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Utah Jazz forward KJ Martin smiles before a game against the New Orleans Pelicans held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sunday, March 2, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News
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KJ Martin has only been in the NBA for five years, but because of all the different types of situations he’s been in and observed, he feels like a seasoned veteran on the Utah Jazz.
His rookie season was in 2020, following the NBA bubble and the COVID-19 shutdown that upended the sports world. But before the season even started he learned that the NBA operates differently depending on who you are. He was drafted in the second round by the Sacramento Kings and then traded to the Houston Rockets. He showed up to Rockets training camp only to learn that the team’s star player, James Harden, was not there.
Harden, disgruntled, was working to force his way out of Houston, and shortly after the season began, a four-team trade saw Harden moved to the Nets. Martin tried to keep his head down and focus on the things that were in his control, which is what his father, Kenyon Martin, had always told him to do.
“The most important thing was just to compete, no matter the situation, no matter who is around, just make sure that you are giving everything your best effort,” Martin said, relaying his dad’s long-enduring mantra.
That’s always easier said than done. Martin was playing for a newly appointed head coach, Stephen Silas, who now was in a situation that he didn’t necessarily sign up for, on a team that had been in the Western Conference semifinals the year before, but didn’t look like it would be headed back to the playoffs anytime soon, and surrounded by other young players all fighting to carve out a spot in the NBA.
What he saw clearly was that even though the Rockets were not going to win a lot of games (never eclipsing 22 wins in his three years in Houston), being on a rebuilding team gave him and others something that not a lot of young non-lottery players get — playing time.
“A lot of people don’t have opportunities like we did,” he said. “A lot of the guys, me included, if we were playing on different teams, probably wouldn’t be playing. That helped a lot, just getting reps for three years ... now I’m here and there’s kind of a similar situation and I can see guys that were in the same position that I was four or five years ago.”
Though Martin is not the same type of player he was when he was with the Rockets, he still appreciates and looks back to those first years in the NBA as building blocks of who he has become. And since then, he’s seen what it is like for teams that are trying to compete for a championship.
He’s been on the Los Angeles Clippers and then Philadelphia 76ers and he has seen what it takes to be an elite team and some of the things that can be downfalls for teams trying to win big.
“Seeing all of that, understanding habits and how to attack every day, and stuff like that, it’s easier for me to kind of help everybody here,” Martin said.
One of the things he saw in the disfunction through his years in Houston was the need for reliable veterans. Not for play on the court, but to help lead the young players. Martin was fortunate that even though there weren’t a lot of veterans on the Rockets, John Wall took Martin under his wing.
Martin still relies on Wall. The two talk regularly and Wall is someone that Martin knows cares about him away from the court. That’s what Martin is hoping he can someday be. He wants to make sure that he pays back the lessons he learned and the friendship that’s necessary to make it through life in the NBA. Part of that starts now, with the Jazz.
“I know I’m one of the older ones here, even though I just turned 24, which is crazy to say,” Martin said. “I’m still young, but I have that little bit of experience. So like I said, I think that helps a lot, and I think they trust me. We’re close in age, so we can relate and I can fit right in and still help.”
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Utah Jazz forward KJ Martin (99) slaps hands with fans on the sideline during an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
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