Every time when the media and fans take stock of the previous drafts, they will scoff at the rookie in the first year of the 21st century, no way, it is so bad, and the best choice for half a day is Michael Reed! Not to mention the number of All-Stars, even the number of All-Stars is only three times, and the three of them are selected only once each, except for Michael Reed and Magnolia (this brother may write a biography of a few hundred words is enough), and then there is the millennium of the year, Ken Young Martin.
- The beast is out of the cage
Martin was born in 1977 in Saginaw, Michigan, usa, and his father, Paul Martin, was a center at the University of New Mexico, an outstanding interior player, and once set a college record for the highest rebound in a single game, which is the origin of Martin's future outstanding explosiveness. His father abandoned the family shortly after Martin's birth, and growing up in a drug- and gun-infested slum, he developed a fiery temper and a violent personality from an early age. Father's genes and brutal upbringing doom martin's future "beast" style.
In order to alleviate the family's economic tension, Martin worked hard since childhood, reduced the burden of life for his mother and sister, and was also favored by coach Higgins of the University of Cincinnati at the time because of his hot and external personality, and was brought into the team.
At 2.06 meters tall and weighing 109 kilograms, Martin plays as a big forward in the form of another Brutalist striker after Sean Kemp before Staddamer Jr., Griffin and Zion Williams. Just by means of the violent buckle and the partition buckle, the whole NCAA trembled. In his senior year, he was voted the Best Player of the United States with an average of 18.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game, and was selected to the National First Team, and was elected the best defensive player for the third consecutive time. Unfortunately, he suffered a major injury that year — a fractured leg bone; during a game in the NCAA Round of 64 tournament, Martin unfortunately missed the NCAA finals due to a leg injury due to jumping too high.
Although the injury is more serious, with the draft lineup of that year, no one can shake Martin's position. The Nets, the winner of the lottery, did not hesitate to choose KenYan Martin, who originally had only a 4.4% chance of winning the lottery, but sometimes luck is so unreasonable.
The core of the 00-01 Nets' lineup is Marbury and Van Horn, and Martin's arrival just makes up for the Nets' missing interior defense, complementing Van Horn. In his rookie season, Martin averaged 12 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.7 blocks per game, and completed his first career triple-double in his rookie season - 18 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists, contributing a career-high 6 steals. Selected for the all-rookie squad for a while due to his excellent performance, but eventually lost to McMiller in the battle for the best rookie due to the fewer appearances caused by a leg injury at the end of the season, which may also be one of the reasons why Martin's career could not go further, the violent Brutalist play was doomed to frequent injuries, whether it was Camp Martin or later S griffin Jr. and now Zion Williams, unable to compromise on the style of play and could only accept the fate of the arrangement.
2. A combination of beads
In the summer of 2002, Kidd, dissatisfied with the Suns' poor management operation, fell out with the team for the second place in his career, and in fact he played for only two teams, although no one questioned his title of the league's first point guard after Stockton's aging, but the reputation of the thorn head made many teams afraid to trade. However, the Nets refused to let go of this god-given opportunity, and resolutely exchanged Marbury as the main chip for Kidd, which also became the beginning of the Nets' brilliant new century.
Marbury is known as a lone wolf, although the average assists per game is not many, but he is only a general, not a coach who can make his teammates better. Although Kidd has been criticized on the offensive end of his career, he really has nothing to say in terms of organizing the pass, and his arrival has completely stimulated the chemistry of the team, and Martin is the most intense. Martin, who was originally a flying style of play, met a passing gidder, and the two were a perfect match. Each quick attack only required a look, Martin understood, Kidd casually threw it into the sky near the basket, and Martin smashed the ball into it. Coupled with the same jumping man's team 01 rookie Richard Jefferson, 96 golden generation toughster Kittles, Bird II Van Horn and others, the Nets played a pleasing 4X100 relay fast attack, the Nets' record also doubled from 26 wins to 52 wins, as the first in the East to break into the playoffs.
