When Richard Jefferson fought Nets teammate Kenyon Martin

During the 2000s, Richard Jefferson was a valuable member of the New Jersey Nets, serving as their mainstay starting small forward. During that time, he was also teammates with Kenyon Martin for a few years, including their runs to the 2002 and 20023 NBA Finals.

Martin was known as a wild personality by some, which endeared him to fans and his teammates. However, there were some times when he had some quarrels with opponents and even teammates in the locker room. Jefferson and Martin themselves had an altercation behind the scenes.

“Kenyon tells me, ‘Hey Richard, be quiet.’ Bonzi Wells goes, ‘Yeah! Listen to Kenyon and shut up.’ I just lost it. I’m like, ‘F, Bonzi! And F, you too, Kenyon!,” RJ said to Slam. “I go and sit down, I’m mad, pissed off. I’m sitting down, and Kenyon comes into the locker room pissed off. I stand up, and he pushes me down in my seat. We have a full-on fistfight.”

Despite the fight, they respected each other

Like most brotherhoods, there are some spats here and there. This was one of them as it made them better teammates. They had conflicts with each other, but they came out well afterwards.

“Even that fistfight right there, we both understood how much we wanted to win and that we were willing to fight anybody, including each other, to get that done,” Richard said.

In that fight, they were laying into each other but as soon as they hit Aaron Williams, the fight stopped. That was because Aaron was one of the toughest guys in the league, a physical player, which translates well into his massive presence. His physical style bled over to the court as he committed 319 fouls in the 2000/01 season, making him feared in the Nets locker room.