Draymond Green and Kenyon Martin have gone back and forth with intense comments directed at each other’s NBA careers. However, Richard Jefferson believes it’s time he joined the conversation by warning Green about what he is getting himself into.
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Jefferson has the rare privilege to say he has been a teammate with both Green and Martin. Jefferson and Martin were members of those New Jersey Nets teams that reached consecutive NBA Finals in the early 2000s. He also spent a season as Green’s veteran during the forward’s rookie campaign.
As someone who has shared a locker room with both players, Jefferson may be the most capable of providing a level-headed opinion. Unfortunately, his comments may not be to the delight of the Warriors star.
“Kenyon was a little different up there,” Jefferson said on The Road Trippin’ Show. “There’s that Ron Artest, there’s that Kenyon Martin gene. You don’t want those bulls to see red.”
The entire NBA knows how dangerous Ron Artest could be. People haven’t forgotten is his role during the infamous ‘Malice at the Palace’ brawl. Although Martin hasn’t found himself in a large-scale altercation like that, he has also never backed down from confrontation. Jefferson witnessed this side of Matin firsthand.
“I watched him club Karl Malone. I watched him club Tracy McGrady,” Jefferson proclaimed. However, Jefferson isn’t saying all these things to try to scare Green away. He understands there’s no changing the four-time NBA champion’s personality.
“This is not saying that Draymond, you wouldn’t have talked how you talked because that’s who you are,” he explained.
The only problem is that if Green did speak condescendingly and offensively to Martin, there would be some clear consequences.
“If you had talked like that to Kenyon in ’04, when he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated with his chest out, saying b****** yellow boy, and the NBA told him he had to stop showing that tattoo when he would dunk on people, ya’ll would have fought 100%,” Jefferson said.
That might not be what Green would like to hear but it’s Jefferson’s truth. Unfortunately for NBA fans, we will never get to experience an on-court feud between Martin and Green in their primes. But one thing for certain from Jefferson’s words: Martin was quite the dangerous individual.
