Contrary to perceptions, not every kid growing up in Flint in the 1970s and early 1980s was infatuated with basketball.
In fact, one of the city’s all-time greats would’ve preferred to be anywhere but a basketball court in his younger days. “I wasn’t a basketball fanatic,” Marty Embry said. “I hated basketball. I didn’t like playing. I only played because that’s what everybody was doing. I also excelled in a lot of things away from basketball, away from sports.”
One of those things was cooking, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
How could someone blessed with as much talent as Embry have such harsh feelings about the most popular sport in his hometown?
Because, even though Embry led Flint Central to two state championships and played professionally for 13 seasons, he wasn’t always the type of player who would get picked first in pick-up games. Far from it.
“I was awkward,” Embry said. “My brother (Mark) was an athlete. If I had his jump shot, I would have been in the NBA for 12 years. He was a better athlete than me, for sure. But he was a lot smaller. My brother probably topped out at 5-11. He was the one that played the sports. I was the one that was big, who everybody assumed I played.”
Embry grew to be 6-foot-9, 240 pounds, providing a physical force in the paint for Central teams that had plenty of flash-and-dash with guards like Eric Turner, Mark Harris and Darryl Johnson.
So, it’s hard to believe that Embry was the target of bullying when he showed up for games back in the day. “I would go to open gym with guys who enjoyed basketball,” Embry said. “We would all hang out and go play, but it was older guys. Because I was a bigger kid, they just pummeled me. It took the fun out of basketball for me. But I can honestly say all those guys that bullied me when I was younger, payback was sweet as I got older.”
The switch flipped for Embry during his sophomore year at Central when he had a growth spurt.
“That kind of helped,” he said. “Then my skill level slowly caught up with my height. I think going into my sophomore year, I started enjoying basketball where it wasn’t a chore for me.”
Embry became the chairman of the boards for the Indians, setting Flint-area records with 399 rebounds in 1981-82 and 706 for his career in only two seasons.
“I wasn’t asked to score,” Embry said. “My role was to clog up the middle, to play defense, to stop my man from scoring and to get every rebound that comes off the goal, because that’s how we started our fast break.”
After a four-year career at DePaul University from 1982-83 to 1985-86, Embry was the 84th overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft, going in the fourth round to the Utah Jazz.
The Jazz allowed Embry to play in Spain in 1986-87, which helped prepare him for his first NBA training camp the following season.
Embry felt he performed well enough to earn a spot on the team, but was cut. The Jazz retained his rights for several seasons and never waived him, so he didn’t get another shot with an NBA team.
“I don’t want to say I got screwed by them, but I really got screwed by them,” Embry said. “I don’t think they expected me to do as well as I did in camp. (Coach) Frank Layden said if I do what I was supposed to do, they’ll make a position for me. Eric Leckner was the big guy. Well, I was smashing Eric Leckner. I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t care.
“I’m thinking I’m in. When the smoke cleared, only one position was left for me. I had a better camp. I know I’m in. I’m coming back to veterans’ camp, for sure. My agent told me they secretly signed Jose Ortiz. I called Jerry Sloan and asked Jerry if that’s true; it’s true. He said, ‘We’d love to see you in veterans’ camp.’ For what? There’s no spot. They wanted bodies in there to go against their veteran players, so I left.”
Despite the disappointment, Embry carved out a nice career for himself playing in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Japan, South America and Turkey before retiring in 2000.
One of the benefits of playing in so many countries was being exposed to a wide variety of culinary styles.
Embry had been cooking all his life, helping his parents in the kitchen. His dining experiences overseas helped prepare him for a career after basketball.
He opened a restaurant in Flint called “51 to Go,” an homage to his jersey number. He has authored eight cookbooks and a self-help book called “Diary of a Depressive.”
“Playing basketball in Europe broadened my mind a little bit when it comes to the kitchen,” Embry said. “I grew up on southern food. My mother and I are both from Arkansas.
“When I went to Europe, a lot of countries cook a lot of fresh food, a lot of fresh ingredients, nothing out of a can. A lot of restaurants even source their own vegetables and things. The things they did in Europe, I brought back to the States. It was a personal thing initially.
