You would want to have some sympathy for Kenyon Martin, a big, strong kid with more than a little talent, the luck to be the top pick in the draft two years ago even after he broke his leg in the opening round of the NCAA tournament and then had the bad luck to break it again halfway though his rookie year with the Nets.

	Playing on emotion has gotten Martin into a bit of trouble.

You want to wish Kenyon Martin well after he stayed in school at Cincinnati those four years, bucking the trend.

He's a big kid, 6-9 and 230, muscular, can shoot some, puts up respectable numbers with 15.8 points, shoots a decent percentage, .473, could be a better rebounder than five and change a game. But Martin is like the kid on the playground who wants to settle disputes with his fist. That's a way to lose sympathy fast and Kenyon Martin is running out of sympathetic ears quicker than you can say the word THUG. These more than occasional incidents of violence he is visiting upon his rivals in the NBA are an alarm bell sounding, whether the Nets want to recognize it or Martin wants to acknowledge it. This is the sort of thing Lou Lamoriello's other team, the hockey Devils, engages in. This stuff doesn't play in the NBA. And if Martin keeps it going he's going to find himself on the outside looking in.

For the uninitiated, Martin twice in 14 nights whacked somebody from the other side.

If you are a Nets fan this matters because the team is 22-11 but lost both games in which Martin engaged in physical extra curricular activities. That should tell him something. This team doesn't need the distraction.

The first was a 104-90 loss to the Jazz on Dec. 22 in which he took out Karl Malone on a clothes line play that showed evil intentions. The NBA set him down a game and fined him $7,500.

	McGrady

	Malone

The second incident took place last week. He hammered Tracy McGrady during a 98-92 loss, pulling him down by the right shoulder while the acrobatic McGrady was in the air. Then he compounded the deed with a right hand punch at McGrady after the Orlando player leaped to his feet and chest-bumped his antagonist. This time the NBA set him down for two games and doubled the fine to $15,000.

"I know Kenyon's not a dirty player, but that was not a clean play," Doc Rivers said, held in check because his one player lost his cool.

Martin argued that the blow inflicted on McGrady wasn't nearly as hard as the one he put on Malone. And then he cut to the chase. "I'm not going to change the way I play," he said. Later, he said, "I've got to do something. I guess they want me to start playing soft."

	“	Kenyon's not a dirty player. He doesn't go out there to hurt anybody, but he just knows how to play the game one way. That's how he learned to play the game. He spent four years under Bob Huggins and that's how they play every game and how they practice every practice. That's what you do. That's what Kenyon knows. ”
		— DerMarr Johnson on Martin

It won't happen. It's against his nature. And that much you can take to the bank, says DerMarr Johnson, the young Atlanta player who played a year at Cincinnati with Martin and then declared for the draft.

"That's how he plays the game," Johnson said. "Kenyon's not a dirty player. He doesn't go out there to hurt anybody, but he just knows how to play the game one way. That's how he learned to play the game. He spent four years under Bob Huggins and that's how they play every game and how they practice every practice. That's what you do. That's what Kenyon knows."

Johnson said this is doctrine and this is Martin's will. He lived with it and he isn't knocking Martin. "He's my best friend," Johnson said. "He's my best friend, but I know if I come at him with the ball he's going to knock me down. I would expect that from him. It's how he was taught to play the game of basketball." That's why Martin has committed 116 personals this season and fouled out of four games in addition to the incidents that got him suspended.

So this says as much about Huggins and his suitability for the NBA as it does about the kids he browbeats into college basketball tough guys. Even as Huggins has campaigned for a head coaching post in the league, pro general managers have long wondered if Huggins' brand of tough guy act would play in the NBA. This says he doesn't belong.

"It's how he teaches, how he coaches," Johnson said, clearly not judgmental. It was Huggins who gave him the year of college he wanted and it is Martin who showed him the ropes that season.

But you don't have to read between the lines to know that Nets coach Byron Scott is a little concerned about his player's future. "I don't want Kenyon getting a reputation from refs as a thug in the league. He's too good a player, and too nice a guy for that."

Scott said he told Martin he wants him to play hard, but he also doesn't want him hitting people over the head and laying them out. "I said he must play smarter, to be more effective for himself and for us. We're a better team with him on the court."

And the NBA is a better league when its players aren't trying to break heads.

Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.