Reign Supreme: Shawn Kemp

So for anybody reading this who’s known me since my teenage years, you’ll know I was shit-crazy for basketball and all its baggage! Crazy to the extent that during the week of my GCSE Exams, I spent every night at an outdoor court practicing my free throws, most of the time in the dark. End result, few qualifications and a free throw average that was, well...average (don’t practice in the dark kids!). It doesn’t matter so much as everything has turned out just fine, although around ’99 I fell out of love with basketball. But that’s a story for another day.

This post is in honour of one of the most exciting players to have ever graced the hardwood courts of the NBA, Shawn Kemp.



I’m not sure I should use the word ‘honour’, as he was also a total fuck-up who’s fathered a reported 19 kids and has the reputation that comes with that kind “achievement”! But during an 8 year spell at the Seattle Supersonics, Kemp was one of the most devastating and exciting dunkers in the league. He even got nicknamed ‘The Reign Man’, because when he went up hard, he reigned down on you. Check out the highlight reel below from an NBA Superstars video that I used to have, with a backing from Pearl Jam. This is some serious shit!




So Kemp used to play for the Sonics right, and his partner in crime at the franchise was a Point Guard called Gary Payton who as quick as cheetah farts would throw up alley-oop passes from the half way line for horny Shawny to slam home with a reverse or a tomahawk, usually levelling a defender and hanging over him off the rim, grabbing his balls like a dude in a rush to have 19 children. Pure entertainment! Here’s Kemp Reigning down another perpetual fuck-up, Dennis Rodman. Rodman makes Shaw Kemp look as holy as a line of Mother Teresa endorsed chastity belts, but he couldn’t jam like the Reign Man. Few could.

You see, NBA scouts were rocking up to Kemp’s games while he was still in High School in Indiana. He was supposed to head to the University of Kentucky to play college ball before stepping up the big time, but he got booted out before the season even started for stealing and pawning a team mate’s necklace. He eventually made the jump straight to the Pro’s from school, signing a long term deal with the Sonics, which would come back to bite him in the ass! When the salary of NBA players started to shoot through the roof in the second half of the 90’s, Kemp was still stuck on a lower wage as stipulated in his contract, even though he was their star player.

After throwing his toys out of the pram, he got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a few seasons, slamming on the weight until he hit 278lbs and getting shipped out to another team, the Portland Trailblazers. He suffered problems with his weight as well as hitting the booze and drugs hard, finishing his first season in rehab. He made another go at it with the Orlando Magic, but didn’t last the season.

In 2005 he got busted with coke, dope and a semiautomatic in Washington, and again with the sticky-sticky in Houston a year later.

He was offered trials with a few different NBA teams after reportedly sorting himself out, but failed to even turn up to train. Kemp announced that he would play in Italy for Premiata Montegranaro, but was sacked before the season even got under way.

Such a shame, this dude lit up my life in the 90’s. He even rocked the coolest kicks in the cave. Just check out these floor-hounds for a fresh blast of nostalgia!



One of his army of sprogs, Shawn Kemp Jnr, has already been tipped as a future NBA star, and is currently rated as one of the top Centre’s playing High School ball in the US. Let’s hope, in the long run, he fares a little better than his old man.

But, let’s not forget that from 89 – 97, Shawn Kemp Reigned Supreme!