeled the NBA's quintessential bad boy only a year ago? ... Wearing pink?

If only Celtics All-Star Antoine Walker could have seen this kinder, gentler Kenyon Martin instead of the one who brutalized him for four games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The funny thing is, precious Cierra Reign, all five pounds of her, is partially responsible for Martin terrorizing the Celtics and the Pistons in the last two rounds.

Cierra was born a month-and-a-half prematurely, just two days before the Nets began their series against Boston. At four pounds, six ounces, Cierra weighed less than the pressure that fills a basketball and was kept at Pascack Valley hospital until about a week ago. Her weight dropped to three pounds, 12 ounces before she began gaining. From Game 1 against Boston through Game 2 against Detroit - a span of six playoff games - a worried Martin visited his daughter every chance he got, before games, after games, after road trips and practices. "Sometimes as soon as he would get to the hospital, he would sit in a rocking chair and his eyes would close," says Martin's fiancee, Heather Thompson, the mother of his two children who plans to wed Martin later this year. "We were there all the time."

A sleep-deprived Martin still averaged 19.5 points and 8.3 rebounds against the Celtics and Pistons, helping to carry the Nets to their second straight NBA Finals. All the while, Martin averaged nearly as many minutes (40.2) on the court as he did in bed. "He went a couple of days where he didn't sleep," teammate and close friend Donny Marshall says. "I could see it in his eyes. Once he got on the floor, it was like he turned on a switch - he was out there using his daughter fighting in the hospital as his energy and aggression."

Wearing her hospital ID bracelet, Martin was driven to finish the Celtics and Pistons series quickly so he could spend more time with Cierra. Two sweeps and a 10-game postseason winning streak later, Martin has emerged a budding superstar, rested and ready to face Tim Duncan. "I think I can elevate my game even more now," Martin says as he coddles his daughter. "In order for us to win, I am going to have to. Everybody is saying I'm a star. I want to be a superstar."

Martin is on his way, averaging 20.7 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.2 blocks this postseason, but it was just a year ago that he was a walking flagrant foul, suspended for a total of seven games after accumulating six flagrants worth $347,057.55 in fines. Martin earned a Dennis Rodman-like reputation, and even after his best game as a pro, a 35-point, 11-rebound effort in Game 4 against the Lakers in the Finals, Martin was remembered most for his postgame comments ripping teammate Keith Van Horn.

It was shortly after that game that Martin thought about his image and the future of his 2-year-old son Kenyon Jr. Martin changed his approach after envisioning a possible conversation that could take place between Kenyon Jr. and future friends. "I don't want my kids to grow up and (be asked),'Your daddy used to be in the NBA? What was his name?'" Martin says. "'Kenyon Martin? Oh, he was an ---!'

"I don't want that for them, you know?"

Later that summer, a few events shook Martin. First, his best friend in the league, Hawks guard DerMarr Johnson, was involved in a serious car accident, and Martin was initially told that Johnson died in the crash. A few weeks later, Martin's Cincinnati college coach, Bob Huggins, suffered a major heart attack.

More than anything else, though, Martin's children have calmed him down. He says he no longer goes out as much as he used to, determined to be the father that he never had. Raised by his mother, Lydia Moore, and older sister Tamara in Dallas, the 25-year-old has only seen his father, Paul Roby, twice - once when he was 10 when he visited Roby in California, and when the Nets played a game in Los Angeles last year. "(Somebody) said, 'There's Paul Roby!'" Martin says of his 6-6 father, who played some college ball at New Mexico. "I looked up there and kept walking. My father wasn't there for me growing up. I told myself that if I'm fortunate enough to have children, it wouldn't be like that. They say you are not suppose to hate people. I probably don't hate him but I despise him.

"You read stuff about different dudes not taking care of their kids, like the Sports Illustrated (issue) having the baby on the cover with 'Who's my Dad?' I'm trying not to be a part of that."

Instead, Martin is making the covers of magazines for his play. He dominated the Celtics' Walker in the second round of the playoffs, holding him to an average of 14 points and 34.3% shooting. "A lot of guys are intimidated by him," Kerry Kittles says of Martin, who only had one flagrant foul this season. "You see guys back away from him when he drives. He'll run into them with his shoulder on purpose and they won't do anything about it."

Duncan, however, will be Martin's stiffest challenge. Ironically, Martin has spent the season trying to convince Nets star Jason Kidd that he doesn't have to join Duncan to play with a premier big man - he already plays alongside one.

After notching 24 double-doubles this season, 22 more than the season before, and averaging 19.4 points and 7.3 rebounds in his last 28 regular-season games to go with a monster postseason, Martin may have convinced Kidd. "I am playing with a big man, K-Mart is my big man," declares Kidd, who will become a free agent on July 1, but wants to see the Nets give Martin a contract extension this August. "He is playing off the wall. We'll talk (this summer) and see what is going on. Hopefully the Nets will give him an extension because it is well-deserved and we'll go from there."

Martin isn't thinking summer just yet. He's still got one opponent left to conquer. And the hospital visits are in the past. "I still don't get much sleep now," Martin says. "She wakes up every three hours. But I rather it be that way than her being in the hospital." - NY Daily News

05/21/03: "If last year's playoffs established Martin, the New Jersey Nets strongman forward, as a legitimate above average NBA player, then this year is turning him into a bona fide superstar. Martin is averaging 21.4 points and 9.3 rebounds during the playoffs. The third-year player is a big reason why New Jersey has won eight consecutive games and holds a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals against Detroit. Game 3 is Thursday night in East Rutherford, NJ." - Wetzel, Sportsline.com

05/18/03: "Kenyon Martin has a secret. He of the seven flagrant fouls and the eight tattoos and the nine hundred tempestuous outbursts is actually a nice guy, the kind of guy who routinely picks up the check at dinner, who laughs at the good parts of bad movies, who lends his buddy a suit and then says "just keep it."

"Look, the man offered to pay my salary when the team was debating whether or not they could afford to keep me, which is something you just don't see in professional sports," says New Jersey Nets forward Donny Marshall, recently reinstated after getting cut at the beginning of the season. In the end, NBA rules wouldn't allow Martin to chip in for Marshall's paycheck, but his offer made Marshall know for sure that Martin's bark is worse than his bite. "You could call him at 3 a.m. and he'd do anything for you; I think he's the most caring guy on our team."

Of course, Marshall might not want to mention that to Boston's Antoine Walker, whom Martin dismantled last week in the Nets' second-round playoff sweep of the Celtics. Or to Milwaukee's Anthony Mason, whom Martin jostled so effectively that Bucks Coach George Karl felt his elbows from 10 feet away. Or, for that matter, to any of the Detroit Pistons, whose lives Martin will be making miserable when the Eastern Conference finals tip off at The Palace this afternoon.

Martin may be a kind teammate, but to the rest of the NBA, he is as cuddly as a porcupine. He pushes. He shoves. He talks trash. He blocks shots with such ferocity that when he didn't make the league's all-defensive team at the end of the regular season, Boston Coach Jim O'Brien said he was "shocked . . . we certainly voted for him."

"In our family, he's the big, tough brother, the protector," point guard Jason Kidd says. "He's the one who, if you're going to school and someone is threatening to take your lunch money, you say K-Mart is your big brother, and everyone will leave you alone."

Certainly, Martin made Walker want to run home to his mother earlier this month; in the first three games of the New Jersey-Boston series, Walker shot just 15 for 52 with Martin guarding him. Martin was so dominating that Walker, a three-time all-star, is now reportedly on the trading block, his utter fizzle in the face of Martin's trash talk just as much as a factor as his failures behind the three-point line.

