Kenyon Martin On When He Punched Karl Malone To Take Revenge For Isiah Thomas: "Aww, This M**********r Soft Right Here."

The NBA has gone soft over the years, and there are no two ways to look at it. While many believe it has taken the fun out of the game, a lot are happy that players are playing the game in a much safer way. After all, during the older era, players getting injured was a pretty common occurrence.

Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas contributed in his fair share of fights during his playing days. Most notably, the Pistons developed the 'Jordan Rules' in order to stop Michael Jordan by using physicality. But in 1991, Thomas was given a taste of his own medicine by Karl Malone.

At the time, Malone was playing for the Utah Jazz. In a game against the Pistons, the Jazz power forward elbowed Isiah Thomas in the left eye. It led to Thomas getting several stitches.

A 14-Year-Old Kenyon Martin Decided To Take Revenge Against Karl Malone

In the game, when Thomas got punched by Malone, Kenyon Martin was in attendance. And in a recent episode of 'All The Smoke' podcast, he revealed how he wanted to take revenge against Malone for hitting Thomas.

"Ya’ll remembered when Karl Malone elbowed Isiah Thomas and split him open? Remember that? Isiah was leaking, right? This was way before I was ever in the league and I never thought I was going to be in the NBA to begin with. But I remember he had him leaking right? We playing Utah, we in Jersey. The great John Stockton dropped that thing to him. I went right inside to Karl Malone and boom, lay him out, and he didn’t get up. I do nothing. I was like, ‘Aww, this m***********r soft right here.’ Jerry Sloan, God rest that man soul, told me, ‘Oh you m**********r I’ll kick your' and he tried to take up for Karl, and Karl didn’t do nothing, and I was like… But that was psychology. This all happened way later. It was wired in my brain."

Martin succeeded in taking revenge against Malone for Zeke and that too in a great fashion. But this just goes to prove that, in a way, the league becoming less physical over the years is a blessing in disguise. As players can get seriously hit in the heat of the moment.