Richard Jefferson discusses his rookie year fistfight with Kenyon Martin
Kenyon Martin, as an NBA player, was a combustible sort.
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This is the guy that once returned a barb from Alonzo Mourning, who had to push his NBA career aside twice due to kidney disease, by reportedly sending mocking “my kidney! My kidney!” chants into his Net teammate’s face. This is the person that, had he been healthy and suited up for that rather lame Knicks/Nuggets “brawl” in 2006, probably would have restored law and order in a rather stirring and effective fashion. Dick Wolf’s name would have shown up after about five and a half seconds.
This is also the guy that entered the NBA on crutches after suffering a broken leg, broke the other leg during his rookie year, and suffered through microfracture surgeries on both knees. This is a tough dude.
Richard Jefferson, recent-champion and then-rookie with the 2001-02 New Jersey Nets, found out as much partway through his first season with that team. In a talk with SLAM, he recounted a time when Martin decided that the rookie’s mouth had gone a little too far during a break in action:
“My rookie year, we had gone on a west coast road trip,” RJ says. “We had gotten off to a really, really good start that year. We had lost four in a row on that west coast road trip.
“Towards the end of the game, me and Bonzi Wells are kinda getting into it. Kenyon’s at the bottom of the free throw line and the referee tells Kenyon, ‘Tell your rookie to be quiet because I don’t wanna have to give him a technical this late into the game.’ Kenyon tells me, ‘Hey Richard, be quiet.’ Bonzi Wells goes, ‘Yeah! Listen to Kenyon and shut up.’ I just lose it. I’m like, ‘F, Bonzi! And F, you too, Kenyon!’
“I go and sit down, I’m mad, pissed off. I’m sitting down and Kenyon comes in the locker room pissed off. I stand up and he pushes me down in my seat. We have a full-on fistfight. The only thing that saved me is Aaron Williams, and you remember how big he was, grabbed him from the back to try and calm him down. My last swing hits Aaron Williams in his lip and busts his lip open. At that point in time, I realize what is going on. I have no problem fighting Kenyon. Aaron? I don’t want any piece of,” RJ says still with a quiver in his voice.
“Even that fistfight right there, we both understood how much we wanted to win and that we were willing to fight anybody, including each other, to get that done.”
Before you chalk this up to your usual “Veteran Takes on Mouthy Rookie”-slough off, understand that Kenyon was in his second season. A full 124 games into his career.
Jefferson’s dust-up didn’t occur after or on the fourth game of that four-game losing streak, but rather three games into it and during an 82-73 loss to a potent (and equally combustible) Portland Trail Blazers team. Jefferson, working off the bench, missed all four shots in the loss and finished with two points, while Martin shot 8-21 from the field. He contributed 19 points, but just four rebounds in 40 minutes.
The team would go on to lose to the Seattle SuperSonics the next night, leaving the pride of the East with a four-game losing streak and a 1-7 run (the only win coming over the lowly Chicago Bulls) dating back a week and a half. The Pride of the Eastern Conference (that wasn’t saying much, back then) would right the ship against Toronto a few nights later, and finish the season on a 13-7 turn.
(And, yes, Aaron Williams was a strong dude. He was a 6-10 center, super-smart, with a long wingspan. He could stop a fight with those arms of his, but presumably start and then finish twice as many. Richard Jefferson, just 22 and only 12 months removed from playing at the University of Arizona, was right to be a bit fearful of Williams – who started at center and had six points and five rebounds in 16 minutes the next night after splitting that lip.)
Jefferson and Martin ended up being part of the Jason Kidd-led push that moved the Nets into the 2002 and 2003 NBA Finals. The run ended with a tough seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the Detroit Pistons in 2004, and Martin’s move to encourage a sign-and-trade deal to the up-and-coming Denver Nuggets the following offseason. Jefferson hung on long enough to get his ring with the Cleveland Cavaliers last June, but Martin retired in 2015 after further stints with the Clippers, Knicks, and Bucks.
And we miss Kenyon Martin. And Aaron Williams, while we’re at it. Still probably out there, preventin’ fights, facial features be damned.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
