I can't decide who is the most unlucky in this situation - KMart, who has suffered his third major leg injury since his senior year at Cincy, or the Nuggets, who have lost a starter to a season-ending injury in the first week of the season for the third season in a row. (And the fact that none of them were Marcus Camby makes it all the more amazing.)
Let's be clear: I thought the Nuggets (well, Kiki really) were stupid to sign KMart. They already had Camby, Nene and Anthony - why the hell did they want to sign KMart, whose numbers were clearly inflated by playing alongside Jason Kidd, to a 7 year max deal? It never made any sense. But if he's always injured, then everyone just writes it off to bad luck, and I'm not really proven right in saying it was a stupid signing. Where's the fun in that? I want to be right, dammit!
And although I think he is overrated and overpaid, I actually like KMart fine as a player. He works hard, he hustles... I really feel sorry for the guy. Here's what he said about this latest problem BEFORE he knew his season was over:
Down in the dumps must look pretty nice from where he is now.
Interestingly, the way the Nuggets keep building their roster (way too many bigs, no shooters) makes them more injury-proof than most teams. If you had one great power forward and one great shooter, then losing either one of those guys would produce a major productivity drop off. But the Nuggets have 20 power forwards and no shooters. If they lose their starting 4, they have lots more where he came from. And if they lose their starting 2, they can sign someone just as good from the D-league. They're almost completely injury proof, in an ironic, idiotic sort of way.