Martin, on the other hand, has had a standout postseason offensively, leading the Nets in scoring in six of nine playoff games. "I feel like I've been building on last year," he says, and it shows: His dunks have been rim-shaking, but even more important has been a newly sharp jumper that can slice its way to the basket from 20 feet. Between him and fellow forward Richard Jefferson, the Nets have been able to cover up for their weakness at center, and Kidd, who last season had to coax and cajole his young teammates into the NBA Finals, can now do more directing than heavy lifting. "And it's not just that he's scoring, it's the way he's doing it -- his maturity has gotten so much better than it was a couple years ago," Nets Coach Byron Scott said. "That was really evident in Game 4 against the Celtics. The first three quarters, he didn't really do much, and a year or two years ago, he would have just said, 'Forget it.'

"He would have been sulking, he would have been upset with himself. But this time, he just kept playing. It turned around for him, and when he really got it going in the overtime, that's how we won the game."

Actually, a year or two ago, Martin likely would have done more than sulk. He also would likely have cursed out an official, thrown a tantrum or come close to decapitating an opponent, the way he did last season when he racked up six flagrant fouls. By the end of last year's NBA Finals, Martin had impressed coaches around the league with a 35-point performance against the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal but also made them whisper "attitude problem" as they considered his nearly $350,000 in fines.

This year, Martin says, he's changed. He has just one flagrant on his record and "a different attitude, a different way I approach the game. "The referees still call the game the same, but I'm staying away from the stupid stuff I was doing last year. I'm realizing this year that every game is important, and I don't want to cost us anything, so I just walk away."

This does not mean that Martin has become a teddy bear; he is still one of the most feared players in the Eastern Conference and one of the main reasons the Nets are being given a chance to actually challenge if they can make it to the NBA Finals again. As Scott notes, "There is not a person in this league now that thinks the New Jersey Nets are a soft team, and that's because of him."

Still, as his teammates have been learning over the last few years, Martin is not exactly brutal, either. All season, he has stood right beside Kidd, giving the other Nets pep talks, picking them up when they seem to stumble. He has a newborn daughter he loves to talk about, and a loyalty to his friends he considers sacred.

He likes Marshall so much, in fact, that he forgave Marshall's last bad movie choice, "House of 1,000 Corpses."

"Now that's a nice guy, because it was a bad movie, and I made him see it," Marshall says. "But that's Kenyon. On the court, he's the one who puts things in our faces, who steps up and says, 'You need to really do this.'

"Then off the court, well, I wouldn't really call him a kitty cat. Maybe a baby lion." - Washington Post


05/08/03: "Forty-five minutes after helping the New Jersey Nets beat the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinals, forward Kenyon Martin is showered, dressed and briskly walking the length of Continental Airlines Arena toward an exit. He's late for a very important date — at the hospital. His daughter, Cierra Reighn, entered the world Saturday, a few weeks prematurely but with no ensuing complications.

Martin aches to be at her side, as he has been for much of the time since she was born to his fiancée, Heather. Basketball will take him away again Friday when the Nets-Celtics series resumes at Boston's Fleet Center. "She's doing great, really good," tough-guy Martin says with a gooey smile about his daughter. "But man, I just want to go see her, and that's where I'm going right now." But he stops in his tracks, rolls his eyes and laughs heartily when told a certain former college basketball coaching icon-turned NBA television analyst is worried about him. Something about not becoming ... docile. That's what John Thompson was saying.

Not because of the baby girl, but because of Martin's thus-far successful efforts to shed a thug-like image and happily leave the boneheadedness to folks such as Indiana's Ron Artest, the NBA leader in flagrant fouls (six). "I told (Thompson) the other day that he ain't gotta worry about that," says Martin, still grinning. "I still play hard. I go 110% every day. I still have the same aggressiveness, I'm just trying to save my money and stay away from the stupid things I did last year."

That would be when Martin, as a second-year Net, picked up an NBA-high six flagrant fouls and, because of fines and suspensions that reached seven games, lost $347,000. He also fouled out of three of the Nets' 20 postseason games.

This season? Martin, at 6-9, 234 pounds, still bangs with the best of the power forwards. He tied for fifth for most technicals with 13 (he had 12 last season) and most times fouling out at eight (up from six). But elsewhere, his line has changed:

- He had two flagrant fouls in the regular season, one later rescinded.
- In eight postseason games, he has not fouled out.
- He often is the first Net to grab an irate teammate and provide a quick "let-it-slide" eye contact.

And most important, and not coincidentally, he averaged a career-high 16.7 points and 8.3 rebounds during the regular season and has helped New Jersey to a 2-0 lead against Boston. Martin had 21 points and six rebounds in Game 1 and 14 points and 10 rebounds in Game 2.

See what a kinder, gentler Kenyon Martin can do if he puts his mind to it? "I'm hoping that he doesn't get too docile," Thompson says. "I like the fire in him as long as he's under control and he doesn't do anything that adversely affects the game. I think he's spirited. I think he's aggressive. And a guy that does the job that he does has to be spirited. We've got too many docile guys in this league. Kenyon comes out ready to go to war, and I think that's a very important aspect of it."

Martin's menacing on-court presence helped the Nets reach the NBA Finals last season before getting swept by the Los Angeles Lakers. But in analyzing how the Nets could ascend to NBA champions, Martin decided he would have to curb the bad-boy antics and not become branded as bait for needless trouble. "This is my third year, man. I've grown up a lot since last year," says Martin, 25. "I don't know what (prompted it); it's just maturing. That's the way it goes, I guess. Some people get it, and some people don't. I think I got it."

A nice piece of evidence was provided Wednesday night after Nets guard Kerry Kittles had been called for his second foul in seven seconds. A year ago Martin probably would have let the ref know he agreed with Kittles' heated vocal protests, and who knows what might have happened.

This time Martin gently hit Kittles in the chest, softly pushed him backward and said something in his ear. Seconds later Kittles stole the ball and passed to Martin, who passed right back to Kittles for an open baseline jumper. "He's relaxed a lot," fellow forward Richard Jefferson says. "He doesn't let situations or referees get under his skin, and I think that's why he's grown up, or rather, matured."

Adds Courtney Witte, the Philadelphia 76ers director of scouting, "He doesn't have the highs and lows emotionally, he doesn't have the outbursts he's had in the past, and he doesn't let that take him out of the game. He's matured to the point where mentally he's in the game all the time."

Jefferson credits Jason Kidd, the Nets' level-headed veteran guard, for part of Martin's change. "Jason Kidd is the calmest, most reliable guy you could have, so we follow his lead," Jefferson says. "Kenyon's learned from him, really, and I think that's become obvious as the season has gone on."

Martin, for the most part agrees, saying he always has admired Kidd. "But I'd say that Kenyon Martin is the heart and soul of that team, and his energy and his spontaneity is what helps lift them up," says former NBA center Bob Lanier, who was at Wednesday's game. "I love Jason Kidd — you've got to love him — but I think the intensity that Kenyon Martin brings to that squad is entirely pertinent to their success."

Martin talks tough when he feels the need. He recently challenged Jefferson to raise his level of assertiveness, but Martin didn't do so in the manner when he more or less blasted then-teammate Keith Van Horn for being soft during last season's Finals.

About an hour before Wednesday's game, Jefferson accosted Martin in the locker room and playfully admonished him for ripping Jefferson's admission of being nervous in certain playoff situations. Jefferson wagged his finger at Martin, who wagged back ... and the two soon dissolved into giggles. "That's right, get on out of here," Martin said with mock scorn as Jefferson went into the training room.

