There are opponents who were difficult and then there were those who filled you with blood-curdling dread. Rookie Shaquille O’Neal was terrified of facing Michael Jordan. Later, it was Shaq who put the fear in the likes of Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson. When Kenyon Martin played against the Lakers in 2002, the Nets had to ‘pick their poison’ – double team the Big Diesel and let Kobe Bryant humiliate you or go after the Black Mamba. That was just one of the questions players like Martin faced when playing against the Lakers for a decade. Even without Shaq, the Kobe-led Lakers still gave their opponents existential crises.

K-Mart was on Marcellus Wiley’s On The Rocks podcast this month when he revealed the moments of dread he’s faced in his career. His best battles were against Tim Duncan and the Spurs. Martin acknowledged in the past that he found a thrill in their rivalry. Even this time, he told Wiley, “Player-wise… Tim Duncan was who he was.”

Yet there was something that would stop Martin, arguably one of those with minds of steel, from calling Duncan the best. “I battled Tim, Tim played in the finals, like played hard; he did what he did, superstar, did all that. But I wouldn’t stand up at night.” But one player did make K-Mart lose sleep in the night.

“Bean had people worried, he had people worried what the next day was going to be like,” he stated. Kobe Bryant indeed was that guy. Despite his reputation as a notorious trash talker, Martin told the Gil’s Arena crew previously that it was taboo to trash-talk Bryant unless you wanted a target on your back. As per Kenyon, it took very little to trigger Bryant into using his unrivaled offensive IQ to shut up opponents.

For that reason, Wiley asked if he considered Kobe Bryant the “Best player in the league.” Martin admitted, “Yeah. It’s hard for me to say that he wasn’t the best basketball player in the National Basketball Association.”

As much as Bryant caused sleepless nights of dread, Tim Duncan had his way of giving Kenyon Martin a tough time.

K-Mart preferred Tim Duncan as an opponent

Recently, Victor Wembanyama was put on the spot when he had to pick between his mentor at Spurs, Tim Duncan, and Kobe Bryant. “Probably Kobe, of all-time. Actually, I don’t know.” With that sentence, Wemby created a side-debate between the Lakers and Spurs legends.

Kenyon Martin was one of those in Gil’s Arena who were giving Tracy McGrady the benefit of the doubt about his recent Kobe comments. But he’s pretty clear on his stance about Bryant. Earlier this year, he said, “Kobe has never been out of the best basketball player of all time debate, ever. He was a bad a– man with the ball in his hands, competitive as they come, 5 rings. My 15 years of playing basketball, Kobe Bryant was the best basketball player in the NBA.”

After the Nets selected him in 2000, Martin was the key enforcer on the roster that led the team to the 2002 NBA Finals, the first Finals in the franchise’s history. For the Nets, the dilemma was between double-teaming Shaq and leaving Kobe wide open or letting O’Neal push them around like rag dolls while Bryant scored anyway. There was no answer to Shaq & Kobe for the Nets. The Lakers swept them and completed their three-peat that year.

The following year, Martin again led the Nets to the Finals, against the Spurs this time. Martin and Stephen Jackson claim that the ‘Spurs got lucky.’ But K-Mart had to admit, “Timmy was a problem.” Tim Duncan averaged 24.2 points, 17.0 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in 6 games in the 2003 NBA Finals. The Nets would return empty-handed this time, too, because of a single player.

The Nets had to put two guards on Duncan just to slow him down. And that prepared Martin for his entire career as one of the best enforcers in the league. “I figured out how to guard people because of having to guard him,” is what he said about Duncan. Between the guy responsible for league-wide insomnia and the guy who gave him a tough time, Kenyon Martin’s choice is clear, though.