Kenyon Martin Jr. will enter NBA Draft despite not going to college
Kenyon Martin Jr. is showing there is more than one path to get to the pros.
Martin will enter the NBA Draft this year, his dad told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Tuesday.
Kenyon Martin Jr. played at Sierra Canyon High School in the Los Angeles area. He received scholarship offers from multiple programs, but rather than attend Vanderbilt, he decided to do a post-graduate year at IMG Academy in Florida.
Martin wanted to focus on developing his game for the NBA, and he is satisfied with how things have gone, which has led to the decision to go pro. Even though he did not go to college, Martin is eligible for the draft because his high school class is a year past graduation.
Martin’s dad, who played 15 seasons in the NBA and was an All-Star forward, shared his thoughts on his son’s decision to go to IMG rather than college. This quote comes from a good interview with 247 Sports published in November.
“He expressed that was what he was thinking, we did our homework and I gave him what everyone said and we made a sound decision. It wasn’t something that I forced on him, it was something we talked about as a family and it was the right choice. Everybody’s path is different to get there. AS you said, there are different avenues now to get there, you don’t have to go to college. For me, I had to go to school for four years in order for me to accomplish my goals but he is way better than I was at 18 and more skilled so why not make your own path? You can’t let this politics, there’s a bunch of stuff at every level and we eliminated all of them, the hype, the schools, if you want to get better then this is the bottom, we’ll get better, go work on your body and get better and he’s doing it. You can see it out here,” Martin Sr. said.
Players are starting to try different paths to get to the NBA. Some go to the G League, some play abroad, and Martin went to IMG Academy to train.
Here is a look at his highlight video. The 6-foot-6 forward looks like a beast.