DALLAS — Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin vowed this morning to settle his issues with Mark Cuban face-to-face after the Mavericks owner confronted his mother following Saturday’s Game 3.
“I don’t feel I need to call his name in the media and all that, but it’s a little personal,” Martin said after the Nuggets shootaround today. “And I’m going to take care of it.”
According to Cuban, a fan called the Nuggets “thugs” after Game 3 and he turned to Martin’s mother, Lydia Moore, and said, “That includes your son.” Martin’s agent, Brian Dyke, said Cuban told Martin’s mother “Your son is a punk.”
Either way, Martin is steamed. He said he plans on getting face time with Cuban tonight.
“(Heck) yeah, don’t say nothing to my kids or my family,” Martin said. “If you got something to say, say it to me. But I’m going to take care of it. I’m not going to do the whole media thing, back and forth. That’s his thing. I’m more of a face-to-face type of dude.
“So whenever the opportunity presents itself, then I will address it. But I got a game to go win. At some point I will, but I got a game to go win, first and foremost. So that’s my focus and concentration right now.”
Cuban has been known to try to get under the opposing team’s skin to throw them off their game. Asked if he thought Cuban was trying to do that in this case, Martin said yes.
“That’s what he’s trying to do, but it ain’t going to work,” Martin said. “I’m focused on what we need to do as a team. That’s what I’m here to do. But if other things present themselves along the way then you got to address them. And this is one of those situations. I don’t back away from nobody except the law.”
It’s been a whirlwind nine days for Martin, who was fined $25,000 by the NBA for a hard foul on Dallas Dirk Nowitzki after Game 1. Martin’s sister, Tamara, recently called in to a radio station here to defend him from being criticized on a sports talk show. And now this.
Asked whether he had experienced anything like his current situation with Cuban, Martin said no.
“Nobody in his position, not at all,” Martin said. “But of course, a college game where people in the stands are saying stuff to your family, that’s fine and dandy, during the course of the game. But when the game is over, you don’t say nothing to nobody’s parents; especially mine. My mom or my kids, you don’t have no words for them. I’ll take care of it.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
