'Pick Your Poison': Kenyon Martin Recalled the Difficulty of Facing a Shaquille O’Neal-Led Lakers in the Finals

Kenyon Martin Sr. was drafted to be the savior of the New Jersey Nets when the team selected him first overall in the 2001 NBA Draft. Martin nearly won Rookie of the Year in his debut season, shining as the lone bright spot for a pitiful Nets team. After New Jersey finished 26-56 in 2001-02, no one could have foreseen the 26-win improvement that would culminate in the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance the very next season.

The addition of Jason Kidd proved to be the key for the Nets. Finishing second in MVP voting while nearly averaging a triple-double, Kidd brought new life to a Nets franchise that had been mediocre for decades. New Jersey cruised through the Eastern Conference playoffs, suffering just five losses before meeting a buzzsaw in the championship round.

The Nets’ turnaround led to a matchup with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers, who had already claimed the last two NBA Championships. Alongside seven-footer Todd MacCulloch, Martin was tasked with handling LA’s MVP center. Undoubtedly New Jersey’s most talented big, though, Martin faced the brunt of the work and was greeted with a rude awakening.

“I was the double guy, because weight-wise, I couldn’t do nothing with [Shaq],” Martin said of his defensive role on All the Smoke. “If I did get caught on, all I had to do was try to front him, and he just pushed me up the lane … Impossible to guard.” The immense size and weight differential between the two forced Martin to make a choice on defense.

“So you pick your poison. Do you try to play him straight up? You know what he gonna do,” the former All-Star continued. “Do you double? Now you got Derek Fisher going 4-7, Robert Horry going 2-5 … So then what do you do? And then you got the other animal that, 1 on 1, is destroying us. Shaq averaging 36. [Kobe] averaging 26, whatever … It was impossible, bro.”

The Nets were promptly swept by the star-studded Lakers, but the series wasn’t nearly as lopsided as history may remember it. Just one of the four matchups finished with a point differential over six points. Once the series had completely shifted in LA’s favor, Martin simply wanted to steal a game. But even his best efforts weren’t enough.

“So I averaged 22 [points] in the Finals, my second year,” Martin shared.  “Game 4 on our home floor, I’m like, ‘Man, we ain’t getting swept.’ Like ‘F**k that, I’m not going home tonight, we going back to LA’ … We went home that night … Had 17 in the first, 35 for the game, wasn’t enough … It was a different animal.”

The duo of Martin and Kidd was a potent one, as the pair once again led the Nets to the NBA Finals the very next season. Both times, New Jersey fell to better teams in the Lakers and San Antonio Spurs, but they still made it further than anyone expected them to.

Had New Jersey not run into the most dominant duo of the early-2000s, the franchise may have been able to raise its first banner since Dr. J was leading the ABA’s Nets in 1976. Instead, the team’s magical run will be remembered as stepping stones for Shaq and Kobe’s greatness.