Shawn Kemp Article

This one's going back a few years but I came across it linked in a DimeMag blog post on the lockout:
Shawn Kemp - The Unfathered Father

It's a good read for anyone who was a fan of The Reignman back in the day. They mix up the timeline a little here and there but aside from that it's a good career retrospective.

Nice piece of work. I can remember much of the events. Sad thing is that, when looking at the dates, it reminds me how old I am.

I liked Kemp with Sonics & with Cavs. Shame he couldn't stay with Sonics. Don't know why Seattle threw money at McIlvaine. Then again, at the time everybody was excited with white stiffs who had good blocks per minute stats.

At least he stuck true to what they signed him for & went for the block

See how he uses his knee and karate kid pose to block Shaq's knee. Creativity and determination right there for McIlvaine.

I think we're all obliged to point out that they'd probably call a charge on that these days.

Signing McIlvaine to that big contract - in 1996 rather than 1994 as stated in the article - was a classic desperation move following the Finals loss and reaction to another star centre moving West, with Shaq joining the Lakers that same offseason. As the picture above illustrates, it wasn't exactly an effective solution. A fine example of how to disrupt team chemistry, though.

Reminiscing on Kemp's years with the Cavs

Cavs fans had to watch as Rick Fox turned them down for four years and $20 million. He went to L.A. for $1 million instead.

That's the definition of Pwnt right there.

Fox openly said it was because he wanted to get into acting.

Which to his credit, didn't work out too badly for him.

Linked in that article is this piece, featuring a photo of Kemp circa 2008.



Shame he couldn't have had one last decent run after getting back into shape.