Kenyon Martin says that he owned Kevin Garnett with some trash talk back when they played.
Martin was the No. 1 pick in the 2000 NBA Draft and played until 2015, making one All-Star team during his career. His entire career overlapped with KG’s, who played from 1995-2016.
In an excellent article he wrote for Basketball News, Martin lamented the loss of the enforcer in the NBA. He says players these days are all talk and don’t want to get physical.
Martin counts Garnett in that group and says he told it to KG’s face when they played.
“You can’t turn a porch dog into a guard dog, and there are a lot of poodles in the NBA right now. There were some guys like that back when I played, too. Kevin Garnett was a porch puppy — a miniature chihuahua in a Dobermann’s body. I told him to his face, ‘You’re a porch puppy. All you do is bark.’ He never wanted smoke from me.”
Martin can brag about the way he stood up to Garnett, but whatever KG did throughout his career worked. Garnett is a Hall of Famer and widely respected. He also is recognized for being a pretty intimidating player. And KG literally had some bite to him too.
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