Kidd's arrival boosted Martin's ability to finish, averaging 14.9 points per game to become the team's top scorer, in addition to 5.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.7 blocks. 14.9 points can become the team's top scorer also sees that the Nets' offense is not as good as on the scene, the second and third scorers on the team are 14.8 points Van Horn and 14.7 points Kidd, each lacks better offensive ability to hold the ball, more relying on Martin's interior defense, scrambling for rebounds and pushing back. In those years, Martin fanned the ball out like a volleyball on the inside line, and then quickly completed the dunk's roar, which became an indispensable picture of the top ten balls, and the roar of Martin was heard in the first generation of the league.
Although the tactics are relatively scarce, in the relatively weak East, it is enough for the Nets to kill. In the playoffs, the Nets advanced all the way, eliminating the Pacers, Hornets and Celtics, winning the Eastern Conference championship, meeting the Western Champions lakers and the Finals. Along the way, Martin became the most important part of the team's defense, playing better than the regular season in the first round - averaging 19.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. However, the Finals encountered the peak OK, especially the Big Mac O'Neal, the Nets' weak interior line really can't guarantee that the Nets' inherent tactics can continue to play a role. O'Neal is in no man's land inside the Nets, and even Kobe, who has begun to fight with O'Neal, is no longer insisting on going it alone but keeps feeding the ball to O'Neal, which is too comfortable to win. Although the Nets can occasionally bite the score, as long as the Lakers make a force, the game will lose suspense. O'Neal's intimidation on the inside has sent Martin's personal performance ups and downs, with Martin's shooting percentage being very bad in the first two games, at 31.8 percent and 25 percent, respectively, but in the third game, Martin adapted to the defense and the shooting percentage and scoring began to pick up. In the fourth game, Martin scored 35 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 assist, and averaged 22 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1 assist in the Finals.
3. Step to the top
In the 2002-03 season, Kenjan Martin began to reach the peak of his career, playing in 77 games, a career high, averaging 16.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game, and the highest career scoring (35 points), the highest rebounds (21), and the highest number of blocks (6) were all created this season. In the playoffs, Martin once again came up with data beyond the regular season, averaging 18.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.6 blocks per game, and with Richard Jefferson's growth and Kidd's status, the Nets became the first in the East for the second consecutive year and reached the Finals, this time against the Spurs led by Duncan. The East Finals faced Martin, who was similar in height to The Explosive Ben Wallace, and met a phenomenal and low-key defensive master like Duncan, which can be described as a nemesis. Although he tried his best to get three 20+10 games in the first four games, and the team also drew 2:2 with the Spurs, Martin suddenly fell ill before the fifth game and came to the court with illness in poor condition, but his status was greatly reduced. Martin scored only 4 points in the Battle of King Mountain, but had 8 turnovers and 5 fouls, and could only watch from the sidelines at key moments, watching the Spurs get the match point. In the sixth game, he was still sluggish, scoring only 6 points, while Duncan on the opposite side had a quasi-quadruple-double, and the Nets once again rubbed shoulders with the championship. Duncan ate through Martin's ability to finish near the box, but poor dribbling and poor shooting and not too much ability to hold the ball, so that Martin did not have a game with more than 45% shooting rate, which also made the Nets begin to examine whether the amount of the contract when he renewed his contract with Martin was paid a maximum salary.
In the regular season of the 03-04 season, Martin reached the peak of his career, averaging 16.7 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, and this season's Martin was the strongest Martin, with the highest scoring per game, the second highest rebounding career per game (the first highest season only played two games), and the second highest average assists per game. Martin is already one of the league's top big forwards, with this performance Martin successfully selected the Eastern Conference All-Star, in the All-Star Game, Martin came off the bench to cut 17 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, successfully completed the only All-Star trip of his career.
