Thursday, October 11, 2001
UC great Martin says he's back to his old self
Injury cut short first NBA season
By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
That guy you saw a season ago, that wasn't the real Kenyon Martin. He didn't want to make excuses, but the former University of Cincinnati star was hurting and had not played basketball all summer. As a rookie with the New Jersey Nets, he kept quiet about lingering pain from the broken right leg that ended his college career. But he knew something wasn't quite right.
“If I'm hurt, I'm going to try to play through it,” Martin said. “That's the way I am. I wasn't playing up to my ability. I knew I wasn't jumping the same. I wasn't running the same. I wasn't moving the same. But I was out there giving 100 percent of what I could give.”
He's healthy now. He's in shape. And he's coming to town with the Nets to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in an NBA exhibition game Saturday (8p.m.) at Xavier's Cintas Center.
“I haven't felt this good since before I got hurt at Cincinnati,” Martin said earlier this week. “I'm at the top of my game. Last year, I was moping around. You could hear it in my voice. That isn't the case this year. I know I'm Kenyon Martin again.”
The 6-foot-9 forward, the No.1 pick overall in the 2000 NBA draft, was just starting to feel comfortable last season and show what he could do on the court. He was averaging 12.0 points and 7.4 rebounds and was among the lead ing candidates for Rookie of the Year honors.
Then it happened again: another season-ending injury. The same leg was broken but in a different spot. Martin said two weeks before it happened he was starting to feel like the man who was college basketball's player of the year in 2000.
“I wasn't upset really,” Martin said of the second injury. “I dealt with it. I had been through worse. The first one was a lot worse. I was upset I wasn't playing and I couldn't help my team, but it wasn't like I was going to be done.”
If there were any doubts, they were erased over the summer when Martin helped the unbeaten U.S. Goodwill Games team win a gold medal in Brisbane, Australia.
Martin came off the bench to average 11.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in five games. He shot .686 from the field and .833 from the foul line.
“That sent the message I was OK, I was 100 percent,” Martin said. “That helped me a lot. I got my confidence back up.”
Martin said he plans to attend Midnight Madness at UC on Friday night and isn't concerned with playing in Xavier territory Saturday. (“There will still be a lot of Cincinnati fans in there,” he said. “It'll be full of red and black.”)
The Nets, he said, have had a good training camp. There has been a heavy turnover from last year's roster. The questions for Martin about whether he can be as dominant as he was at UC are gone.
His goals for this season are to play in all 82 regular-season games and help lead New Jersey to the playoffs. He had 12 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in Tuesday night's exhibition loss to Charlotte.
“I want to average more than 12 points and more than 7.5 rebounds, but I want to win first and foremost,” he said. “I haven't got a whole lot to prove to anybody else. I've just got to prove it to Kenyon.”
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UC great Martin says he's back to his old self
