By Lee Strawther
The Sporting Tribune
The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
Affectionately known to many as “K-Mart,” Kenyon Lee Martin, Sr. was born December 30, 1977 in Saginaw, Michigan. He was very young when his family moved to the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas.
He was always drawn to sports, playing basketball, baseball and football, and would wind up attending three different high schools in four years. Several universities showed interest in his basketball prowess, but the University of Cincinnati recruited him hardest after seeing him play the summer prior to his senior year. He graduated from Bryan Adams High School in Dallas in 1996 and went on to attend Cincinnati to play under Hall-of-Fame head coach Bob Huggins.
In his junior year he led the Bearcats to a 27–6 record and was named the All-Conference USA Second Team. Later that summer he led Team USA to a gold medal finish in the World University Games.
As a senior Martin, known for his fiery personality and tough approach to the game, averaged 18.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game with the Bearcats ranked No. 1 for a total of 12 weeks. By season’s end, he had become the consensus National Player of the Year, earning numerous awards including the prestigious John R. Wooden Award.
Unfortunately, the 6-9 power forward suffered a broken leg in the Bearcats’ first game of the Conference USA Tournament, keeping him out of the NCAA Tournament that year. The team finished with a record of 29–4.
Martin, who graduated from Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, remains the Bearcats’ all-time leader in blocked shots (292) and field goal percentage (.586). His No. 4 jersey was retired in April 2000 and just months later he was chosen first overall in the 2000 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets.
Martin averaged 12 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game his first year and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, finishing second in the voting.
In his second season, he posted 14.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.7 blocks per game, helping the Nets improve from a last place finish in the Atlantic Division to an Eastern Conference title. The Nets reached the NBA Finals that year (2002) but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The following season, his third in the league, Martin was again instrumental in helping New Jersey reach the NBA Finals, where this time it lost to the San Antonio Spurs. A year later, his final with the Nets, he averaged 16.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks en route to his first NBA All-Star selection. At the end of that 2003–04 campaign he was traded to the Denver Nuggets.
Martin played in 70 games his first year in Denver, averaging 15.5 points and 7.3 rebounds, however an issue with his left knee was detected and in May of 2005, he underwent micro-fracture surgery. A year later knee tendinitis had him miss 26 games, though he was able to return for the playoffs.
By this time he was beginning to show signs of swelling in his right knee which would require another surgery, so at the beginning of the 2006-07 season, after playing just two games, Martin would undergo his second knee procedure.
Martin became an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2011, but due to the 2011 NBA lockout, he opted to sign a one-year contract with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Initially not allowed to return to the NBA until the Flying Tigers’ season ended in February 2012, FIBA granted Martin an early release allowing him to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers. Finally, after short stints with L.A., the New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks, he announced his retirement from professional basketball in July 2015.
“It’s been a great 15 years,” Martin, 37, told Yahoo Sports after his announcement. “Thanks to all the fans that supported me over the years. But a time does come when you have to walk away, and the time is now for me. I’m ready for the next chapter of my life. I would like to thank the Nets, Nuggets, Clippers, Knicks and Bucks for the opportunity to play the game that I love.”
A significant focus of Martin’s post-retirement life was his family. In a 2024 episode of Uninterrupted: The Real Stories of Basketball entitled Basketball Families: The Martins, Martin discussed his unique perspective of his bond with son Kenyon “KJ” Martin, Jr. (a 2020 draftee himself who last played for the Utah Jazz). In it they shared their love of the game, and how the events that shaped Sr.’s career have now become teaching points for future generations.
“I’m a proud father,” Martin’s been quotes as saying. “I thought me getting drafted and the birth of my kids, all that was great, but just to see your kid going after his dreams and him working at it is satisfying.”
Watching you play as if every game were your last was satisfying for us too, K-Mart.