Don’t Hate Kenyon Martin

After all his health troubles, KMart finally feels young again.

by Wendell Maxey

This story isn’t about Kenyon Martin and Marc Cuban’s verbal sparring through the press.

This story isn’t about Kenyon Martin’s dead-wrong thuggish fan perception.

This story isn’t about the walking tattoo that is Kenyon Martin.

It’s about Kenyon Martin finally feeling truly healthy after all of these years, vigorous enough in fact that the Denver Nuggets aren’t even interested in another 54-win season in hopes of capturing the Northwest Division. Forget that noise. They are aiming for 60 instead, and a trip beyond the first-round.

“I feel great — awesome. I haven’t felt this good in years. Years, man,” said Martin, straightening the collar on his powder blue button down shirt.

“Probably not like a rookie. I turn 32 in a couple of months.”

Those days as an NBA novice in New Jersey may be gone like nearly the Nets themselves. For Martin, arriving in the Mile High City back in 2004 has basically resembled a six-season long episode of Grey’s Anatomy where Kenyon’s been the main character – a 6-9, 240 power forward who spent 141 games on injured reserve within that span and who the viewers think they’ve got figured out, but really have no idea.

They should at least know enough to respect the man and what he’s been through.

“My knees don’t bother me now and that is main concern each and every year. That’s my main concern. But I was able to do things like get a shooting coach this summer and work on things I felt I missed out on the last few years just having to let my body heal,” Martin continued.

After a sign-and-trade trade from New Jersey for three first-round picks brought him to Denver, Kenyon missed 12 games with his first of two microfracture surgeries (left knee) coming in May of the ’04-05 season. The following season he missed 25 games. That number jumped to 80 games in ’06-07 resulting in right knee microfracture surgery. The past two seasons, Martin’s stint on injured reserve totaled 24 games with everything from a staph infection to tonsillitis.

“Of course you are going to have aches and stuff like that, but overall I felt great at the end of last season. But aside from the bumps and bruises my knees didn’t bother me. That’s what I was having to deal with before, where I was in pain so I had to let that pain get out of there before I could do anything. Normally that would be in August. So when September rolled around I was behind the curve. But now I feel great.”

Last season, Martin averaged 11.7 points on 48 percent shooting and 6 rebounds per game, while also notching double-figures 43 times out in 66 games played.

For Martin though, this past offseason was truly the first chance to get back to the old Kenyon, by incorporating some new welcomed habits.

He dropped 10 pounds over the summer after dieting and partnering with Carmelo Anthony’s personal chef about adjusting his eating habits, and also worked out regularly with a shooting coach Reggie Morris — who used to be Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook’s high school coach.

Now – believe it or not – with the regular season freshly underway, the intense and aggressive defensive-minded Martin is switching his attention to the other end of the floor as well. While his career scoring average weighs in at a respectful 14.1 ppg, Martin wants to be a more consistent offensive option for George Karl this season. Yet part of Kenyon also senses must pick up his scoring, while maintaining his defensive toughness.

That’s what happens when you lose both Dahntay Jones (Indiana) and Linas Kleiza (Olympiacos) to free agency – one guy was fierce, the other could fill it up in a hurry.

“Losing those guys (Jones and Kleiza), of course we’d love to keep them, but that’s the nature of the business. The money wasn’t right for them so you have to go to where it is right,” Kenyon admitted. “I think we made the proper moves in the offseason to make us a better team – going to get Joey Graham, Aaron Affalo, re-signing A.C. (Anthony Carter) and Bird (Chris Andersen). That’s what was important. You keep what you have in place and just get better. I think guys realized we were right there on the door step. We didn’t have to go out and get names. We have guys that can come in and are capable every night.”

In this young NBA season – exactly two games old for the 2-0 Nuggets – Denver has picked up where they left off last year during the regular season. They beat the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night in a game that felt like a first-round playoff series — physical, up-tempo and more of the same – only to arrive in Portland at 4:17 a.m. to play the Blazers in a back-to-back later that night on TNT.

They won that one too.

As for Martin, he went for 16 points and 11 rebounds against the Jazz, and finished with 6 points and 5 rebounds versus Portland. Double-double or simply chipping in, Martin is ready to take on Denver’s season feeling young, healthy and hungry.

“We know what we get from him every day, off the court and on the court. On the court you know he’s going to come and play hard. He brings that toughness that we need,” said Carmelo Anthony.

No knee troubles.

No need to worry about what others think.

Kenyon Martin is ready to do work.

“The real season starts when the popcorn smells the best,” Martin said.

Wendell Maxey is a freelance writer now in his third season covering the Portland Trail Blazers. You can read more of his writing at Beyondthebeat.net.