Kenyon Martin is a former NBA player who currently works as an analyst, appearing regularly on Underdog’s show ‘Gil’s Arena.’ In his recent appearance on the show, he confronted an Underdog employee who had apparently made a video mocking his speech impediment.
“Something recently was brought to my attention, that one of the people who works here that we see daily, and I brought this person into my home. Had him around my wife, my kids, treated them with nothing but respect.”
“And this is a loyalty situation, a teaching situation for people with their kids. When people say, ‘Be careful who you bring into your inner circle, be careful who you bring into your home,’-that’s the situation I’m speaking of right now.”
“I need you to do some explaining to me, brother… Can you explain this video to me?”
“Yeah, this is what we talked about–,” the colleague responded.
“We didn’t talk about s***! No, you tried to apologize,” Martin exclaimed before replaying the video’s audio for the rest of the crew on the show.
Wow… Kenyon Martin just pressed and put a Gil’s Arena production member in his place for mocking his speech impediment pic.twitter.com/KA1ULsTZB8
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) March 17, 2026
The audio from the video was also caught on the mic, where the colleague could be heard yelling that Martin “can’t even get a sentence out without stuttering.”
“So when I brought you into my home, this is how you felt?” said Martin in confrontation with the colleague.
“No, I apologized,” he replied.
“This is how you felt when I had you at home in front of my wife and kids? So for what did you go out of your way— when someone is showing me love in a moment, you go out of your way to disrespect me.”
“I don’t think I was being disrespectful when I was,” the Underdog employee responded before Martin interrupted him.
“Huh? Disrespectful. When that’s something that I have stated time and time again on this couch, it is a sensitive subject for me. I drew a line in the sand a long time ago.”
“There’s no apology that as an adult I would accept for this. I came in here one day, up to Gil’s house, and you came to me and tried to apologize out of the blue. I blew you off because I didn’t know what you were talking about. That’s the situation, yes or no?”
“Why didn’t we talk about this when I apologized?” the colleague asked.
“Because I didn’t know what you were talking about, so it didn’t matter to me.”
“I didn’t see the video until two weeks ago for the first time. Had I seen it back then, we would’ve had this conversation… So you apologized because you realized it was BS.”
“You’ve been in my home around my wife and kids. I fed you, put money in your pocket, did I or did I not? Did you not come into my home when you didn’t know anyone else out here? When you had nowhere to go for Thanksgiving, did I not invite you to my home? Two years in a row? And this is the thanks that you give?”
“That apology is null, and void is what you don’t understand, dawg. If I knew about it then, I wouldn’t have accepted your apology like I didn’t then. I blew you off, said yes, whatever, didn’t know what you were talking about.”
“This is what disloyalty and people who don’t respect you look like, y’all, him. Be careful who you invite into your home, who you have around your loved ones, friends, and family, this is what you get.”
“People like this who talk about what’s near and dear to my heart, I have a speech impediment, and everyone knows how I feel about this, right? People who don’t have a voice have to speak up for themselves. You don’t tease someone about something they have no control over, thinking it’s okay.”
“Did you not do it in front of people? So, you want me to do it in private? No, I said I was the same energy brother.”
“I don’t want your apology, brother,” Martin said as his colleague tried to apologize again.
“Then what do you want from him?” intervened Nick Young.
“Don’t ever be in my presence again,” Martin responded.
“Then get you a** out of here,” Young replied.
“This is a different route, long time ago I would’ve gone a different way, this is an adult me. You did it in front of people, you get that same energy from me,” said Martin in conclusion.
The former All-Star with the Nuggets has on several occasions openly acknowledged that he dealt with a speech impediment since he was in high school due to school-related anxiety at the time, which eventually fueled him to channelize it into a basketball career.
Martin understood the value of his platform and chose to be a good example to the younger generation instead of taking a potentially uglier route. It is a good thing that Martin took a stand and dealt with the matter maturely.
His objective was not to inorganically generate viewers, as this clip has been edited out of the YouTube replay of the live stream, indicating it wasn’t scripted for our eyes. Therefore, perhaps Martin’s only objective was to quash the hatred at the root level and take a stand against an insensitive trend of mocking people’s insecurities.
