Derrick Pickens

Kenyon Martin says he took a 20 hour greyhound bus he paid for himself to ABCD basketball camp for a chance to get noticed, and says he played so hard against Kobe Bryant that the camp flew him home first class “Just play basketball hard. That’s all I did. Dunk shit, fight shit, block shit. That’s all I knew. The first NBA player I saw, I was in high school, man. Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn came did a thing at my high school. They was playing for the Mavericks. First time. And I'm challenging them” “Hey, I'll bust y’all ass. Not knowing they in the league, giving Scotty and Mike 50, right? Yeah, but I'm arrogant in that regard, but I'm think I'm but not knowing they really, really good. But that was the first NBA players I saw. I didn't know nothing about rankings and who this that and the third. Man, I went to ABCD camp on the whim, right? Called a Greyhound. 20 hours bro.” “When I got to ABCD, they in that thing talking about rankings and I’m like, rank who? Where? Who’s this dude? Why everybody following him around? It was Kobe. Like, why everybody following him around? Why he special?” “Everybody was there. Class of ’96. Kobe was the No. 1 player in the class. You had Romel Lloyd, Shaheen Holloway, Lester Earl, Tim Thomas. I caught a bus, man. I caught a Greyhound. How does taking a Greyhound 20 hours turn into 15 years in the NBA? Just don’t deviate, man. It was never built on skill.” “Throw the ball up. That used to be my thing. Throw the ball up, dog. I’ma beat you to it. Throw it up, I’ma go get it. It’s on the floor, I’ma go get it. You ain’t going to play harder than me. You’re not.” “I caught a greyhound. I caught a Greyhound out there. And the thing is So, listen. Caught a greyhound there, right? I played so well that I got a flight home, dog. That's how hard I played at the camp.”