Caleb and Cody Martin’s first match against each other was a much-awaited match for the Hornets fans.
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The Martin brothers must have played countless one-on-one against each other since they started hooping but the twins never faced each other in a professional setting before October 2021.
Before this year’s pre-season started Caleb and Cody never battled it out in a 5v5 match. They played together, in the same team in high school, in AAU, in college, and in the NBA.
While it is too big a deal if anybody in your family plays in the best basketball league in the world, both the Martin Brothers didn’t just make it to the NBA, they landed on the same team together. The team was their hometown team, the Charlotte Hornets. Just keep the count of things that fell right in the place.
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They spent the first two seasons in the NBA together with the Hornets. Cody was a second-round pick while Caleb signed as an undrafted free agent and made the roster prior to the 2019-20 season.
Caleb and Cody’s first match together against each other
Now, this is mind-boggling, patterns aren’t stopping yet. The twins averaged pretty similar numbers in the two seasons together. Cody- 4.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and Caleb- 5.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists. And both averaged exactly 16.0 minutes per game in 2-years. Some Bizarre coincidence.
There are two bearded twins in Miami, one of each, Martins and Morris. This offseason Caleb was waived by the Hornets, signed a two-way contract with the Heat. He played for the Miami Heat in the preseason and got the chance to play against his brother for the first time in a pro-game. Heat escaped with a 104-103 win over the Hornets to cap off a perfect pre-season.
Cody put up 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block, for the Hornets. While Caleb put up 3 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block in 15 minutes for the Heat.
Caleb had an off night. He was pretty decent in the preseason games and made his new coach Spoelstra an admirer,
“He’s been a highly active, energetic, disruptive player. And that’s going back to college. In his opportunities with Charlotte, we really respected and liked how he played, how he approached competition, how he competes on the defensive end. He has positional size and quickness and also the commitment to that side of the floor. You can build the rest of it after that.”, Erik Spoelstra said.
Caleb is now playing in the G-league for Heat’s affiliate Sioux Falls Skyforce and so the brothers could not face each other in a regular season game last month.
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Even if Caleb does not get to play in the Heat’s first team, he’ll surely improve a lot of aspects of his game than the last two years. That is not a shot at the Hornets, just some appreciation for Heat’s player development.
