Olympiacos Piraeus big man Hassan Martin comes from a big family and the support of his parents and brothers have helped him become the team-first player the Reds rely on today.
Hassan Martin, Olympiacos: ‘I’m a team player’
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“You know me! I’m a team player.”
When Martin said those words, he was referring to his role on a basketball team, though he just as easily could have been talking about his family life. The third brother in a family of seven boys - all of whom were or are athletes, Martin credited the support of his family for helping him get where he is today.
“I’m gonna just try to play with as much hustle, try to be as disruptive as I can defensively, use my athleticism to my advantage the most I can and just help my team win,” Martin said in describing his style of play. “I’m not a guy who’s gonna try to score 20. I’m gonna do the little things. I’m gonna be physical. I’m gonna attack the rim, set good screens, run in transition. That’s what I do. I want to win.”
When one watches the power and grace with which Martin plays for the Reds, it’s hard to imagine the way he described his younger self, one who was reluctant to pick up a basketball.
“I used to love going to [my brother’s] games, I just didn’t like playing,” Martin said. “I was a shy kid. I think I was just scared and anxious all the time about everybody watching me. I don’t know. And I wasn’t good at it as well. I was soft and didn’t like it.”
Instead, Martin took up American football, where he played defensive end and wide receiver for his local school team in Staten Island, New York. “In football, I was a beast. In basketball, I sucked so bad and I just didn’t want to play,” he explained.
That eventually changed after 10th grade. A combination of a growth spurt, hating to play football in the cold and the fact that most of his friends played basketball and not football led Martin to focus on the round ball and not the oval-shaped one. And though he was a little raw at first, Martin’s athleticism allowed him to star in high school and strong coaching in college made him a more well-rounded player.
Aside from Martin’s size, skills and athleticism, another factor that helped him develop into an impact player at the highest level of European basketball was his family. Coming from such a large family taught Martin from an early age what it means to be a team player – “You do have to share, coming from a big family” - and the support of his family members has helped him whenever the going got tough.
“I have a big support system with all my brothers. My parents were really involved. My uncles were really involved. Everyone in my family played basketball from my grandfather to my uncles, everybody,” he said. “It was kinda hard to not end up playing basketball because I come from such a basketball family. My dad was always, always entering me into these tournaments, bringing me to these workouts. My family has a basketball mindset I would say and that definitely helped me and my younger brothers and older brother as well.”
Even from the other side of the ocean, Martin would try to watch as many of his siblings’ games as possible and said they also, despite the time difference, would tune in to his games, too.
Hassan’s oldest brother, Phil, who played professionally in the Czech Republic and Argentina, is the brother who is in Hassan’s ear the most about ways to improve his game.
“He’s always been giving me that advice since I was a kid, since I was in high school. Where I need to be more aggressive. Or just what areas I’m not showing what I should be, he always likes to dissect it and it’s nice to have,” Hassan said of Phil. “I used to love going to his games when I was younger. I looked up to him when I was younger. I used to cry when I couldn’t go to his games… So when he talks to me, I always listen. He would never say something that wouldn’t help me. Sometimes it can be tough love, a little tougher than I wasn’t to hear, but it is what it is.”