This isn't to suggest Martin wants to become, first and foremost, Mr. Nice Guy. "I'll always be a vocal leader, and I voice my opinion — good or bad," he says. "I think my teammates respect that. They respect that I work hard every day, and they know what they're going to get."

But the Celtics aren't so enamored of Martin, who has, for example, defended with unending tenacity forward Antoine Walker, Boston's chief second option behind Paul Pierce. Walker was held to seven points Wednesday on 3-for-15 shooting after scoring 14 in Game 1 on 6-for-20 accuracy. "We had great production from everybody, but I did not step up," Walker said after Wednesday's loss. "Everyone stepped up, but I came up short."

"We like our matchup with Antoine. We like Kenyon Martin guarding him," Nets coach Byron Scott says slyly. "And so far, in the first two games, he's done a pretty decent job, and hopefully he can continue to play him the way he's doing."

That would be playing him tough and rough — just not too much. But docile? Hah! "Coach Thompson, he's funny," Martin says. "Like I said, that shouldn't even be a worry for him. I'm the same player I was last season." He pauses and continues. "The same player," Martin says, "just a whole lot smarter." - USA Today


05/04/03: "Martin, the 6-foot-9, 245-pound menace, has transformed into one of the most magnificent young talents in the sport, his shooting and scoring rushing to meet the mettle of his defense and rebounding. He's the second star now, a worthy running mate to Kidd. 'Kenyon is going to be so good, it's scary,' Kidd said." - ESPN.com

05/04/03: "Before the playoffs began, Byron Scott sat on one of the chairs lining the court at the Nets' practice gym and Kenyon Martin plopped himself down nearby. With one sentence, Martin — who has intimidated opponents and even teammates at times — sent a chill of excitement down his coach's spine.

Scott said: "Before the series against Milwaukee, we were sitting right here and we were talking and he said, `I think I finally figured it out, Coach.' " That statement came after a regular season in which Martin emerged as one of the best power forwards in the National Basketball Association. "It takes guys two or three years to understand this league," Scott said. "How to prepare for games, how to prepare for the road, how to prepare for disappointment. The thing I said about Kenyon all last year, the guy is a very intelligent basketball player. He knows exactly what he's doing. Now everybody sees the type of player he is."

Against the Bucks, Martin averaged 22.3 points and 10 rebounds — both team highs — and proved to be as unstoppable as Jason Kidd. Against the Boston Celtics, Martin has been assigned to stop the high-scoring Antoine Walker. Martin limited Walker to 28.4 percent shooting in helping the Nets take three of four games from the Celtics in the regular season. And that was before he figured things out.

Martin's strengths are his leaping ability and his speed. But in truth, his real strength comes from a 6-foot-9, 230-pound frame that is stacked with muscle and covered with tattoos. "I think some people are scared of him," Scott said. "I've seen power forwards, where he might foul them and they might otherwise look like they're about to do something, they turn and see it's him and say, `No no, no.' "

Martin has learned to control the aggression that he takes on the floor every game. The flagrant fouls that were once as much a part of his game as his breathtaking dunks are a thing of the past. The angry outbursts have been eliminated, but a still fearsome visage fuels his play on both ends of the court. "I play with a chip on my shoulder," said Martin, exhausted from a sleepless night and the birth of his second child, a girl named Cierra Reign. "When I was younger, that's the way I always played. Just growing up and wanting to be the best player I can be. I feel that's the way I have to play. It's not anger. I just play with a chip on my shoulder all the time. I don't take no stuff off nobody."

Martin insists there is no need for him to get caught up in the growing dislike between the Nets and Celtics, leaving that for the fans. "I don't need motivation like that to do my job," he said. "If that's your motivation, you're not going to last in this league."

Certainly, Martin would like to see himself and Richard Jefferson in place of Walker and Paul Pierce in All-Star Game consideration someday, but he is approaching this series the same as he would a game against Cleveland in February. "I think Kenyon, once he gets in the car he's pretty mellow, but as soon as he drives into the arena it comes down," Scott said, running his hand across his face. "He's getting ready to go to war, go to battle, whatever you want to say. That facade of being a teddy bear as a father, a parent, is gone. It's just his image, wanting everyone to understand. In college he was a tough guy, an intimidator. He wanted the same type of image in the pros. He wasn't going to back down from anybody. He just went about it a little longer than he probably wanted to, as far as getting the seven or eight flagrant fouls.”

"Everything he did he was doing not only for himself, he was doing it for our team," Scott said. "We had an image here of being soft. That was our image and one person changed that in two or three months — you know that no one is going to come in here and push us around. We're not backing down to anybody. He took it upon himself to do that. There is not a person in this league now that thinks the New Jersey Nets are a soft team." - NY Times

04/17/03: The NBA announced today that Kenyon's jersey was the 16th best selling jersey sold this season.

03/28/03: Calling (Kenyon) Martin 'probably the best forward I have played with,' (Jason) Kidd plans to talk to Martin this summer to make sure both are on the "same page" when it comes to their future. "I don't want to be here if (Kenyon)'s not" - NY Daily News

02/26/03: "Kenyon Martin left the team shortly after shoot-around yesterday to return to New Jersey. "His fiancée (Heather) was having some problems with (her) pregnancy," Thorn said. "We constantly preach about how family comes first. So obviously his family is the most important thing right now." Coach Byron Scott said he thought Martin would be available for tonight's game against the Knicks." NJ.com

02/21/03: "All of Kenyon's Reeboks are embroidered with "Slim #1" on the back for DerMarr Johnson." - Slam Magazine

02/09/03: "You knew Jason Kidd was going to have another great year -- and he has -- but the real stud at the half-way mark for the Nets has been Kenyon Martin. All-Star or not, Martin has been, to used Michael Jordan's words, "a man among boys." He has 10 double-doubles in his past 12 games, and before a minor knee strain against Philadelphia, he ripped off a four-game stretch where he averaged 26.5 points and 15.3 rebounds a game. If Martin can continue to be anything like that in the second half, the Nets should have no problem gaining the No. 1 seed in the playoffs." - Bergen County Record

02/05/03: "Martin entered as the league's hottest player, averaging 26.5 points and 15.3 rebounds in his last four games. But he sprained his left knee late in the first quarter and never returned after the start of the second. "I don't know how bad it is, but I think it's just a sprain," New Jersey coach Byron Scott said." - NBA.com

02/04/03: "I think K-Mart is starting to feel pretty comfortable in his skin as a basketball player right now," (Coach Byron) Scott said. "Right now, we're benefiting from his aggressiveness, especially on the offensive end. But I think he can get better to be honest with you, and I think you'll see that in the years to come." Or maybe you just have to ask: What have they been feeding this guy? "You have to ask (his fiancée) Heather," Scott said. "Whatever she's feeding him, just keep doing it for the next three months." - NJ Star Ledger

02/02/03: "Much as Kidd frequently does, K-Mart put the Nets on his shoulders and carried them as far as he could, matching his season-high with 29 points, two short of his career-high, while grabbing 15 rebounds. That ran his double-double tally this season to 17 overall, 13 in his past 21 games, and three in a row. He had two last season, plus two more in the playoffs." - Bergen Cty Record

02/01/03: "After Kenyon Martin suffered through two serious injuries in two seasons, basketball insiders wondered if he ever again would be the same dominating player he was most of his college career with Cincinnati. He wouldn't. Not only has Martin recovered the form that made him the consensus college player of the year for the 1999-2000 season, he has gotten better.

