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Martin's Media BlitzIt looks as though New Jersey’s Kenyon Martin has attracted more attention than even he anticipated with his aggressive play. Martin, who has been assessed with eight flagrant foul points, has long maintained that he has been a marked man around the NBA ever since earlier incidents involving Utah’s Karl Malone and Orlando’s Tracy McGrady, but if the news reported today is true he has not seen anything yet! ESPN sent out a notice to media that they were assigning two cameras to chronicle Martin's play, which puts his movements more under the microscope than ever. While an ESPN employee maintained that it was only one camera that will be in attendance, stating that it was for a Sunday feature and not specifically focusing on Martin, Kenyon’s coach Byron Scott was understandably upset by the move. "That's ridiculous. It doesn't make sense to me. It is putting him in the spotlight, really trying to see if they can get something on him," Scott said. "It's just like the guy who just robbed a bank without a gun. You do your time, you hope to get a clean bill . . . and you hopefully can go back into society and live your life. This right now is putting the spotlight on him like he's a criminal, like you're just waiting for something to happen. That to me is ridiculous. It's absurd. I don't understand it. If you put a camera on a guy that's playing 35 minutes a game, you're going to see something somewhere down the line that you can say, ‘That was flagrant.' And that's not right." Fred Kerber of the New York Post is quick to add that camera crews are entitled to film whatever they wish at NBA games, but the reality of the situation is that if Martin does nothing stupid to warrant a flagrant foul then he will not be punished. Because he has 8 flagrant points, every flagrant Martin picks up from now through to the playoffs will mean an automatic two game suspension. He has currently been accessed with six flagrant fouls, with each being accessed with either one or two points depending on the severity. "I'm just going to go out and play," said Martin. "I've never been nervous before a game, I'm not going to start now . . . I hate talking about it; it's over." Martin, who got a taste of the extra attention yesterday when more media than usual showed up to film his response to the NBA’s latest moves, declined to comment on the while situation. "They're trying to get me to say something. I'm done talking about it. Of course, they're going to come out. I can't worry about what they're doing, man. They're just doing what they're told. It's gotten old," said Martin, who when asked about the camera on him today offered, "I can't say what I feel." Scott, however, believes Martin is finally starting to understand. The key word Scott used this time around was ‘smarter’, meaning that Martin can still play hard and aggressive but needs to eliminate the ‘socially unacceptable’ actions such as the elbows. "I'm thinking ‘smarter' is the key word because everybody's watching him, not only the referees and (VP of Operations) Stu Jackson and the commissioner, but everybody," said Scott. "He can play hard. Without a doubt, he can play hard." Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Punchless Sixers falterIt's one thing to be done in by perennial NBA all-star Jason Kidd, but it's another when the fourth-quarter culprit is none other than Jason Collins. Who? Not yet a household name outside East Rutherford, N. J., the 7-foot Collins scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter as the New Jersey Nets defeated the listless 76ers, 88-80, last night at the First Union Center. Collins is a rookie from Stanford and one of five Pacific Ten Conference players on the Nets' roster. He entered the game averaging 4.3 points and exited as one of the many Nets heroes. In the fourth quarter, he hit 3 of 4 shots from the field and all four attempts from the foul line. For good measure, he grabbed four of his five rebounds in the final period. "[Collins] made a great offensive tip when they needed it, but their whole team hurt us," said Sixers coach Larry Brown, whose 37-33 team fell after a modest two-game win streak with Allen Iverson injured and lost to the Nets for the first time in three meetings. "We didn't do a good job of guarding the pick and roll." Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Vaughn Cuts Down the NetsIt must have been Final Four Fever. With college basketball’s biggest event moving to Atlanta this week, the Hawks played with the fervor that defines their youth, and the vigor of a Final Four participant. Scrappy defense, saving balls from going out of bounds, and flat out hustle carried the Hawks to an improbable 103-77 victory Tuesday night. What was improbable was they handed such a beating to the Eastern Conference leading New Jersey Nets. Atlanta Hawks, New Jersey Nets Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Nets Mar 2002 Archive
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