With the rise of the Pacers and Pistons, the Nets have lost their dominance in the East, but with Martin's career-best playoff performance - 19.1 points, 11 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.3 blocks, shooting as high as 53.3%, the Nets still reached the Eastern Conference semifinals. Facing the Pistons, who had achieved full success from Rashid Wallace in the middle of the season, the Nets were bent on dragging the game into the seventh with defense, but only Martin scored 17 points in the seventh game, and almost the entire team sleepwalked The Nets lost the big score and was eliminated. The Nets were also removed from the Top Teams in the East as they lost Martin in the summer.
4. Exodus from the plateau
Perhaps because the performance during the Nets was too eye-catching, people have forgotten that Martin only had four seasons in his fourteen-year career with the Nets, and in the summer of 2004, the disintegration of O'Neal's Lakers dynasty made people slightly ignore the huge impact of Martin's departure on the East, especially the Nets. The Nets have the right to prioritize contract renewal and the right to match the contract extension, but the management feels that Martin is not worth the maximum salary, so the Nets sent Martin to the Nuggets with a first-come-first-served substitution, and since then the Nets' interior line has not been able to usher in the peak of the strong interior line during the Kidd era. Martin and Anthony, who came to Denver, formed a violent forward combination, and although they left Kidd, under the needle of Andre Miller, who had taken the assist king in the hands of Peak Kidd, they were still able to contribute 15.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.1 blocks per game, which is a qualified inner pillar around Anthony. Only to the Nuggets' first playoff, Martin met Therk Duncan and the Spurs for odd years, Martin handed over the data for the first time in his career that was different from the regular season, averaging 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, and the Nuggets were also swept by the Spurs 1:4 Gentleman.
Playing 70 games in the 04-05 season is already Martin's second-healthest season, and Martin in the 05-06 season began to suffer major injuries, and the right knee injury caused Martin to decline in form, and the average data fell to the lowest 12.9 points and 6.3 rebounds since the rookie season. At the same time, the bad effects of Martin's violent temper were also highlighted, first in a regular season game, Martin was provoked by the back row fans while sitting on the bench, and Martin, who was in the midst of frequent injuries, got angry and confronted the fan, so he was fined $15,000. To make matters worse, Martin made a comeback in time for the start of the playoffs, but in the first half of game two against the Clippers in the first round, he refused to play because of the verbal conflict with George Carr because of the time he played. But head coach George Carr is also known for his old-school style, and he directly imposed an indefinite ban on Martin. In the end, Martin played only two games in this year's playoffs, averaging 17.5 minutes per game. The Nuggets were also eliminated by the Clippers with big forward Brand as the core due to the lack of a strong interior defense like Martin.
However, the nightmare of injury is not over, and Martin, who injured his left knee last season, suffered a right knee injury in the new season, which caused Martin to miss almost the entire 06-07 season. During Martin's injury, Camby became the best defensive player, Nene became an important interior rotation, and Martin began to have a sense of crisis. After a season off, Martin returned to the field, in order to remove the bad luck he replaced the No. 6 jersey since entering the league with the No. 4 of the college years, and Martin, who averaged 12.4 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in the 07-08 season, can only be a qualified starter and can never find the state of the All-Star. The Nuggets in the 07-08 season were swept away in the first round and then dismantled the failed golden double gun, and at the beginning of the 08-09 season, they exchanged Iverson for Billups. Martin, who once again met the master of control, averaged 11.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks per game, and Martin also broke through the first round of the Nuggets and played all the way to the Western Conference Finals. In the 2009-10 season, Martin averaged 11.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, scoring in double figures for the last time in his career and the third highest rebounding career, but the Nuggets once again stopped in the first round. Too many failures and the formation of the Heat Big Three made the Nuggets core Anthony bent on leaving the team, and eventually led to the rebuilding of the Nuggets, Martin ended his big contract in turmoil and was also in the nuggets' last season, and the statistics also fell to the lowest outside the injury season, from All-Stars to Blue-collar to veteran puzzles, Martin's peak ended unexpectedly.
