Lisa’s Look: Who Were the NBA’s Bad Boys?
Kenyon Martin
Wow. May I just say wow. This former Denver Nuggets power forward put in work. With 4.4% body fat this man was pure muscle. Coming up in the hood this baller kept the dope man and gang bangers at bay. His mom and sister held it together pointing Kenyon in the right direction.
He was a miracle as he was an NBA player to have microfracture surgery on both knees and return to the game. Can you say mans man? D-Rose could seriously take a lesson from this tough guy.
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A great defensive presence; Kenyon had a way of putting a player on their rear-ends sliding across the floor with one push of a pinky finger. With his non-challent, cool as a cucumber demeanor, he could somehow knock someone out the way while looking completely innocent and untouchable all at the same time in the same play. Then he would flash a sweet baby boy wink at his mom (or long list of questionable women) sitting in the stands. The kind of soft side could make any girl’s heart melt.
Who could forget the May 2009 game 3 playoff series against Dallas. Can you say MAJOR Mark Cuban altercation? Cuban made the mistake of telling Martin’s mother her son was included in the thug category. This breaks the code man, you have to have a code. Look it up for yourself, but let’s just say, it was not pretty by any means.
Later when Cuban wanted to apologize via social media, K-Mart made it quite clear that where he comes from there are no apologies made unless they are made face-to-face, man-to-man. Here is the story written by Marc Stein on the incident. (Marc Stein NBA ESPN Sr. Writer). Much respect to this bad boy keeping things old school the way some things need to be.
It takes a special kind of stupid to think of messing with this bad boy. The kind only JR Smith would have. As an April fool’s day prank in April of 2010 ‘someone’ filled Kenyon’s custom Land Rover with buttered popcorn. Only JR could possibly be this out of his mind.
Kenyon was not pleased:
"‘”That ain’t no [expletive] joke,” Martin said. “I’m going to find out who did it … put my [expletive] hands on one of y’all. I’m going to put my hands on whoever did it. You better believe that. It’s [expletive] personal. You better believe it.”"
(Andy Hutchins SB Nation)
JR had his driver cop to the crime. You really couldn’t blame Smith for taking this one to the grave.
Martins posse was known to ‘quiet’ haters in the stands ghetto style and eventually ‘cautioned’ by the NBA to not attend games. From the girls to the tatts to the unwavering defensive presence this big man goes down as one of the most intimidating players of all time. K-Mart forever may you reign.
Next: Allen Iverson
