- published: 25 Nov 2014
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Kenyon Lee Martin (born December 30, 1977) is an American professional basketball player. Nicknamed "K-Mart", he plays for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously played for the New Jersey Nets and the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, and the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of China. He is 6'9" and 240 lbs, and was the first overall pick of the 2000 NBA Draft.
Martin played for the Cincinnati Bearcats under the direction of Bob Huggins. As a senior, he averaged 18.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game. He was the consensus National Player of the Year, earning numerous awards from various organizations, but suffered a broken leg in the Conference USA Tournament, keeping him out of the NCAA Tournament that year. Cincinnati retired his #4 jersey on April 25, 2000. Later that year, he was selected first overall in the 2000 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. Martin is currently the last American-born college senior to have been the top overall pick; the top picks since him consist of three high school players (Kwame Brown, LeBron James and Dwight Howard), one international player with two years of U.S. college experience (Andrew Bogut), two international players with no American college experience (Yao Ming and Andrea Bargnani), four college freshmen (John Wall, Greg Oden, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving) and a college sophomore (Blake Griffin).