The sure sign of trouble rocking the Nuggets’ world is a diamond. Kenyon Martin hates wearing that sparkling stud in his ear to practice. The jewelry is a dead giveaway his knee hurts worse than anyone in Denver wants to admit.
What good is a power forward without his power?
“I’m becoming a jump-shooter. I don’t like it. But that’s what I have to do right now just to get through games,” Martin said Tuesday, after being forced to skip practice and rest his aching knee only one week into the grind of a long NBA season.
“I’m not a finesse player, and I never will be. But that’s the way I have to play right now.”
The frustrated man who vows to pull on a Nuggets uniform and be in the starting lineup tonight is a basketball warrior, but he’s not the K-Mart who Denver spent more than $90 million and three future first-round draft picks to acquire a year ago.
When will that slam-dunking, jaw-dropping, totally intimidating K-Mart show up for the Nuggets?
“I don’t know,” said Martin, his admission both blunt and disconcerting. “I thought my knee would be fine right now. But I was wrong.”
Offseason knee surgery has been unable to fix what’s wrong with Martin, whose athleticism once punched his ticket to the All-Star Game as a member of the New Jersey Nets.
The lofty expectation for Denver to win a division title for the first time since 1988 seems beyond the Nuggets’ reach if Martin is unable to jump.
Coach George Karl has openly questioned the 27-year-old veteran’s conditioning, puzzling because K-Mart’s work ethic is beyond reproach. The lone persistent doubt about Martin has been health, from the time he broke his leg as a senior at Cincinnati.
Chronic knee soreness not only grounded Martin’s high-flying, backboard-swaying act throughout much of his first season with the Nuggets, he admitted the physical limitations brought him down mentally during the playoffs, a trying time when job anxiety was compounded by concern for the premature birth of a child.
Here comes that fear again. Martin admits picking his spots to attack the rim, because rugged confrontations under the basket have weakened him as games headed toward the fourth quarter, when the Nuggets repeatedly fell short at crunch time last week.
“The pain got the best of me last year, and I’m trying not to let it do the same thing this year. But it is. It’s getting the best of me,” Martin said. “I’m frustrated.”
The truth of how much he’s hurting is revealed in all the details.
After scoring 14 points Sunday night in the first half against the Lakers at Los Angeles, K-Mart had no hop down the stretch. When a gassed Martin was asked to sit out Denver’s final possession of the fourth quarter during another loss to those same Lakers in the home opener, he tossed a towel in disgust.
“I don’t like sitting on the bench at crunch time. I’ve made plays in my career at the end of games, hit big shots, got offensive rebounds. I’ve done it against George Karl, when he was coaching at Milwaukee,” Martin said. “I don’t like sitting out, especially when the game is on the line. I’m a competitor. I hate losing.”
Denver’s 1-3 record is no cause for panic. What’s more worrisome is Martin’s scowl.
“If he’s hurt, if he can’t play, if he can’t lead by example, he’s animated with his emotions. He can’t hide it,” Nuggets guard DerMarr Johnson said.
In the battle of wounded knees, the Nuggets lost a big piece when forward Nene went down and out for the season on opening night, while Martin has limped out of the gate, with a subpar 5.3 rebounds per game an early statistical manifestation of his pain.
“I thought whatever I did this summer with the surgery would clear it up, that I wouldn’t have any problems. It’s frustrating, because I want to go out there and play with no pain,” Martin said. “What can I do? Keep fighting through it is all I can do.”
It’s a fight the Nuggets cannot afford Martin to lose.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
