Back in the day, Pat Riley wasn’t just a coach—he was a mental toughness machine. His workouts weren’t about basketball alone; they were about survival. There’s a wild story where he dunked his own head in a bucket of ice water for three full minutes just to prove a point about belief. Another time? He made Hassan Whiteside “Lick your hands and touch highest as you can on the backboard. I’m getting all kinds of germs from this backboard.” For Pat Riley, besides talent, it is always the mentality. “He personally oversaw that,” Whiteside said, still visibly rattled years later. But not everyone can withstand the Military style.
Naturally, Whiteside didn’t hesitate when asked about the hardest workout of his life. “The hardest workout of my life,” he said. The moment came up on The OGs Show, and Udonis Haslem pressed him—was it still the toughest? Whiteside doubled down. He almost blacked out. It wasn’t just some shooting drill either—it was full-court, non-stop dunking. “One thing about coach Riley, man, he just wanted to see if he could break you,” Miller said. Some take it as a challenge. But everyone? No.
Similarly, that kind of intensity hit Kenyon Martin on Day 1 of his NBA career. The former Nets star didn’t sugarcoat a thing. “My first day of training camp is the worst day of my career. No, the very first drill that I did as an NBA player, it’s called easy run, oxymoron, ain’t nothing easy about it,” Martin shared during the Brooklyn Nets’ One Night in Brooklyn series.
Things only got crazier from there. Martin described the drill with the kind of detail that still sounds exhausting. “You line up, free throw line extended, two lines, time on the clock, you say go. Hands up, you gotta run down, defensive slide at the end. Hey, get to the corner, backpedal, slide, go, do, boom, boom…” he said. Veteran Buck Williams, watching all this unfold, couldn’t help but say what everyone was thinking: “Pat Riley stuff.”
In the end, it completely shook young Martin. “I was like, oh my God, this is what the league is?” he remembered. Still, as the series went on, the crew looked back fondly on the early 2000s playoff runs, when all that pain started to pay off. There are coaches, there are GMs, & presidents, but when Riley stands, the biggest of the stars make way. For him, it is his kingdom, either come to the fold, or part way, it is just Riley’s show.
Kenyon Martin share insights on the team’s early 2000s NBA Finals runs
Despite the early 2000s Nets’ lack of superstars, they had something else—chemistry. During a recent episode of One Night in Brooklyn, Kenyon Martin sat down with fellow Nets legends Derrick Coleman, Buck Williams, and Kenny Anderson to break it all down. The secret sauce? Balance and grit. “We didn’t do it in a traditional way of winning where we had a 25-point scorer,” Martin explained. “We had balance across the board, we ran, we defended, and we played fast.” That formula didn’t look flashy, but it worked.
Martin himself became a huge piece of that puzzle early on. By just his second season, he was putting up 14.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and 1.7 blocks per game—key numbers during the Nets’ 2002 Finals run. The next year? Even better. Martin dropped a career-high 16.7 points and grabbed 8.3 boards per game. Jason Kidd, the floor general, nearly snagged the MVP that year, averaging 14.1 points, 9.9 assists, and 7.3 rebounds. That group might not have had a go-to score, but they had a lineup full of reliable pieces.
Dec 14, 2024; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats forward Dillon Mitchell (23) high-fives former Bearcat and NBA player Kenyon Martin, after defeating the Xavier Musketeers at Fifth Third Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images
To make it to back-to-back NBA Finals, the team leaned on guys like Richard Jefferson, Kerry Kittles, and Keith Van Horn—all of whom could score and defend. But even that wasn’t enough against the Lakers’ dynasty. “We ran into Shaq, man,” Martin admitted. “Not the Lakers—we ran into Shaq.”
Still, for Martin, those years meant everything to a franchise that hadn’t seen much glory. “Nets fans hadn’t had something to cheer for in a long time,” he said. “We gave them something to cheer for. It was great to be able to walk around Jersey with our head held high.” And for Nets faithful, those Finals runs remain unforgettable.
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