The image of Martin's first injury was jarring - the best player in the nation fell to the ground with a fractured leg late in the season, ruining the Bearcats' national-title hopes and possibly hurting Martin's chance of becoming the first pick in the NBA draft. But it was his second injury, a break to the same leg that cut his rookie season 12 games short, that could have had the worst ramifications.

Martin recovered from the initial injury quickly enough to be taken first overall in the 2000 draft by the New Jersey Nets and become an early front-runner for the NBA's Rookie of the Year award. Martin's early success indicated the injury might have been a solitary stumbling block on his way to a great career. But with the second fracture, suffered at the end of March 2001, Martin's potential could have gone unrealized as he flirted with earning the dreaded label of "injury-prone."

Instead Martin is on the brink of stardom. He remains a fantastic defender and continues to expand his offensive game. He started all 44 of New Jersey's games this season heading into Friday night's game with New Orleans.

How has he done it? "I worked, and hard work pays off," Martin said. "I just went out and put the time in. That's all you've got to do." Last season was a critical one for Martin. He formed a powerful duo with Jason Kidd, and New Jersey went from 26 wins the previous season to 52 and advanced to the NBA Finals.

Although the Nets were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers for the championship, the playoffs were a return to the limelight for Martin. He improved his scoring average from 14.9 points a game in the regular season to 16.8 in the postseason and ended the run with a 35-point performance in Game 4 of the Finals. Martin is averaging 14.4 points and 8.6 rebounds this season and continues to progress.

Nets coach Byron Scott is quick to point out how Martin has made a conscious effort to improve his rebounding average, going from 5.3 in 2001-02 to 8.6 this season. Martin also has expanded his shooting range and is a legitimate threat to hit a 20-footer.

But don't think Martin is getting soft or venturing outside to favor his leg. With Kidd feeding him the ball, Martin has earned respect as one of the league's most ferocious dunkers. Though he splits time on the highlight reel with teammate Richard Jefferson, Martin's superiority on the Nets in that aspect of the game is unquestioned. "Kenyon Martin is definitely, without a doubt, the best power dunker on this team," Jefferson said. "I try to do a lot of finesse stuff, but that guy just tries to dunk right through people."

Unfortunately for his fans, Martin's skills will not be on display at the NBA's All-Star weekend Feb. 8-9 in Atlanta. He will not join Jefferson in the slam-dunk contest, nor was he selected for the All-Star Game. But for Martin, playing for his team is enough. "I don't hang my hat on (individual accomplishments)," Martin said. "I go out and do my job - if people recognize what I do, great; if not, oh well. I'm not going to cry about it." - Enquirer.com

01/15/03: "Kenyon Martin admits the All-Star Game would be nice. But the Olympics would be even better. "Playing in the Olympics, man, that's a dream. If I get asked to play, I wouldn't turn it down," said Martin, who was a member of the 2001 gold medal winning U.S. team in the Goodwill Games in Australia. "I guess once you've been in the USA Basketball, I guess your name comes up a little bit for the Olympics. Like I said, if they'd ask me to play, I'd play." - NY Post

01/06/03: "Since the morning of Sept. 13, when DerMarr Johnson's Mercedes slammed into a tree and burst into flames, leaving him with a broken neck and near paralysis, Kenyon Martin has drawn strength from Johnson, his friend and former University of Cincinnati teammate. "He inspires me more than I inspire him now," Martin said. "I tell him that all the time, every time I talk to him." Martin was one of the first players to see Johnson after the accident. Today, Martin got to talk to Johnson in person, hoping that he could be the one to offer the inspiration this time.

The Nets, who won their ninth straight game Saturday at Orlando, had a day off here today before their game Monday against the Hawks. And Martin went straight to Johnson's home to encourage him in his rehabilitation. "I'll do some things for him, some motivational things, like bring him some pictures we took together at school," Martin said. "I want to see him come back."

The two played one season together at Cincinnati, as Martin, a senior, was a mentor for Johnson, who was named Conference USA's freshman of the year. The 6-foot-9 Johnson declared himself eligible for the draft after that season, and the Hawks chose him with the sixth pick in 2000. He was projected as their starting shooting guard coming into this season.

Martin, the No. 1 overall pick in 2000, is surging toward his first All-Star selection. Johnson is no longer wearing a neck brace, and while doctors maintain he cannot play this season, he is looking forward to next season. Doctors cleared him to shoot free throws, and Johnson has been traveling with the Hawks. He even dunked once. "I'm happy for him," Martin said.

Martin's continuing growth and maturity on the court — he has no flagrant fouls this season after accumulating six last season and is leading the Nets in rebounding — mirrors a new off-court perspective stemming from Johnson's accident. "I look at things totally different now, and I'm pretty sure he does, too," Martin said. "I tell him, `You realize now, you're a lucky kid.' And he's like, `I know.' "

As if either of them needed another reminder about mortality, their college coach, Bob Huggins had a heart attack in the fall. "It just makes me realize you can be here one day and gone tomorrow," Martin said. "I changed a lot of things off the court that I do. I appreciate my family a lot more, stuff like that. He does too."

Martin heaps love on his rambunctious toddler son, Kenyon Jr., and has transferred such a carpe diem approach to the court. He is rebounding and scoring with renewed intensity. In the first 28 games of the season, Martin averaged 7 rebounds and 13.3 points. In his last six games, he has averaged 10.8 rebounds and 20 points, pacing the Nets.

In the back of his mind is Johnson. In the forefront is Charles Barkley. Martin changed his approach to rebounding after watching Barkley in an old commercial on NBA.com television. "No, really," Martin said, nodding. "The one where he said you can do two things in rebounding — you can watch it or you can go get it. It's true, that's what I've been doing lately. I haven't been watching the ball, I've been going to get it. That's all the difference. "I've seen it before, but it didn't really hit me."

His aggressiveness on the boards and in defending All-Stars has made an impression on other coaches, as well as the fans who vote. "Kenyon's defensive spirit and toughness I think combined with Jason's will is what makes that team go," Orlando Coach Doc Rivers said, referring to Nets point guard Jason Kidd. "Kenyon really has made strides from last year. He was playing well, but the other stuff was distracting and taking away from all the things he was doing on the court. Now people are just focusing on the good things he's doing."

Martin hopes that voters will not look at offensive numbers alone. "It isn't all about scoring all the time," he said. "I would love to make it. It'd be great for me, the team, the organization. If I make it I'm happy. If not, if we're winning, I'm happy, too. I've got to continue to play well. I have a decent chance if we keep winning."

The All-Star Game will be in Atlanta on Feb. 9, giving Martin another opportunity to visit Johnson. On Monday, Martin will be focused on helping the Nets extend their winning streak to 10 games while giving Johnson a show. "It makes me want to play well," Martin said. "If he sees me out there doing what I do, maybe it will inspire him. I just want him to come back." - NY Times


01/05/03: "Kenyon Martin...produced his fourth straight double-double, fifth in his last six games, and 10th of the season (after recording only two a year ago) with 19 points and 12 rebounds." The Nets re on a nine game winning streak, longest in franchise history. - Bergen County Record.

