Cincinnati Bearcats Legend Kenyon Martin Retires From The NBA
By Chris Bains
Cincinnati Bearcats legend Kenyon Martin has announced his retirement from the NBA. This is truly a bittersweet day for UC basketball.
K-Mart was of course the highest rated player to be drafted in the NBA, as he went number one overall to the New Jersey Nets in 2000. He spent four seasons there before being traded to the Denver Nuggets where he spent the majority of his career before bouncing around to the Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, and even did a stint in China.
15 years later Martin announced his retirement from the NBA and the game lost a star.
Of course before that illustrious career he was a Cincinnati Bearcat, arguable one of the simultaneously most successful and tragic in my generation. I summed up my feelings towards that career when he was officially inducted into UC’s Hall of Fame.
"Martin’s importance to the Bearcats was no more evident than when he was lost. Shellshocked by the gruesome loss of their senior leader, UC wound up losing to the Billikens 68-58. It was just their third loss of the season. A week and a half later, still without Martin in the NCAA Tournament, Cincinnati fell to Tulsa in the second round. A promising season with a national title very much a possibility ended with a thud.And so too ended the era of Kenyon Martin at Cincinnati. Despite the injury, he was named the Player of the Year and was selected first overall in the NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. Back in Clifton, UC retired his #4 jersey just a month after the Bearcats’ final game and hung it up in Fifth Third Arena. It was a well deserved honor for Martin."
Now his time as a player of the game of basketball is over. The fantasist in me sees K-Mart joining Mick Cronin’s staff in some capacity. Wouldn’t that be the most appropriate way for him to begin his coaching career should he go that route?
Either way, we as fans will always have the memories. They generally involved Martin posterizing some poor, feeble defender, carrying the Bearcats on his broad shoulders, or just being that omnipresent force on the hardwood.
What’s your favorite Kenyon Martin moment?