<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>DENVER -- Kenyon Martin was unhappy about his limited playing time in Denver's playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers. Now he won't be suiting up for the Nuggets at all. <span style="font-family:arial"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><span style="color:#666666">Martin</span></span></span>The Nuggets suspended their forward indefinitely on Tuesday night for what they called detrimental conduct."This is an internal matter that we will deal with in-house," coach George Karl said in a statement. Martin, who has been bothered by knee tendinitis all season, was dejected over his limited playing time in Game 2 Monday night, when he played sparingly in the first half and sat out the second half of Denver's 98-87 loss to the Clippers.Martin didn't arrive on the Nuggets bench until several minutes into the third quarter and then sat with a towel over his head. He left the arena without comment, but teammate Ruben Patterson suggested Martin felt he could have played and was frustrated that he had been held out.Hours before suspending him, Karl seemed miffed that Martin was upset over his benching."I will talk to him and see what's happening," Karl said Tuesday afternoon. "He told me and the staff at halftime that he couldn't go. Now, there's stuff filtering out that there's frustration there. We'll see."Martin apparently banged his bothersome left knee in the first half while going against Elton Brand."He's got a heck of a matchup," Karl said. "The guy is a very physical player. I don't think people understand how big that man is. He's 260, maybe 270 pounds. I'm sure he not only hit Martin's knee, but probably hit a lot of other parts of the body."Besides, "it's been a year of frustration for everybody," said Karl, who watched forward Nene go down for the season with a knee injury in the opener, then had to juggle his lineup all season with injuries to Martin and center Marcus Camby."We've always worked through it. We've always picked ourselves up," Karl said. "I trust this team is going to do the same thing on Thursday."Before deciding to suspend Martin, Karl was asked why he wasn't giving him more minutes."Well, it is hard for me to visualize him actually playing 20 minutes of basketball again because he doesn't participate in practice very often. He just wants to play in the games," Karl said. "That philosophically doesn't make any sense to me. I think he has a big-time heart. I think he is a big-time competitor and he did a heck of a job in the second half against Brand for Game 1."Right now I evaluate all my players. I think Carmelo is going to go a lot of minutes, Andre (Miller) is going to get a lot of minutes, Marcus is going to get a lot of minutes. After that I have no idea who is going to get the minutes. It's the guy who earns the minutes and who plays the way we want him to play."Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night at the Pepsi Center.The Nuggets are accustomed to playing without Martin, who has been bothered all season by his surgically repaired left knee and began regularly sitting out games over the last month in hopes he'd be better for the playoffs, where he has traditionally stepped up his game.He had six points and two boards in the Nuggets' 111-109 loss in Game 1, and was scoreless with one rebound in just under seven minutes in Denver's loss in Game 2.</div>SourceProbably for the better.
Wow, how quickly has his carreer turned for the worse..I wonder if he regrets leaving NJ more than Denver regrets signing him to that massive contract..Well, he got his money, but since then he has been hampered by injuries and he obviously hasnt been the same player. Its a shame because I loved K-Mart when he was a Net, he was such a high energy, dominant and intiminadating presence on he court..Glad the Nets elected not to resign him, though, based on how much Denver gave him.
We have a MUCH better record <u>without</u> Martin than we do with him on the team.I hear he wasn't injured in game 2. Karl suspended him during the game because Martin was complaining about playoff time in both games and Karl was sick of it.
Ya I believe the Nuggets are now 22 - 9 without Kenyon. I never liked his game, but now I simply don't like him as a basketball player. There comes a time where you can put pride aside, and in Kenyon Martin's situation, this is that time. He couldn't do that, he couldn't stop being a prick, now he pays for it and makes himself look worse; both as a person and a player
Well I still ove K-Mart. They probley are going to relase him since I doubt anyone would take his major contract. Then maybe the Nets could take him back since they will probley say you have to sign with a team in the east. That knocks off 15 of the 29 (Dont count New York as a team) of the teams he could go to. I really think if he comes back not only would the Nets be a title contender but he will be back to the old Martin. He needs to be rejouvinatied like Carter was.