12/19/02: "The Bearcats might have gotten some inspiration for Tuesday’s defensive effort (a win over #5 Oregon) from Kenyon Martin, who visited the UC players and coaches the day before the game then showed up at the Bearcats’ contest after playing for the New Jersey Nets on Tuesday. Martin, the nation’s consensus player of the year as a senior, was a three-time winner of the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year Award and was co-national defender of the year his final season at Cincinnati." - UCBearcats.com

12/08/02: "Kenyon Martin is one of the top five defenders in the NBA. Just ask him. "I've been that, I just haven't made [the All-Defensive team]. I've been preaching that since my rookie year," Martin said. He backed up his argument Saturday by shutting down Tracy McGrady as the New Jersey Nets rolled to a 121-88 victory against the visiting Orlando Magic. Martin held McGrady to 0-for-7 shooting in the first quarter and 2-for-13 shooting by halftime as the Nets opened a 20-point lead." - Chicago Sun Times

11/24/02: "Almost from the moment Keith Van Horn departed for Philadelphia, Kenyon Martin knew his role this season would change. He knew he was suddenly a full-time power forward, which meant full-time defensive assignments against the likes of Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O'Neal, Antoine Walker, and Karl Malone. He knew that instead of facing whippet-quick small forwards, he'd face muscle. Every night. "That's why I got in the weight room," Martin said after the Nets christened their potentially season-defining, five-game road swing with Saturday's 96-82 hammering of Minnesota.

He added 10 to 15 pounds and chiseled a frame that now carries 240. He adjusted his mind-set to defending players he knew would be even heavier and often taller than his 6 feet, 9 inches. Such as the 7-1 Garnett.

"Giving up that many inches, you have to be physical," he said. "If that's going to be my disadvantage, I have to have an advantage, I have to be more physical with those guys."

So far, so physical. Garnett got 19 points and 15 rebounds Saturday, but six of those points and five of those boards came in garbage time. In their first meeting, a 106-82 Nets' romp, Garnett also padded his 23 points in garbage time. The two performances prompted Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders to call Martin one of the three best defensive forwards in the league.

Otherwise, Martin has put the clamps on the likes of Tim Duncan (8-for-19, 21 points), Dirk Nowitzki (5-for-18, 18 points), Jermaine O'Neal (6-for-15, 14 points), and Kwame Brown (2-for-10, four points). Only the Clippers' Elton Brand (7-for-13, 20 points), whom he faces again Thanksgiving night in the second game of the Nets' four-game Western swing that begins Wednesday in Phoenix, has held his own against K-Mart. "He knew he was going to have to play against some pretty strong guys at the power forward position," coach Byron Scott said. "So he made sure this summer that he really hit the weights, he got a lot stronger, and didn't lose any of his flexibility or his quickness."

"As long as I prepare myself and do things the right way and my technique is good, and as long as I don't get caught up in doing things the wrong way, I should be fine," Martin said. - Bergen County Record



11/16/02: "He'd never had a broken nose before, but Kenyon Martin knew his beak was busted when he saw the blood dripping onto the AmericanAirlines Arena floor last night. Stepania, the Miami Heat's reserve center, clipped Martin with what appeared to be an inadvertent elbow with 10:45 left in the Nets victory here and cast some doubt on the power forward's availability for tonight's showdown with the undefeated Dallas Mavericks at Continental Airlines Arena." - NJ Star Ledger

07/13/02: "I think Kenyon has proven that he can play with the best of them" - Coach Byron Scott

06/29/02: Dime Magazine Interview
http://www.dimemag.com/kenyon.asp

For those of you looking for Kenyon and the Nets updates, they are most easily found here:

http://www.nj.com/nets/
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/text/index.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/today/Metro_Sports/Basketball/default.asp

and at
http://www.joenetsfan.com/PlayersFiles/joe_netsfan_player_kmart.html
one of the best looking fan sites around.
- Mike Ryan, BearcatNews.com


06/04/02: "Tough, physical player, aggressive defender ... leads team in points scored ... mostly around hoop and with medium-range jumper ... active rebounder and is team’s best shot blocker." - Dr. Jack Ramsay

http://photostore.nba.com/source/PODGallery.aspx?playerId=11327&team=nets

04/29/02:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/coverlarge0429.jpg

03/04/02: "The foul appeared more blatant than flagrant. After getting hit with two elbows, only to see nothing called, Kenyon Martin decided to take matters into his own hands in the third quarter Sunday. So when Martin saw Eddy Curry setting a pick, he lowered his shoulder and barreled into the Bulls' rookie, sending him sprawling. It seemed like nothing more than some over-enthusiastic payback until Martin was called for a flagrant foul. The foul comes with a one-point penalty, according to the NBA's code of discipline. That gives Martin six points this season, which will earn him a mandatory one-game suspension. That would be served Tuesday, when the Nets face the Los Angeles Lakers, unless the club appeals the call. "I got elbowed twice," Martin said. "They don't seem to see what anyone else does. Whatever happens, happens. I said something out there the first time. They didn't pay attention. It's over." Martin has been suspended twice this season. He received a one-game ban after a hard foul on Utah's Karl Malone on Dec.Ÿ22, and then got a two-game suspension for fouling Orlando's Tracy McGrady on Jan.Ÿ4. Both of those fouls were judged to be two-point flagrant fouls. Martin committed another one-point flagrant foul against the Toronto Raptors on Feb.12." - Bergen Cty Record

02/10/02: "There are mansions in this part of Bergen County, huge houses with high gates and rolling grounds worthy of a fox hunt, a quail hunt or at least a really good Grey Poupon commercial.

As Kenyon Martin winds his way through Alpine and into Closter on his commute home, through a countryside where old money and new money mix easily, he passes a dozen estates like this. He just doesn't happen to live in one.

No, Martin lives in what passes for a modest neighborhood for these parts. The houses are close together. The front yards are small. And seemingly the only house without a basketball hoop or a hockey goal in the driveway is Martin's, an off-white, brick-faced, relatively nondescript contemporary that does not appear to be the biggest house on the street. "I'm not into big, flashy things," said the Nets forward, who is in the midst of a three-year, $11.4 million contract but still likes to bargain-shop at grocery stores. "I like nice things, but I'm not going to spend $18 million on a house."

Yesterday, Martin was at NBA All-Star Weekend in Philadelphia, where he played in the rookie-sophomore game and represented a team with the best record in the Eastern Conference.

But on this day, he was just another guy getting home from work -- albeit a guy whose garage contains a Coke machine with his likeness on it. Inside the house are four bedrooms, one fireplace and precious little in the way of decoration. Outside there is a pool with a slide, mostly for when his niece and nephew visit, and a small lawn he absolutely does not mow himself.

The house has two permanent residents besides Martin. One is Special, a 2-year-old Rottweiler with a plastic flower attached to her collar. She could be considered ferocious, but only if you're afraid of getting covered in dog slobber when she licks your hands. "I've heard her growl twice the whole time I've had her," Martin said.

The other is Don Willis, Martin's best friend, who is sitting in the finished-basement rec room absorbed in a game of Madden Football 2002. "This is the room where we spend most of our time," Martin said with a grand sweep of his hand, as if there were something truly magnificent to behold.

The decor could best be described as 24-year-old bachelor chic: all neutral colors and a 42-inch television.

On the floor, there's a PlayStation 2, there's a PlayStation 1, a Dreamcast and an Xbox sitting in a jungle of wires. On top of a sub-woofer next to the television, there's an incense burner in the shape of a cobra that causes smoke to come out of the snake's mouth when lit.

An oversized ottoman sitting in front of the couch serves as a coffee table, and it holds everything from a month's worth of magazines to a half-empty bag of Blow Pops.

Martin throws himself on the couch. His long body immediately, and quite naturally, assumes a reclined position. "This is me," he said. "Everybody sees the screaming and the dunks and a couple of those episodes that happened recently? That's not me. That's not me. That's just me when I'm on the court. The rest of the time? I just chill. I don't like confrontations. I don't like to get angry. I'm a 'whatever' guy. That's just my reaction to things: 'Whatever, whatever.'"