5. Farce and wandering
The summer of 2011 was a major shutdown, and many players went to other countries' leagues to pan for gold. Martin also joined the CBA's Xinjiang men's basketball team for a year of $2.65 million a year for setting a new high value for CBA foreign aid, which is the largest contract in CBA history, surpassing Marbury and others. He also became the third Nuggets to join the CBA after JR Smith and Wilson Chandler. However, Martin's rough technology led to his functionality is not enough to meet the CBA team's requirements for foreign aid, so the unsatisfactory Martin only played 12 games in the CBA, averaging 13.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, xinjiang's record is hugely regressed compared with the previous season, which also led to head coach Deng Huade's dismissal and finally early termination of the contract with the team.
Martin is eager to terminate the contract is a big reason is the rush to return to the NBA of the resumption, Martin although the peak is no longer but can still be an excellent championship puzzle, its tough style is also necessary for the championship team, so including the Heat, Lakers and other championship teams have thrown an olive branch to Martin, and finally Martin chose a Clippers team with more sincerity and more room to play, becoming an important internal rotation behind Griffin and Jordan Jr. But the 34-year-old Martin can only make a modest contribution to the team, and after the 11-12 season, the Clippers did not renew Martin's contract.
Martin, who was in serious condition at the age of 35, did not get any team favor for a long time after the start of the 12-13 season, until February 22, 2013, due to Chandler's injury Martin signed a 10-day short contract with the Knicks, during which Martin did well, so the Knicks signed a 10-day short contract with Martin until the end of the season. In 18 games for the Knicks, Martin averaged 7.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, helping the team to thirteen consecutive wins at the end of the season. In the playoffs, Martin averaged 5.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, creating the best playoff record of the new century with the Knicks.
Martin's brilliant performance in the 12-13 season allowed the Knicks to offer Martin a $1.4 million veteran base salary contract. In the 13-14 season, Martin only played 32 games for the Knicks, and in the average 19.8 minutes per game, Martin averaged 4.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, at this time Martin was no longer in line with the requirements of the times, especially Martin's physical condition was much worse than before.
Martin's last appearance in the NBA was in the Bucks, where former teammate Kidd offered his old teammate a 10-day contract as head coach, but Martin was no longer able to gain a foothold in the NBA, and after the second 10-day contract ended, Martin left the NBA.
6. Decommissioning? impossible!
"It's been a fantastic 15 years," said Martin, 37, "and I'm grateful to all the fans who have supported me over the years." People always need to leave, and now it's my turn, and I'm ready to open a new chapter in my life. I want to thank the Nets, Nuggets, Clippers, Knicks and Bucks for giving me the opportunity to do something I love — play basketball. ”
"In the future I will enjoy my family time, I will also handle the work, and if there is an invitation to coach basketball, I will consider it." I will also train Ken Young Jr. to become a champion in the next few years. On July 3, 2015, Martin announced his retirement from the professional arena, but he would not be retiring from the rim. While nurturing his son, he also joined the BIG3 League in 2017 and played for Trilogy to win the first season championship of the BIG3 League.
In 2020, Martin's son, Kenjan Martin II, was selected by the Kings with the 52nd pick in the second round and was immediately sent to the Rockets, and the elder Martin made good on his promise.
The ability to attack autonomously is weak, lack of ability to score points, leaving Martin less of a threat to attack alone, requiring someone to pass the ball; the defensive end is habitually jumping compared to the top defenders, and can be covered in a fancy way with physical talent in the early years, but with age and body and long-term alignment with players who are taller and stronger than themselves, the defensive level can only be at the passing level. Although he was a champion, he did not force himself to learn to continue his career like Xiaosi and Griffin, and the slightly hasty end made him a little ashamed of his status as a champion, but the No. 6 player flying over New Jersey will always be an unforgettable memory of the fans of that era.