His floor
Martin says halftime tirade, suspension result of season-long friction
By Thomas George

Kenyon Martin, the Nuggets forward, who has a $92.5 million contract and a surgically repaired left knee, says he could have stopped playing “halfway through the season. My doctors said I should have. Look where it ended up.”

The third quarter was rolling. Kenyon Martin was stewing.

It was April 24, Game 2 of the Nuggets' playoff series against the Clippers in Los Angeles. The teams were playing, but Martin was in the locker room. He finally slogged to the bench and found a seat and placed a towel over his head.

He was trying to hide a swollen face from tears shed.

He was hoping to hide his anger. His pain. A day later, he would be suspended, in all likelihood ending his career in Denver.

For the first time publicly, Martin tells his story of what happened at halftime of that game and what led coach George Karl to suspend him for the rest of the series. Martin describes how that halftime fiasco, in his view, was not an isolated incident but the culmination of friction between himself and his coach and teammates.

"George never told me I was not going to play," said Martin, who played 6 minutes, 55 seconds during the first half of that game. "I was shocked. He put me in the last of the first quarter. He put me in late in the second quarter. Both times for just small minutes. I'm sitting there thinking any minute I'm going back in the game. We were getting down further and further. I was (upset).

"I went to the locker room at halftime. I had made up my mind. I couldn't take it anymore. I had had all I could take. Here this was happening in the biggest moment of the season. I told George he didn't have to play me. I went off. Maybe I handled the situation wrong. But look what led to that."

What led to it, said Martin, was a season in which he practiced and played sporadically after undergoing micro-fracture surgery on his left knee in May 2005. A season in which he was treated as if he were faking pain to avoid practice, a season of discontent with Karl and some teammates.

"The thing happened with George in the hallway," Martin said. "The coaches were in the hallway talking about the game. It was not an exchange. It was me talking and the coaches listening. I had my say to George. Then I went into the locker room and had my say with the players. Yes, it was full of cuss words both times.

"Any teammate that does not understand that does not know how it feels to want to play and they don't play you. I could have shut it down halfway through the season. My doctors said I should have. I was trying to be competitive for the team and the season. Look where it ended up."

Grgurich helps situation

Nuggets assistant coach Tim Grgurich played a vital role in saving face the rest of the night, for Martin and the franchise. It was Grgurich who convinced Martin to return to the bench. And though Martin didn't re-enter the game, at least his appearance on the bench avoided further embarrassment for the team.

The Nuggets reported after the game, in what was an obvious lie, that Martin did not play in the second half because of a bruised left knee.

Martin credits Grgurich with defusing a volatile situation.

"Coach Grgurich stayed with me in the locker room," Martin said. "I understand team play. I am not a quitter by any means. He said: 'Don't do this to the team. Guys need you. Guys need you. And if you don't go out there, I'm not going, either. I'm going to stay right here with you.' I had taken off my jersey, tape, socks, shoes. This man picked them all up for me and gave them to me. It hurt real bad. I appreciated what he did.

"As the second half started, I was in no shape to go back. I had to calm down. I was angry, hurt, frustrated. I did come back and sat on the bench with the towel over my head. I didn't want anyone to see the emotion. Of course, it was tough to hide. My mom knew."

The Martin blowup was symbolic of a troubled organization with tension in the relationships, from the owner to the general manager to the coach to the players.

The bottom line in the Martin- Karl drama is Karl was told by the team's medical staff Martin was cleared to practice and play from the season's start.

Martin insists he was cleared to play for careful minutes early in the season in order to build strength but suffered severe pain in his knee early in the season. He said he reinjured his knee when he fell on it in practice in early February but throughout the season was treated as if he were faking pain.

Bret Bearup, a confidant and adviser of Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke's, offered this about Martin and Karl: "You've got two people with two different views. Who is to say who is right and who is wrong? I think there is enough blame to go around."

Martin at odds with Karl

One of Martin's teammates offered this harsh analysis of the Nuggets' highest-paid player: "Kenyon was not playing a lot but was in the locker room encouraging guys to 'get tough, get ready.' We were listening and thinking of a guy who was out partying last night, on his feet, but does not practice and play. There is the perception that Kenyon does not want to be a professional. Are you really hurt? Kenyon is obnoxious, ignorant, boisterous."

Karl said at the start of the season that Martin was cleared to play, so he played him.

"I tried to focus with Kenyon, and I talked to him many times," Karl said. "I am here to manage my basketball team and not his ego. Is that right or is that wrong? I tried to fit Kenyon in. The medical reports? That is something for the medical people to speak about. I let them tell me and I go with what they tell me. I knew that Kenyon was not 100 percent. I never expected that of him. I don't think I bashed Kenyon in the media. I tried to support him as much as any player I worked with."

The Martin-Karl relationship seemed doomed from early last season when in a morning shootaround before an evening game, Martin sat. Karl asked him if he was going to work.

Martin replied, "You can have me now, or you can have me later."

Karl answered: "I'll have you now. We'll see about later."

Their relationship appeared to go downhill from that day.

Listen to their juxtaposing views about a Jan. 18 home victory over Cleveland during which Martin, in 37 minutes, scored 16 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. Afterward, Karl complained to the media about his team's lack of rebounding.

Martin: "I was a little perturbed about the situation. I felt I played (hard). I understand the coach being upset we did not close it (out) at the end like we should have. But for a coach to say that was not the thing to say. He might have said it to the press and he definitely said it in the locker room. He said guys weren't rebounding. He said to Marcus Camby, 'I can't wait 'til you get back, big fella.'

"The next day was a day off. The following day we were at practice, a shootaround. George comes over. I told him, 'I don't want to talk to you, you know, I don't rebound the ball. I'm not going to say anything to you.' I get up and walk over to (then general manager) Kiki (Vande- weghe). George comes over to me again. I said: 'I don't want to talk to you. Go talk to Marcus. He's your rebounder."'

Karl said: "When I talked to the media and the team after the game, it was to let them know that overall our rebounding had to improve. I understood Kenyon was upset about it and took it personally. I went to Kenyon a day or two later and tried to talk to him about it. It didn't work. He was in a mood about it. How I handled it was a mistake. I thought I was doing that in a jovial way.

"I look at coaching, at my team, like a triangle. Kenyon is one player and there are 15 at the base of that triangle. I do not just manage Kenyon. I manage the whole basketball team. It's not about the best player. It's about the best team. We need to have a better basketball team. Players and coaches and all."

An up-and-down season

Martin's season was a roller coaster of games played and games missed, with the reasons listed for him missing games most often being left knee tendinitis and left knee contusion.

"My season began with micro- fracture surgery that happened three days after we lost to San Antonio in the playoffs," Martin said.

He really has everything we're looking for: character issues, injury risk & a major contract.