Shawn Kemp
Teams
Seattle SuperSonics - 1989-97
Cleveland Cavaliers - 1997-00
Portland Trail Blazers - 2000-02
Orlando Magic - 2002-03
Playoffs
Appearances - 10 (1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,2002,2003)
Conference Finals - 2 (1993,1996)
NBA Finals - 1 (1996)
Championships - 0
Awards and Honors
All-NBA Second Team - 3 (1994,1995,1996)
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Total Blocks - #55
Total Rebounds - #64
League Leads
Total Rebounds (#3-1995,1996)
Field Goal Percentage (#5-1994,1996)
Rebounds Per Game (#5-1996)
Shawn Kemp is the first player in this countdown who did not play college basketball. He committed to play for Kentucky, but didn't score high enough on the SAT to be eligible as a freshman, and after an issue with a teammate, he transferred to Trinity Valley Community College, where he didn't play. After what would have been his freshman year, he declared for the NBA Draft, where he was picked #17 by the Seattle SuperSonics.
Kemp was the youngest player in the league as a rookie, and it took him a little time to find his footing, but in his second year he showed huge improvement, jumping up to 15 points and 8.4 rebounds per game after just 6.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game as a rookie. It was also that season that Kemp was given one of the coolest nicknames in sports, "Reign Man", by the team's announcer.
Kemp was well-known during his Seattle year for his thunderous dunks, but he was a very solid player who continued to improve every year until 1996, when he and Gary Payton led Seattle to the NBA Finals. They lost that series to the 72-win Chicago Bulls, but they pushed the series to 6 games, which was quite an accomplishment against what may be the greatest team of all time.
Before the next season, Seattle signed Jim McIlvaine, a young center who never panned out, to a huge contract, one that paid him more than Kemp, and Kemp threatened to sit out the season as a result, even though his contracted could not be negotiated until after the next season. He did end up playing the entire season and nearly matched his previous season's career-best output, but with his relationship with the team deteriorating, he was traded to Cleveland following the season.
In Cleveland he continued to put up All-Star numbers, even averaging a career-high 20.5 points per game in 1999, but his efficiency declined significantly. He shot at least 49% in each of his final 7 seasons in Seattle, all while averaging at least 15 points per game, but in his 3 years in Cleveland, he finished below that number each season, dropping as low at .417 from the field in his third season with the Cavaliers.
He was traded to Portland in the summer of 2000, where he was never able to live up to his former glory. He had battled weight problems since leaving Seattle, and his first season in Portland ended early so he could enter drug rehab. After 2 seasons in which he averaged just over 6 points per game, he was waived in 2002. He then played one season with Orlando with similar results before his NBA career ended in 2003.
His career may not have ended up the way it should have, given his quick rise and solid peak, and it ended quite early, when Kemp was only 33, but he was one of the big reasons that Seattle was a perennial playoff team throughout the 1990s and was the best player on an NBA Finals team, so he definitely deserves a spot among the best players of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment