Before we get to tonight’s game in Columbia, a few words on THE story in basketball and all of sports.
Kobe Bryant’s prodigious NBA career got started just as Cuonzo Martin’s was running on fumes. Martin appeared in three games with Milwaukee during the 1996-97 season, his second and final season in the league, just as Bryant’s rookie year in Los Angeles was tipping off.
(Martin’s final NBA appearance came against Chicago on March 3, 1997. He checked into the game with 5:38 left in the fourth quarter, replacing close friend and former Purdue teammate Glenn Robinson.