Buying fancy cars is a pet peeve among NBA players, driven by peer pressure and a desire to flaunt luxury. Former number one pick Kenyon Martin was inspired to buy his first luxury car after watching New Jersey Nets teammate Jason Kidd drive an Aston Martin Vanquish. Although at first, he thought $200K was too expensive for a car, her promised himself that if he got a big contract, he'd treat himself to one.
That time came in 2004, after Martin was shipped to the Denver Nuggets in a sign-and-trade deal that gave him a six-year, $82.3 million contract. During an interview on the Knuckleheads podcast, Martin revealed that one of the first things he did was buy a fancy car.
And so when he returned home to Dallas that summer, he booked a trip to the Aston Martin dealership. However, on the way there, he passed by its Rolls-Royce counterpart and Martin decided to check it out before heading to his destination. He ended up falling in love with another car.
"It's when the Phantom first came back," said Martin. "It's on the showroom floor, 2004, big grille. I'm going in there. He opened the front door, the door opened and he opened the other one. 'Oh, man.'"
The Phantom is one of the oldest luxury car models in automotive history. It began production in 1925, but after the Phantom VI in 1990, it stopped making the car because demand had dwindled and the cost of building it had become too high. However, the Phantom made a comeback in 2003 with the Phantom VII.
Since the reception was warm, Rolls-Royce went on full production in 2004. And that's when Kenyon saw the Phantom VII on display in that Dallas dealership. So instead of wanting to buy J-Kidd's $200K sports car, he ended up fancying the Phantom because of its coach doors, which Darius Miles referred to as "suicide doors" in the interview.
Smitten by the beauty of the Phantom VII, Martin immediately phoned his longtime financial advisor and asked him to wire the payment to the dealership's bank account right away, because he wanted to take the car home right then and there.
"Man, I've got the same financial adviser I had when I was a rookie. I called Justin Bass on the phone, 'JB, I need you to wire right now, $349,000.' I didn't even make it to the Aston Martin dealership. I forgot about it. I stepped in that thing. He said, 'It comes with an umbrella too.' I said, 'Oh, get the f—k outta here.' I'm excited about the car."
However, shortly after taking home his dream car, Kenyon realized that he had been traded to the Denver Nuggets and a luxury car would have been over the top given its weather and environment.
Because Mile High has snow, ice and winter driving conditions, it's impractical to have a sports or luxury car up there and it's the reason why folks there drive pickup trucks and all-wheel drive vehicles.
"But I live in Denver. No disrespect to Denver. This car is too much because every time I drove it, it's like…" Martin stopped, but he likely meant too flashy and unrealistic.
"There's a Bentley dealership in Denver; I go and he's like, 'We'll do something with you.' I got rid of the Phantom. He wanted to buy it. I traded him. I got the Bentley GT and the Ferrari 360 Spider."
The GT made more sense in Denver because it has more ground clearance than sports or luxury cars. It also had the all-wheel-drive variant, which is what Kenyon likely bought. Meanwhile, the Spider was likely his summer car while he was there because, like the Phantom, it had low ground clearance. But having the Bentley made up for that.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Oct 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