A GENTLE GIANT
If image makeovers were this easy, Martin could invite everyone in the NBA to his house, let them meet his slobbery-affectionate dog, play a quick game of Madden Football and hang out for an afternoon.

They would learn Special and her owner take after each other: They're really quite friendly. They just look mean. But these days, it seems the NBA looks at Martin and see just another attack dog.

In a two-week span in December and January, he committed flagrant fouls against Utah's Karl Malone and Orlando's Tracy McGrady, earning a one-game suspension and $7,500 fine for the first and a two-game suspension and $15,000 fine for the second.

As if taking out two of the game's best players weren't enough, McGrady compounded matters with this quote that got play all over the country: "To take a guy like Karl Malone out, to take me out, he's headed down that road to being labeled a dirty player."

Dirty player. Bill Laimbeer. Dennis Rodman. And Kenyon Martin? "I get concerned he's getting a reputation," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "And that's not the reputation I want him to get."

Because while Laimbeer grew into the label and Rodman reveled in it, Martin doesn't want anything to do with it. He fears it might have cost him a spot in the "varsity" All-Star Game being played today and doesn't want it to happen again. He'd rather be known for his athleticism, his passion, his competitiveness -- his basketball. The "bad-guy" tag just doesn't fit. That's what people who know Martin say.

Bob Huggins, his college coach, calls him "as good and as caring a person as you're ever going to be around." Lucious Harris, his best friend on the Nets, calls him "professionally laid-back." And if you ask his mother, well, what do you expect? "He's my gentle giant," said Lydia Moore, who lives in a house in Dallas that Martin bought her shortly after the 2000 draft. "He's just that same little boy to me. I brought him into this world, you know. I've known him longer than he ever will be tall. And I've loved him more than he ever will be rich. And to me, he's still a little kid."


GROWING PAINS
The little kid from Dallas, the one the bullies picked on because he was small and he stuttered, has come a long way from Oak Hill, the section of the city where he grew up.

It's an unlikely story in a lot of ways, how he became an NBA star. Martin wasn't the can't-miss prospect growing up. He wasn't the most sought-after recruit. "Just thinking back to when I first started playing, it amazes me sometimes," Martin said. "People said I was too clumsy. People said I was too skinny. It was everything. Then I think about all the places I've been playing basketball."

He went to three high schools, leaving one for the next for various athletic and academic reasons.

Then it was off to the University of Cincinnati, which took him even though he didn't have the SAT score to qualify right away. Martin spent the early months of freshman year taking practice tests every day. By Christmastime, he had his score and could start playing. "That's when I learned that hard work pays off," Martin said. "And if you want something bad enough, you have to keep working until you get it."

That idea carried him to national college Player of the Year honors as a senior, when he was a 240-pounder who overpowered his opponents.

What happens next is fairly well-documented: Martin shattered his leg in the first game of the Conference USA Tournament -- "the roughest thing I've ever dealt with," Martin calls it -- got picked No. 1 in the NBA Draft and cried like a baby when commissioner David Stern called his name. Maybe it's because he knew what he was in for.


PAIN, AND MORE PAIN
Pain. Losing. Struggle. "It was a rough training camp," Martin said. "The first day was rough. The whole thing was rough."

He wasn't in shape, wasn't even close. His leg was healed in the sense that it was no longer broken. But it wasn't ready for the pounding of an NBA season.

Martin's game was all about playing with energy and borderline recklessness. Suddenly, reckless didn't sound like such a good idea. "There were days when I couldn't walk down the steps in the morning. I'd hear my ankle cracking and creaking," Martin said. "I couldn't jump as high. I was always looking where I was going to land because I was afraid I'd hurt myself again."

His tentativeness showed on court. But Martin wasn't being entirely forthcoming with Scott about the extent of the pain he was in. A typical conversation went:

Scott: "Are you okay?"
Martin: "I'm all right."

"We didn't have much of a relationship," Martin said.

"It's kind of hard to have a relationship with a coach who is always getting on you," Scott said.

Scott saw tentativeness and equated it with laziness. He ripped Martin for not giving his all, rode him for his lackluster practices and poor preparation. And he did it in public. "That's what hurt most: He didn't say it to me in person. It came out in the newspapers," Martin said. "The next day I asked him about it. I said, 'I'm a man aren't I? And you're a man. So why didn't you tell me this face to face?' I had worked so hard over the years to get a reputation as a hardworking guy."

Scott, a rookie coach himself, admitted he simply had forgotten the extent of Martin's injuries. "I regret some of the things I said now," Scott said. "We went out to lunch after that and smoothed things over. I think by January or February he was completely healthy again, and it stopped being an issue."

And then it all came to an end in one crashing moment on March 22 last year. He didn't even need an X-ray to tell him he had broken his leg again. With a month remaining, his rookie season was over.

FAMILY TIES
He got through the bad times much the same way he gets through the good times now. He goes home. He hangs out with Willis. He calls his mother every day.

On game days, he calls her twice -- once before the game and once after. It's the first thing he does when he gets in his car to drive to the arena or boards the team bus from the hotel; and it's the first thing he does when he drives home or catches the team bus back to the hotel. "She's never going to tell me I played badly," Martin said. "There was one game, I played like absolute garbage. I was awful. I call my mom and she's all, 'Oh, you played fine.'"

There aren't many other people he talks to. He and his sister, Tamara Ridley, remain close. They didn't have a father growing up -- Martin has no relationship with his father, Paul Roby, who played at New Mexico -- so Tamara, four years older, served as Martin's protector.

These days, when Martin visits his mother's house in Dallas, they sit in the same chair and watch television together while Moore makes her secret meatloaf recipe. "Kenyon is very private," Ridley said. "Once you know him, you know a sweet loving person. But he doesn't like to tell people his business."

Example: At the same time he was going through the Malone-McGrady mess, he was also mourning the loss of his great grandmother, Libby Samples, who passed at 91. "I don't let people get that close," he said. "That way I don't have to worry about anyone betraying me. I just like to keep my private life private."

PROUD PAPA
So it was something of a revelation this season when Martin showed up at games holding a toddler he identified as his son. Last anyone had heard, Martin was married to a college student named Fatimah Conley and had no children. Now all of a sudden he was single ... with child.

Martin won't answer questions about Conley. "People around me know what happened, and that's enough," he said. Nor is he comfortable talking about the mother of his child, who is still a part of his life and visits several times a week with the baby. "I don't know if we're getting married," Martin said. "I just don't know. I can't say yes and I can't say no."

But he will talk -- endlessly, if you like -- about Kenyon Martin Jr., who was born Jan. 6, 2001.

Martin couldn't be there for the birth, but he saw the baby a few days later in Los Angeles. "That's my pride and joy right there," he said. "I'm the proudest papa in the world."

There are few personal effects in Martin's home, but most of them relate to Kenyon Jr. Just look at the countertop in his kitchen.

There's a picture of Kenyon Jr. in a frame that reads, "For the World's Greatest Dad. Love You." There's a picture of "Li'l Kenyon" with a chef's hat. There's Kenyon Jr. with a mini-skull cap. And there's Kenyon Jr. with a mini-basketball resting under his chin.

"He's taking after Daddy already. He can already reach the doorknobs," Martin said. "I took him to a game and he was standing under the rim looking up at it. And I say, 'You'll be able to get up there someday.'"

Kenyon Jr. comes to stay with Daddy often. And when he does, there's no question about where he sleeps. Next to the king-sized bed in Martin's bedroom is a second bed, perfectly made up, that's about three feet long. Big Kenyon and Little Kenyon sleep about five feet apart.

