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Back when I wrote feature articles for basketball magazines, I would pick a player and interview a handful of people about that player, as well as the player himself.

Then I'd use about 6% of what the people told me in an article that would be 94% my words.

But it often occured to me that it would be cool to just print the (edited for length) transcripts of those interviews. Forget the article, you know? I like reading transcribed interviews, for some reason. And a handful of them on the same topic would probably end up making you feel like you knew a lot about that topic!

So, I'm going to try that for you on TrueHoop, as an experiment.

And the subject of the experiment is Kevin Martin.

Why Kevin Martin? Because he's a promising young player most people know too little about. Because he's about to get a lot more famous (and rich). Because he's a good guy. And because he's tight with my buddy David Thorpe, who has helped put me in touch with practically everyone who played a role in Kevin Martin's development.

The first interview is with Kevin's high school coach, Scott Aronhalt of Ohio's Zanesville High School. Coach Aronhalt (who is now also the athletic director) gets raves from other coaches, and Zanesville's program is praised for churning out extremely competent players who know what to do on and off the court. (For instance.) Coach Aronhalt is also the father of a fine young shooting guard with a perfect GPA. (Full disclosure: Thorpe has also trained Logan Aronhalt. Yup, this story is getting pretty incestuous, from a journalism ethics point of view.)

When did you first meet Kevin?
Probably the first time was at our elementary school basketball camp. He must have been in the third or fourth grade, and as you can imagine he was nothing but a stick. But he was a great looking kid, with a big smile. Easygoing. He loved to play. Just loved the game. But you never dreamed he'd be the one in that gym to make it to the NBA.

He just doesn't give off that "I'm going to rip your head off" vibe.
He's very unassuming. He's a great competitor. When you throw the ball up, he gets into it. But he doesn't have an ego that says he has to get thirty. He has never had that. I can't tell you how many players we've had here, but he's certainly the best scorer we have ever had. And at that time, we were independent, so we played one of the toughest schedules in the state. He averaged 22 points per game against a lot of guys who were on their way to play Division 1 basketball.

We had another kid at the same time, Kyle Witucky, and those two just always had an incredible work ethic.

Kevin could always shoot it. But when he came as a freshman he was about six feet tall and weighed 99 pounds. People sometimes say that he's not strong, but that's not true. I'm a certified strength and conditioning coach as well, and pound for pound he's one of the strongest guys you'll ever come across.

I remember the summer he really worked on his strength. He had been pretty much a standstill shooter. But he got a lot stronger when he moved to the varsity, and then he just really started to get after it. His senior year he was lighting people up. He'd back them down in the lane. He'd get to the line. He'd score on the run.

But the recruiters were still questioning his strength. They'd call me and ask "who's recruiting him?" and "why isn't he ranked in those top 100 lists?"

I always felt like if you saw him play, and trusted what you saw, who cared about the other stuff?

Sometimes I think that being in a big spotlight as a very young person might not help your development anyway. Can it be good to fly under the radar?
You're right about that. The spotlight has made some people highly rebellious, or they haven't handled themselves very well. But Kevin? When he comes back to town, he's just Kevin Martin. He acts like he's nobody special.

He was one of four candidates for Ohio's Mr. Basketball. That's a very prestigious award. But he just did not have the personality to get a big head about it. Whatever attention he might have received, I don't think it would have damaged him.

How often do you see him?
We talk on and off. He texts me when he's coming to town, wondering if the school is open. Then he'll come up on a school day and kids will stop him and want autographs, they just love him. He has really embraced the community, even though he has no idea what all the fuss is about. He is as down to earth as you get.

So, he's texting wanting to get into your gym to work out?
Oh yeah. He's always in there. The Kings sent some media guys to follow him around in the weight room and stuff. He's here in the morning many days, or in the afternoon. He'll lift. He'll shoot. If someone's doing drills or something, he'll jump in and he's just another regular guy.

I have to ask you about that funny looking shot of his. [Look at about the 1:46 mark.]
He has always been a left-eye dominant shooter. And the ball would start high, off his left eye. You could watch as he pulled it up to his face it would move across his face, and he'd release it over to the right of his head. As a coach, I used to be really adamant about getting everyone to shoot the same way, but through the years I have forgiven a lot of that. All of us are not the same, and you can be very successful with different kinds of shots.

Later, David Thorpe really worked with him and while Kevin's shot is still very similar, David was adamant that his hand should be moving straight towards the basket as he shot, not moving side to side. I think his stroke looks pretty natural -- plenty of people have a motion that's more awkward.

Kevin's approach to the game, according to everybody I have talked to, is as professional as anybody's. For instance, he bought a house near the team's workout facility, so he could get to the gym all the time. And David tells me that Kevin has worked on essentially everything David has ever asked him to work on. Where does he get that? Why can't everybody have that?
Number one, his family is fantastically supportive, and they're great people. His grandmother is as good a person as you'll ever meet. And Kevin is smart enough to know who's really trying to help him, and to trust those people. If you respect him, and listen to him, he'll listen to you. He has not been led in wrong directions, and he has developed beneficial relationships with guys like David Thorpe.

I hope to think that we've been a part of it too. Zanesville is not a typical program. We have boosters and try to do some things that other programs can't do. And we take an approach where your actions on and off the court are important. We're concerned with how they carry themselves. I hope he picked some of that up.

Is there a Kevin Martin moment that really stands out to you?
There are just so many great highlights from his basketball career. He has been a big part of some amazing games. But honestly, the moment I think of came off the court, last summer. I was in Florida, where my son and Kevin were training with David Thorpe. I had some family meeting me there, and we all met downstairs at the Residence Inn for the buffet breakfast. Kevin was there with some friends of his from high school. We ate breakfast, and then Kevin got up to grab something from his room before we went over to the gym.

Then he paused, and asked me if we were supposed to bus our own tables. I said yeah, I think so, and then Kevin just didn't even hesitate and picked up everybody's plates and took them over where they were supposed to go.

(Photo by Terrence Vaccaro/NBAE via Getty Images)