Kenyon Martin Blasts Today's NBA Players, Calls Out Kevin Garnett

It's safe to say Kenyon Martin isn't a fan of the style of play in today's NBA. In an article published by K-Mart himself, he didn't hold back any punches about his issues with the softness league-wide:

There’s more flopping nowadays than physical play. At times, it’s tough to watch. These are really good players -- they have better skill sets than we did -- but they resort to trying to get a call. Every time these guys drive, they’re looking for a call. If they get hit a certain way, they’re looking for a flagrant. They want every play to be reviewed. When there’s a hard foul, these guys act like they just got shot (when, in reality, the defender tapped their lip). The league has allowed it.

Martin didn't stop with the lack of physicality of the league, but also went after the Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett:

You can’t turn a porch dog into a guard dog, and there are a lot of poodles in the NBA right now. There were some guys like that back when I played, too. Kevin Garnett was a porch puppy -- a miniature chihuahua in a Dobermann’s body. I told him to his face, “You’re a porch puppy. All you do is bark.” He never wanted smoke from me. I told him straight up, “You better take your ass back to your huddle before I get mad.”

Martin followed up on a trend of former NBA enforcers speaking their mind on the weakness of the league. David West, who played over 1,000 career games, was recently quoted as saying:

I thought about this the other day. When [Andrea] Bargnani and [Chris] Bosh were in Toronto, the reason why that sh** didn't work is 'cause the NBA let us beat them up! We beat up Bargnani, they let us body Bosh. Like, Bosh and Bargnani right now, they would blow this NBA out of the water. They were damn near impossible to guard. I'm serious. The only reason Bargnani didn't have a (successful) career was 'cause the referees let people like me beat him up!

Martin, the #1 overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, had the start of his career setback by a broken leg while still in college at Cincinnati. He ended up having a solid career, playing 750+ career games, with his best years coming while playing for the Nets and Nuggets. He was no stranger to mixing it up physically and was always considered to be one of the toughest players in the NBA. 

Check out the full article, written by Martin, here. 

Photo Credit: Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire