I'm sitting on my couch last night watching the Lakers verse the Nuggets in game 3 of the Western Conference Final. I was at work for the first half so seeing the second half was atop of my to-do list. I rushed home on my bike to make it right as the 3rd quarter begins. The whole second half is close. The Nuggets jump out to a healthy lead but Kobe and his Laker teammates stay resilient. Both teams are trading buckets and the lead. Let's jump ahead to 36 seconds remaining in the game. The Lakers have a 97-95 lead after some Kobe Bryant free-throws. The Nuggets are inbounding the ball at the half-court stripe and Denver's Kenyon Martin is inbounding the ball.
Here is where I get hot. I cannot stand Kenyon Martin...at all! He is a spark for his team but unfortunatley is a bigger talker then basketball player. In the previous series where the Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games, the story was not how good the Nuggets played but how Martin was in the center of a verbal fued with the Mavs owner Mark Cuban.
Maverick fans, after a controversial Nuggets win in game 3 of that series, were verbally harrassing players as they left the court. People called them "thugs" and "punks." Cuban is accused of doing the same.
Martin responded by dropping M.F.'s and homosexual slurs. I don't want to say what he said exactly but I think Martin is more in the wrong then Cuban was. What is the word "punk" compared to calling someone gay (to say the least). The little respect I had for Kenyon Martin was completely destroyed after the incident with Cuban
Back to last night, Martin is inbounding the ball. He passes the ball to Carmelo Anthony. Martin's pass to Anthony is lazy and is stolen by the Lakers Trevor Ariza. This is the second time Ariza has stolen a inbound pass late in a game this series. Sorry Ariza, you made a great play but only thanks to the stupid play of Martin.
Kenyon Martin, whether you just decided to inbound the ball in a lazy fashion or just made a bad pass, you have got to step up your game. Deciding to make a bad pass with just seconds left is unacceptable. You let your team down, the city of Denver down and made the Lakers win easier last night.
I'm not blaming Martin for blowing the game. Anthonly, who is the only player in the NBA playoffs this year so far averaging atleast 30 points a game, finished with 21 points. 20 of those points were scored in the 1st half. I am blaming Martin for taking a play off. A very important play. Instead, his stupid pass was stolen and Anthony had no choice but to foul Ariza. The foul was Carmelo's sixth forcing him out of the game.
The Lakers lead this series 2-1. Who knows how the yesterday's game would have ended if Kenyon Martin would have pulled his head out and made a good play.
The Nuggets need Martin to be smart on the floor if they are going to win this series against L.A. Come on Martin, be smart, do what's best for your team and play good basketball. By keeping his mouth shut doing what he does best and that is playing basketball.
I hope yesterday's game was a wakeup call for Martin.
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