NBA All-Star Kenyon Martin Joins Sports Legends Who Stutter
Basketball Player Joins Other Stars Who Stutter
(PRWEB) May 12, 2005 -- Kenyon Martin, the Denver Nuggets basketball
sensation who was named to the NBA’s All Star Team in 2004, joins other famous
people who stutter in a new brochure. The brochure - which unfolds into a small
poster - is available free of charge from The Stuttering Foundation.
The
poster is intended to give children and adults who stutter inspiration as they
grapple with their speech disorder.
Martin is featured alongside other
sports legends who stutter, such as Bill Walton, Ken Venturi and Bob Love. He is
the 16th famous person added to the poster. Others featured include actor James
Earl Jones, Marilyn Monroe and Winston Churchill.
Martin, who has
struggled with stuttering since he was a child in school, says the speech
disorder was a catalyst that propelled him to the highest levels of basketball.
He was named National Player of the Year in his senior year playing for the
University of Cincinnati Bearcats.
As a 6-foot, 9-inch power forward
with the Denver Nuggets, he averages just over 15 points per game.
In a
recent interview, Martin said stuttering has haunted him since his childhood in
South Dallas. He endured teasing from classmates and refused to speak in class.
Later, as a basketball star in Cincinnati, his fear of being teased was
replaced by the fear of speaking to reporters; and he tried his best to avoid
interviews.
Then, when he was named Player of the Year and became the No.
1 college player in the NBA draft in 2000, Martin resolved not to let stuttering
get in the way of his success. He confronts his stuttering head-on and he
doesn’t worry what others think.
“Kenyon Martin will be a great source of
inspiration to young people who struggle with stuttering,” says Jane Fraser,
president of The Stuttering Foundation. She notes that speech therapists, school
clinicians, teachers and others often hang the posters in a prominent place in
their office.
For a free copy, call 800-992-9392 or visit www.stutteringhelp.org.
(Click on Brochures.)
Note to reporters and editors: A picture of Kenyon
Martin and PDF copies of the 16 Famous People Who Stutter brochure/poster can be
e-mailed to you. A media resource kit on stuttering is also available to help
with stories or sidebars. This press release is available at http://www.stutteringhelp.org/pressrm
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/5/prweb239241.htm