“Should Be Drinking Liquor and Smoking,” Kenyon Martin Reveals How NBA Youngsters Can Stay Injury-Free

Former NBA player Kenyon Martin spoke about the lives and routines of modern day NBA players and shared an unpopular opinion on Gil's Arena.

“Should Be Drinking Liquor and Smoking,” Kenyon Martin Reveals How NBA Youngsters Can Stay Injury-Free

Kenyon Martin (Image credits - Firstsportz)

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Kenyon Martin‘s career spanned for 15 seasons in the NBA. While he has had his fair share of injuries that have forced him to miss a significant amount of time during his playing days, the former number one draft pick shared a few thoughts on modern-day NBA players and their lifestyles.

Gone are the days when players in the NBA would regularly feature in all 82-games in a regular season. Nowadays, players are more than often forced to load manage themselves by their clubs so that they stay fit for the postseason.

Over the past few seasons, the NBA has experienced a significant increase in player injuries. To tackle the problem, the league is reportedly testing a new approach aimed at reducing injuries. But 2004 NBA All-Star, Kenyon Martin, had a different and an unusual approach. Featuring on Gil’s Arena, Martin said:

This is not a popular opinion. But we drank liquor, hung out all night. They got these kids coming into the league, they don’t go out, they in the bed at 10:00, up at this time. They should be drinking liquor and smoking dope.

NBA tests a new approach aimed at reducing injuries

With every passing week ,the injury list keeps piling up. NBA star players are missing twice as many games as they did in 2023-24. It has gotten so bad, that nearly half of all NBA stars are injured at present.

Heading into 2026, nine stars did not play in their team’s first game this campaign. Kyrie Irving, who tore his ACL last season, is expected to miss a major chunk of this season. Dejounte Murray ruptured his Achilles last season and will miss a significant amount of time. Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton all suffered long-term injuries in the 2025 playoffs.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the NBA is launching a league-wide biomechanics assessment program to optimize performance and help prevent injuries:

The league is launching a league wide biomechanics assessment program. More than 500 players have already gone through a level of testing, there’s four rounds of biomechanics testing also needed to be done rest of the season and that’s gonna be used to optimize exactly how the performances and try to reduce injuries moving forward.

Kenyon Martin is not the biggest fan of Draymond Green

Golden State Warriors star, Draymond Green, had his fair share of controversies throughout his career. Green is often viewed as one of the few tough guys remaining in the league. However, it appears his contemporaries do not view him in the same light. Kenyon Martin shared his opinion on Green and criticized the forward:

Green
Draymond Green (Image credits – Athlon Sports)

I think what Draymond does is calculated. Draymond ain’t do nothing to somebody who’s going to do something back to him.

During Warriors’ game against the Pelicans, Green found himself in a heated exchange. Surprisingly, it didn’t come against a Pelicans player but against a fan in the crowd. The fan teased Green by calling him ‘Angel Reese’ after he grabbed numerous rebounds without shot attempts. Eventually, Green stormed towards the fan to confront him during the game.

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