Martin Channels Anger Into NBA : Benched at UCLA, Rejected by the CBA, Minnesota Guard Learns From Johnson

The guard stopped Darrick Martin as he was entering the Target Center, home of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“Sorry, son, this is the players’ entrance,” the guard said.

“But I’m with the Timberwolves,” Martin said. “They just signed me and I’m going to play in my first game tonight.”

Looking at Martin’s boyish face and his 5-foot-11 frame, the guard believed Martin, 24, was a high school student trying to sneak in to get autographs.

Just then, an equipment manager walked by and vouched for Martin.

The security guard might have been the most recent, but he was the least of the obstacles the former UCLA guard has overcome in his three-year quest to reach the NBA.

“I never doubted myself,” Martin said.

But others did.

Martin, who started 77 consecutive games at point guard in his first three seasons at UCLA, was demoted as a senior in 1991-92, when Coach Jim Harrick replaced him with Gerald Madkins, his roommate on the road.

“They never really thoroughly explained it to me,” Martin said of his demotion. “But I wasn’t going to make any waves because I thought we had a good team and I still wanted to win. I thought we had a good shot at getting to the Final Four.”

But by the end of the season, Martin was angry and chose not to have his parents participate in senior day. The other seniors were accompanied onto the court by their parents before their final game at Pauley Pavilion, but an assistant coach escorted Martin.

“It was his choice,” said Martin’s father, Jesse. “I think it was a comfort-level thing to him. We were available to support him in whatever way he wanted us to, and he came to us and said that he didn’t want us to participate.”

Then came the NBA draft and more rejection. Martin wasn’t selected. Frustrated, he turned off the television midway through the draft, after teammates Tracy Murray and Don MacLean had been chosen.

“I went to the movies and then I went to a park and played basketball by myself,” Martin said.

That fall, Martin was waived by the Rapid City Thrillers of the Continental Basketball Assn. He supported himself by working in TV commercials for a year.

Martin tried out for Tulsa of the CBA the next season but was waived in training camp.

“That was a slap in the face,” Martin said. “It motivated me to show people that I could still play. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it. It makes me want to play that much harder and show what I can do.

“Every time things get a little hard or don’t go my way, I always reflect back to the past couple years.”

Martin got his break when he was signed to play for Magic Johnson’s touring all-star team in 1993. Johnson helped Martin shape his game.

“He was down and out when I called him,” Johnson recalled. “He wasn’t strong.

“He had a lot of potential. Sometimes when you come out of high school so highly rated (Martin was a prep All-American at Long Beach St. Anthony’s in 1988), you relax.

“I don’t know what happened at UCLA, but Coach Harrick wanted him to be a true point guard and he wanted to be a shooting point guard. I think he thought it was Coach Harrick’s fault and he blamed him. But he wasn’t ready to play in the NBA.

“We worked on the point guard mentality with him. We made him come to the gym at 7 a.m. and he worked his butt off. He’d go work with a personal trainer after practice and then he’d go run on a track. When he left, he was a totally different player. This guy doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit.

“I respect him so much. He’s like my little brother, now.”

Martin agreed.

“Magic’s like my big brother,” Martin said. “He was really hard on me because he knew I wanted to play in the NBA. He’d get on me if I passed the ball to the wrong guy. Magic was the key in getting my game right. He just really helped me with my decision making.”

Martin spent 1 1/2 years with Magic Johnson’s team, visiting Japan, Argentina, New Zealand and Europe.

“Traveling with Magic was like traveling with the President,” Martin said. “We’d go to a country and we’d have armed security guards.”

Former NBA players Lester Conner and Mark Aguirre, who played on the team, took Martin under their wings.

“Once we were in Italy and we warned him about pickpockets,” Conner said. “We were in a McDonald’s and these kids lifted Darrick’s wallet, which had about $3,000. We chased the kids down and we literally had to strip search the (one) kid to get his money back.”

Martin left Johnson’s team last fall, signing with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the CBA, hoping it might lead to an NBA job. Martin averaged 21 points and 7.8 assists in 37 games, was selected to play in the all-star game and ranked 10th in the league in scoring and third in assists when the Timberwolves called.

“I took the attitude that I was mad, so every night I came out and tried to destroy someone,” Martin said.

Martin’s work ethic impressed Skyforce Coach Flip Saunders.

“He was the hardest worker on the team,” Saunders said. “We have regular practices and optional practices and Darrick was the only player who never missed a practice.”

Martin was rewarded when the Timberwolves signed him to 10-day contract on Feb. 13. After a second 10-day stint, he was signed for the rest of the season on March 7.

“Being in the NBA means more after what I’ve been through,” Martin said. “I appreciate it more.”

Martin played his best game in the Timberwolves’ 108-105 victory over the defending NBA champion Houston Rockets on March 3, scoring a season-high 14 points. He matched that figure in last Tuesday’s 115-100 loss at San Antonio and had his first NBA double-double in a 105-102 loss to the Lakers two weeks ago at the Forum, getting 13 points and 10 assists. The Clippers will get another look at him today in Minneapolis.

Coach Bill Blair has enough confidence in Martin to play him in the fourth quarter.

“We’re really pleased with Darrick,” Blair said. “(He) has really played well and I’m just happy for him. He couldn’t have had a better teacher than Magic. He sure went to the right person. He learned a lot from Magic. . . . He’s allowed us to run more.”

While in town to play the Lakers and Clippers, Martin went to the airport to visit Johnson’s team, leaving for Australia.

Johnson said, “I walked over to him and said that I was proud of him, but I told him not to forget how he got there. ‘Be the first one (at practice) and the last one to leave.’

“I want him to stay (in the NBA), not just to be there for the season.”

And if Martin maintains his work ethic he may have a long and rewarding NBA career.