ILLUSTRATED MAN
They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Martin is a bit less complicated. All you need to do is look at his tattoos. The first one he got, when he was a freshman in college, on his right shoulder. It's a grim reaper with a basketball skewered on the end of his sickle. "That's how I look at myself as a player," Martin said. "If I want you I'm going to get you. And the grim reaper, he doesn't discriminate. He goes after everyone."

The second, on his right shoulder, is his mother's name, Lydia. Because the grim reaper is also a big mama's boy.

The third runs down the inner part of his left forearm. They're Chinese characters that, when translated, mean "never satisfied."

The next one is on his right pectoral: "Bad-ass yellow boy."

"Down South, that's what people call you when you're light-skinned," Martin said. "They call you yellow."

Then, on his right forearm, is a knife piercing a skull with the words "strength through adversity" winding around it. "After the second leg injury, it was my reminder to try to be strong with everything I was going through and everything I will go through," he said.

The second-to-last tattoo he got is on his right shoulder. It's a picture of Little Kenyon as a baby. Martin likes that it's permanent. That way, Martin figures, his son will know that his father will always love him.

His most recent tattoo is a little harder to find. It's on his calf, the right leg he has broken twice but also mended twice, well enough to allow him to continue playing the game he has always loved at a high level. This tattoo more or less sums up how he feels about his life at the moment. It reads, simply, "Blessed." - NJ Star Ledger


01/01/02: "Former University of Cincinnati great Kenyon Martin made a big mistake when he mentioned his back spasms to Michael Jordan. Jordan scored 22 points in a row, part of a 45-point game in the Washington Wizards' 98-76 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Monday night. “Kenyon Martin told me he had a back problem,” Jordan said. “I don't think he wants to tell me that. I just started attacking from that point on." Coming off a 51-point game and a six-pointer before that, Jordan made 16 of 32 shots and 12 of 13 free throws with 10 rebounds and seven assists. He scored the last 10 points of the first half and the first 12 of the third quarter, single-handedly accounting for a 19-3 run that put Washington ahead 56-45. The Nets never got closer than nine the rest of the way." - Assoc Press

12/30/01: Today is Kenyon's 25th birthday.

12/19/01: "Kenyon Martin raced to find Jason Kidd at midcourt and slammed him for a heartfelt hug shortly after they had decided the Nets' most dramatic victory of the season with a stunning steal and layup and and then a slam-dunk play against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their electricity sizzled back and forth that moment, just as it had all night. "Jason and Kenyon were just fantastic," Nets Coach Byron Scott said. "They didn't want to lose this basketball game." They did not. Kidd scored a season-high 33 points, 25 after halftime, and Martin scored a career-high 31 points, most memorably on rim-rattling dunks. Each scored 6 points in overtime as they lifted the Nets to a 117-112 victory over the Timberwolves in front of a spirited crowd of 12,810 at Continental Arena." - NY Times

10/24/01: "Jordan scored 27 points, including three consecutive baskets in the game's final minutes, and then complimented Kenyon Martin on his defense as the Wizards beat the Nets, 105-92. "You made me change my shots," a smiling Jordan told the Nets forward as Martin left the court for a breather with seven minutes to play. The two players slapped hands. "I'll be ready for you next time." When Martin returned to the floor three minutes later, Jordan was more than ready. "He surprised me," Jordan said of Martin. "He's a good defensive player, great shot-blocking ability. The first couple of quarters I had a tough time figuring him out. He took away my jump shot, was quick enough to stop my penetration and he certainly wasn't going to let me post up. ... At first he confused me. He made me think a little bit more." Jordan, who made 10 of his 23 shots in a preseason-high 36 minutes, was just 5-for-12 with Martin covering him. Martin, who blocked one of Jordan's shots and hounded him into six turnovers, had missed Saturday night's game with a sore knee." - NJ Star Ledger

10/24/01: "Kenyon Martin returned to guard Michael Jordan after missing the previous game with tendinitis in his left knee. Jordan was shooting 2 for 9 against Martin when he slapped Martin's hand and complimented him with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. "I like your defense," Jordan told him. "You made me change my shot. I'll be ready for you next time." Jordan then scored three straight baskets against Martin, shooting 10 for 23 with 10 rebounds in a preseason-high 36 minutes. "Kenyon surprised me," Jordan said. "He's a good defensive player, and the first couple of quarters I had a hard time figuring him out. I guess in the second half I was able to utilize my quickness." - NY Times

10/17/01: The Sporting News lists Kenyon as the 17th best PF in the NBA. "Martin has loads of talent and should be even better in his second season. He and fellow forward Keith Van Horn have the potential to be devastating with new point guard Jason Kidd around.
Stat fact (2000-01 season): Martin led all rookies in blocks (1.66 a game) and steals (1.18). Over his last 25 games, Martin averaged 14.1 points and 7.8 rebounds. Did you know?: Last season, Martin tallied a triple-double. That feat marked the sixth time since 1966 that a first overall pick recorded a triple-double in his rookie season." - The Sporting News

09/09/01: Kenyon finished his work in Australia with the Goodwill Games by scoring 11.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg and shot 68% from the floor including many dunks. He was also 10-12 from the FT line.

08/21/01: "has been rehabbing in Los Angeles, playing pickup games at UCLA and also working on his outside shooting, one of the few aspects of his game that need improvement. Martin insists his leg is 100 percent now - and has been for about two months - and his offseason regimen has thus consisted largely of launching repeated 15-footers, 20-footers and even 3-pointers. So antsy was Martin to get back on the court, in fact, that he approached Scott with a rather radical idea. "I tried to talk him into letting me play in the summer league," Martin said, grinning, "but he wouldn't let me." Instead, Martin will have to settle for being part of the USA Goodwill Games team, a stacked-to-the-brim roster that also includes Baron Davis, Shawn Marion and Miller. Coached by Minnesota's Flip Saunders, the squad begins training in L.A. on Thursday morning before flying to Melbourne, Australia, later that day. The actual competition begins in Brisbane on Sept 3." - NY Post

05/18/01: "Former Cincinnati Bearcat Kenyon Martin, who was selected No.1 in last year's NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets, was named to the league's All-Rookie Team Thursday. Martin, 23, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward, was averaging 12 points and 7.4 rebounds a game, ranking second among NBA rookies in both categories, when he broke his right leg March 22, ending his season. He led all rookies with an average of 1.7 blocked shots a game." - AP

http://nba.com/playerfile/kenyon_martin.html?nav=ArticleList

04/03/01: "Martin Co-Rookie of the Month
NEW YORK, April 3 - New Jersey's Kenyon Martin and Orlando's Mike Miller were named co-winners of the Schick Rookie of the Month for games played in March. Martin, the winner in November, averaged 18.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 10 games. He suffered a season-ending leg injury March 22 against Boston and missed the final six games of the month." - NBA.com

03/23/01: "Milt Palacio...knocked Martin out for the final 11 games after inadvertently kneeing him in the back of the right leg during the third quarter of the Nets' 113-98 loss to the Boston Celtics at Continental Airlines Arena. Martin, whose college career ended with a broken right fibula last March, suffered a non-displaced fracture of the same bone but in a different location. The injury is not as serious as the one Martin suffered last season but is the same injury that caused Keith Van Horn to miss this season's first 32 games." - NJ Ledger

