Los Angeles – While the surroundings recalled negative events from the past, Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin is taking a positive view toward the future.
The Nuggets opened their regular season Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers, the team that knocked them out in the first round of the playoffs last season. That series’ biggest headline for Denver was Martin being suspended for the final three games for conduct detrimental to the team after Game 2 at the Staples Center. But Martin has moved on, now that his knees are better and he has made amends with coach George Karl and his teammates. He hopes others will, too.
“Time heals a lot of things that go on,” said Martin, who missed 25 games primarily to his knee injury last season. “It gives people time to think about things, think about situations, what led to everything, what happened. We just moved on from it. We can’t keep reflecting on that.
“Eventually if you keep thinking about that, it’s going to resurface and it’s going to become negative again. But since training camp, everything has been positive, upbeat.”
While Martin started in the season opener, he acknowledged he thought he would be in a different uniform after last season. Now, the 2004 NBA all-star said he’s as happy to be a Nugget as he’s ever been.
“I haven’t been happy the whole time I’ve been here,” he said. “That’s put a dark cloud on my days. Not being healthy and not being able to play the way I’m capable of playing made my attitude even worse.”
Karl said: “I’m in a place where I can be a part of his career rather than a guy who fought with him.”
Captains Melo and Camby
Karl named Carmelo Anthony and Marcus Camby captains. The Nuggets had three captains last season in Camby, Martin and Andre Miller. Karl said he prefers having two captains to three, and Martin’s drama played only a small role in the change this season.
“It’s something I think I’m ready to take on,” Anthony said.
Footnotes
Rumors persist about a potential trade that could send Nuggets guard J.R. Smith and another player to the Clippers for swingman Corey Maggette….Karl placed guards DerMarr Johnson and Julius Hodge and center Jamal Sampson on the inactive list. “I’m very disappointed,” Johnson said…. To help push their offense, the Nuggets have been practicing with 16 seconds on the 24-second shot clock. Karl said the practice shot clock would drop to 14 seconds in the near future….Nuggets vice president of player personnel Rex Chapman gave the players a motivational speech at the shootaround. “It’s a long season. I basically talked about giving the game its due. Competing. Carrying over the things they’ve been doing the first 30 days,” Chapman said…. Martin had stitches taken out of his injured fourth finger on his right hand.
Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-954-1098 or mspears@denverpost.com.
