Former NBA player Jeremy Lamb recently appeared on the “Run Your Race Podcast” and revealed an interesting story about Kevin Martin. While speaking about the former Sacramento Kings guard, Lamb shared that Martin would consciously score fewer points to avoid being an All-Star.
“He was a beast,” Lamb said. “He used to look up at his stats, it used to be the second quarter, and say he got like 19 points, he’ll look up and be like, ‘I got too many points.'”
Lamb recalled discussing this with Martin and the latter’s response: “If I score too many points, they’re going to make me an All-Star. I want my time to myself.”
The former NBA guard was dumbstruck by the response. He continued by reiterating that Martin would simply choose to stop scoring, even while playing alongside Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2012-13 season.
Jeremy Lamb’s experience of playing alongside Kevin Martin comes from his rookie season with the Thunder. This was coincidentally also Martin’s only season with the team.
The 2012-13 season was an interesting one for Martin, as he was far from being the primary option on offense. The lineup featured the likes of Durant, Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka. OKC was also the No. 1 team in the West with a 60-22 record.
Martin, who was 29 years old at the time, was a solid scoring guard who was notching pretty reliable scoring averages. However, he had never been an All-Star in any of the teams he had been on, while having the talent to be one.
Lamb’s narrative on this matter presents a very different outlook towards what it means to be a star player, while also offering an insight into Kevin Martin himself.
Martin ended that season with the Thunder with an average of 14.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game. He also finished fourth in the 6MOTY race.
The guard left OKC at the end of the season to join the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he averaged 19.1 points per game to go with 3.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists. He built upon these numbers in his second season in Minnesota with an average of 20.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. However, this was his last solid scoring season as his career started to come to a close.
Martin eventually retired after the 2015-16 season, having played with the San Antonio Spurs. His averages for his career are 17.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists at the age of 32.