03/23/01: "Nets' Martin Breaks His Leg By LIZ ROBBINS, The Associated Press
When Kenyon Martin, the No. 1 pick in last year's National Basketball Association draft, limped off the court tonight, his grimace captured the never ending anguish of the Nets' surreal season of injury. Martin suffered a nondisplaced fracture in his right fibula when Boston Celtic guard Milt Palacio got tangled with him and inadvertently kneed him in the back of his leg in the third quarter of the Celtics' 113-98 rout tonight. It is the same bone Martin broke in the Conference USA tournament last March while playing for Cincinnati. Nets officials said tonight's injury was less serious and in a different location than his previous fracture. He will not require surgery, but this fracture will end Martin's first N.B.A. season 11 games early, just as he was making a case for winning the rookie of the year award. It is also the same injury that Keith Van Horn sustained in his left leg in the preseason. Van Horn missed 12 weeks and 32 games. The results of Martin's X-rays were not known in the locker room immediately after the game. But his teammates were shaken. When he left the game in the third quarter, Martin led the Nets with 22 points. "I don't know what to say," Van Horn said. "I've seen it far too often. It seems any time a guy steps in and helps us, we lose him. I sit back in shock." Point guard Stephon Marbury returned tonight after missing two games with a strained hip, but after scoring 17 points and totaling 11 assists in 38 minutes, he was numb. "It's crazy," Marbury said. "I've never seen anything like it. We're not cursed like people say." He paused, then shook his head, saying: "Well, maybe we are." - NY Times

03/18/01: "Martin, who has missed the last two games and half of a third with a sprained ankle, is not expected to play tonight when the Nets visit the Nuggets. Martin, who was injured in the second quarter Tuesday night in Dallas, has yet to test the ankle on the court." - NJ Ledger

03/16/01: "Although he said his left ankle felt better than it had on Wednesday, Kenyon Martin was unavailable to play last night against the Rockets. "I'm still having trouble pushing off and that's part of my game," said the rookie, who twisted his ankle in the second quarter Tuesday night in Dallas. "I'll sit it out and see how I feel (today). I doubt I'll miss the rest of the trip, but you never know. We'll take it day by day and see what happens." While Martin, who missed a game to injury last night for the first time all season, spoke positively about returning before the end of this trip -- which concludes Sunday night in Denver -- Nets coach Byron Scott didn't sound so sure. "Talking to him. you just figure he'll be out a couple of games for sure," Scott said. "He was shaking his head like, 'No. No.' He wants to play, there's no doubt about that. But ankles are tough, and I saw on tape how he turned it and he turned it pretty good. So I don't think it's unrealistic that he might miss the next three games." - NJ Ledger

03/06/01: "another strong performance by Kenyon Martin, who recorded the first triple-double of his career with 18 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists. Martin, the first rookie in Nets history to have a triple-double and the first NBA rookie to accomplish the feat this season, also added the first 3-pointer of his career. "At the end of the day we still lost," said Martin, who is making a late push for Rookie of the Year honors. "It was good personally that I had a triple-double. But if I'd had a triple-double and won it would have been a lot better." - NJ Ledger

03/04/01: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/04/sports/04NETS.html
Martin Shows His Star Potential. By LIZ ROBBINS, NY Times

INDIANAPOLIS, March 3 — As the Nets' chances to make the playoffs recede, the team is looking to the future for consolation. The rookie Kenyon Martin, who scored a career-high 26 points in the Nets' 107-90 loss to Toronto on Friday night, seems to be the rising light on that horizon. "Looking at last night's game, he was just phenomenal," Nets Coach Byron Scott said today, when the Nets practiced for Sunday's game against the Indiana Pacers. "I think Kenyon from Day 1 to now just keeps getting better and better. He's developing into something special. I think he is the rookie of the year."

On Friday, in the 59th game of his professional career, Martin became the emblem of the team's fortunes and misfortunes during the Nets' 11th straight road loss. The Nets have now lost twice as many games (20-40) as they have won this season.

His acrobatic one-handed catch and slam of a tough alley-oop pass highlighted the Nets' rise to a 10-point lead in the first quarter, when Martin scored 12 points. "Everything was falling early," Martin explained after today's practice. "I'm taking my time, not rushing. I've got a lot more confidence, I'm moving a lot better now, knowing I can make the plays."

Martin added 13 points in the next two quarters, including two 17-foot jumpers. But in the fourth, he took only one shot, and scored 1 point off a free throw. The Nets, tied with the Raptors entering the quarter, fell behind by as many as 20 points. "We didn't get him the ball," Scott said. "I did a bad job of trying to get him back in the post instead of attacking Vince Carter."

After reviewing the film, Scott said he should have had Martin continue to challenge Keon Clark, Toronto's wiry power forward, which he did successfully in the first three quarters. "I was looking at how Keon was blocking shots, forgetting the fact that he had taken him to the basket a couple of times and gotten to the free throw line," Scott said. "So that was my fault. I didn't give him a chance to score in the fourth quarter."

While Martin's lack of production late in the game hurt the Nets, Scott pointed to the team's lack of aggressiveness — the Nets were outrebounded, 17-5, in the fourth quarter — as the main reason for the defeat. "We just never reacted," he said. "That's all about the determination of wanting to go out and get it."

It was the second straight road game in which the Nets slumped in the final period. They lost a 12-point lead Wednesday in Charlotte. "Things will be good for three quarters and then they just go downhill in the fourth," Martin said. "It's frustrating for me and the team."

Martin, who struggled at the beginning of the season and was still recovering from a broken leg sustained last year, has begun to find his rhythm. Every night he seems to guard an All-Star, facing Carter on Friday. Among rookies, Martin is second in scoring average, with 11.2 points, and first in rebounds, with 5.2.

Marc Jackson, the center from Golden State, leads the rookies with 13.1 points a game. He is averaging 5.1 rebounds. Jackson made an impact in December and Orlando's Mike Miller and Toronto's Morris Peterson have improved lately, but Martin's progress, Scott said, has been steady and impressive.

"I think if you look at the other rookies and you look at it where he's come from, what he's had to deal with, the way he's been playing lately, he has the toughest assignment on the defensive end and now we've asked him to score more," Scott said. "When this kid has a chance this summer where his leg is completely healed and he can rest a little bit and he can come back and really work on things he has to look at, he'll be unbelievable."

Martin has no trouble finding meaning in the Nets' final 22 games. "It's important for me just to get them under my belt and be ready for next year if we don't make the playoffs," he said, then added: "We're still playing every game like we can make it. We never want to count it out." - NY Times


02/25/01: "We look at Vince Carter and he got 39 points, but that was a tough 39 because Kenyon was in his face for most of those shots," Nets Coach Byron Scott said. It was also the first time Martin saw Carter on the court instead of on television. He took mental notes. Scott says Martin is finally putting his experience to use. - NY Times

02/25/01: Kenyon has started every game this year except one (minor injury). He is averaging about 11 pts, 7 rebs and 1.7 blocks per game.

01/24/01: "It was the second meeting of the season between (Golden St Warrior Marc) Jackson and Nets rookie Kenyon Martin, the No. 1 pick in last June's NBA draft. Many believe Jackson, who was drafted by the Warriors in 1997 but spent the last three seasons playing abroad, has supplanted Martin as the favorite for rookie of the year honors. And if anyone needed further ammunition, the 6-10, 270-pound Jackson provided it last night when he took over the game in that decisive third quarter. Martin, meanwhile, did next to nothing. He finished the night with six points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes. It marked the second time in three weeks that Martin had been outplayed by Jackson, who was drafted out of Temple with the 37th pick in that 1997 draft. In their two meetings this season, Jackson averaged 23 point