23 Years Prior To Betting $100,000 On His Son With Shaquille O’Neal, Carmelo Anthony’s Teammate Had The Most Nonchalant Pre-draft Workout

Kenyon Martin and Shaquille O’Neal have a couple things in common with one another. The most glaring one would be the fact that they’re both number one overall picks for their drafts in 1992 and 2000, respectively. They also have sons who are in the NBA or are trying to make it to the NBA. Kenyon’s son, Kenyon Martin Jr even participated in the Slam Dunk Contest this past season with Shaquille O’Neal putting up a $100,000 bet on him. Prior to this however, ‘Jr’s’ father who was also teammates with Carmelo Anthony, would get selected by the Nets in perhaps the most nonchalant manner possible.

Martin was a highly touted recruit as he’d spent 4 years at the University of Cincinnati and was considered to be a polished draft pick. In an era where it was getting increasingly common for players to jump into the NBA straight out of high school, Martin felt like a breath of fresh air.

Shaquille O’Neal shares a clip of Kenyon Martin talking about his pre-draft workout

Some players are meant to be drafted higher than the rest of the lot. Shaquille O’Neal was so dominant in his 3 years at LSU that any team would be a fool not to try to draft him with the number one overall pick. The same goes for Kenyon Martin but in a different way.

Martin had an NBA ready body as a man in his early 20s and had a solid rookie year averaging 12 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per night. Prior to being drafted 1^st overall by the New Jersey Nets however, Martin would have a pre-draft workout with them and according to him, all he did was run and dunk.

 

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Shaq puts up Kenyon Martin’s pre draft workout story pic.twitter.com/xbnHkXMUHL

— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) June 21, 2023

Seeing Martin put his shoes on, run across the court once, dunk the ball, and then leave the workout was seemingly enough for the Nets to pull the trigger. This pick didn’t disappoint all too much either. While Martin didn’t pan out to be a generational talent, he was an All-Star in 2004 and helped lead the Nets to the NBA Finals two years in a row.

Kenyon Martin marveled at Shaq’s dominance

The first time the New Jersey Nets made it to the NBA Finals, they would be greeted by the repeat defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. The 2002 Lakers squad wasn’t the best out of the 3 teams that made it to the Finals from 2000-02 but they would be the only team to sweep in the Finals.

In the midst of the sweep, Shaq would have one of his most iconic dunks as he dunked on nearly the entirety of the Nets team. Martin spoke up about this recently and claimed nobody could stop Shaq in his prime because of the sheer dominance he put on display.