Kenyon Martin’s Single Stipulation For 37-Year-Old Kevin Durant to Win MVP

The NBA is more or less wide open in 2025-26. While the OKC Thunder are favorites to repeat, the Celtics were favorites to do the same in 2025 and were instead eliminated in six in the ECSF. The Houston Rockets are one such squad that could overthrow Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company due to a single addition: Kevin Durant.

A man who’s currently in KD’s corner to win MVP is Kenyon Martin. K-Mart has remained fair over the years in his assessment of the best players in the league.

“Giannis is the new LeBron. He can be in the MVP convo every year,” said Kenyon a few years ago. A couple years prior to this he stated, “I think Stephen Curry can play in any era.”

The ever-positive Martin continued this tone of his on Iman Shumpert’s ‘All In’ show. When the topic of the 2026 MVP came up, he immediately forced the conversation in Durant’s direction. Though, he does have one stipulation for KD, at age 37, to win the coveted award.

“If people stop hating on him, I’m going Kevin Durant,” said Kenyon. Given the Suns’ putrid 36-46 record last season, Durant wasn’t awarded a single MVP vote despite averaging 26.6 points on near 50/40/90 shooting.

In fact, the last time KD even finished top five in MVP voting was during the 2015-16 season where he ranked fifth in votes. Can this be considered “hating” on KD? Perhaps.

At the same time, context is imperative here. He went from being on a stacked GSW team where superstar responsibilities are shared to tearing his Achilles to then missing over half the season in 2020-21 for the Nets. And of course, his Phoenix years weren’t close to getting him anywhere close to hoisting up the ‘Michael Jordan trophy’.

Martin thinks the Rockets can compete big-time

“I think Houston’s gonna do something bruh. And he’s gonna drive that s— dawg,” continued Martin with Iman chiming in and agreeing with him as well.

Despite Fred VanVleet’s ACL tear, the Rockets are fairly stacked. A ‘big three’ of KD, Alperen Sengun, and Amen Thompson is enough to make noise in the top four of the Western Conference.

It should be noted however that Kenyon’s first choice wasn’t KD. Off the bat, he spewed out Luka Doncic’s name first before recollecting his thoughts.

With LeBron James in his 23^rd year and him taking a backseat to Luka, the narrative, big market, and simple ‘player quality’ all collide. This could lead to an MVP-esque campaign for Doncic.