Kenyon Martin says he’s not mad about the time J.R. Smith pulled a prank on him with the Denver Nuggets. He still sounds a bit mad about it, though.
The well-dressed Martin appeared on ESPN’s Highly Questionable and told Mina Kimes and Dan LeBatard about the time J.R. Smith got a ball boy in Denver to fill his car with popcorn. It ended with him shirtless in the locker room and fielding phone calls from team president Josh Kroenke asking him not to fight a teammate.
Martin wasn’t playing the night of the incident, so he left his phone, wallet and keys in the locker because he was wearing a suit. A ball boy took his keys and left a big surprise in his car to find after the game.
I hit my unlock button on my car and it don’t unlock. I’m thinking ‘Huh. I always lock my car.’ So that’s my first thought. So then I get to my car and I open the door and popcorn just fell out. I left the door open, I didn’t think or anything. I turned right around and went right into the locker room.
…
I took my jacket off. It was the dead of winter. I had on a tee shirt, I took my shirt off. And I’m pretty sure y’all heard the audio… (laughs)
Please enjoy said audio below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4LJa84BKL4
Eventually, it became clear that Smith put a ball boy up to the task. Martin was begged by everyone not to actually, you know, fight a teammate. It was a difficult request for Martin to manage.
Everybody’s calling me: ‘Kenyon can you please not do anything it’s going to look so bad’. I’m like ‘Whatever, man. Listen: imma get him’
He and J.R. didn’t come to blows, but he was upset for sure. He also took it out verbally on the ball boy, who Martin said he never wanted to see again. The Nuggets also paid to get his car reupholstered.
“I told the team: He’s not allowed to come back to the gym,” Martin said. “If he come back to the gym, imma slap him on site.”
Martin said he has no problem with J.R. Smith these days, but it was tense for a while between the two.
I ain’t mad at J.R. I got over it because it was just a car. But everybody was like ‘yo, why him?’ Of all the people in the locker room, why did you pick him?’ You could have did that to anybody else and it wouldn’t be a big deal, probably. It would have been funny. Why him? They knew where that was gonna go. Like, I wanted to snatch J.R.’s head off his shoulders.
(via Ball is Life)
