A new hope

　　Kenyon martion entered the green room at target cen ter behind a facade of indifference. He walked out of i t wearing his heart" and a few tear stains" on the slee ve of his natty, dark-gray suit coat.

　　A player who had seen his basketball life flash bef ore his eyes when he suffered a fractured fibula in the conference USA tournament in march, martin had remved h is emotons from the equation of the NBA draft, where th e new jersey nets made him the first pick.

　　When his lifelong dream finally was realized, the v eneer of cool melted away and martin sobbed openly in t he arms of his mother, lydia.

　　When he gathered himself and his runaway feeling, m artin was not about to apologize for his temporary loss of control.martin, the 6-foot-9,230-pound power forward from cincinati, did not work out for any NBA teams. The explosiveness has not returned to his legs. There was n othing to be gained from working out at anything less t han full speed.

　　Doctors in new jersey prodded and poked him when he visited east rutherford. Martin's hard work rehabbing t he injury impressed them enough that they gave new pres ident of basketball operations rod thorn the thumbs-up to take a player whose defensive skills he loved.

　　Martin is quick enough to guard small forwards, nas ty enough to challenge power forwards. The nets enterta ined lots of offers for the top pick. Ultimately, they decided martin was worth keeping.

　　He gave no thought whatsoever, he insisted, to draf t position.

　　What position he will play in the NBA, he said, is not a concern, either.

　　Now martion will buy his mother a house in dallas a nd go back to work in the gym, waiting for that explosi veness to return to his legs.

　　He will do so with a cool demeanor and the nasty sc owl.