The Return Of Shawn Kemp

by damir on Jul 9, 2008 1:27 PM PDT

PHILADELPHIA -- The kid was seated on the floor of a gym at Philadelphia University, a few minutes after his first game at the Reebok All-American Camp on Tuesday, when a man in an official camp polo shirt walked by and mistook him for a different high-school senior-to-be. "Dan Jennings?" the man said, but received only a strange look in return.

The man altered his inquiry. "What's your name, kid?"

"Shawn Kemp."

The man's look said B.S. "What's your name?"

"Shawn Kemp."

"You," the man said, slightly annoyed, "ain't Shawn Kemp."

And then the man walked away.

The kid, who was wearing a No. 71 jersey with no name on the back, was not perpetrating a ruse. While he is not the Shawn Kemp of Supersonics fame and paternal infamy, he is Shawn Kemp Jr., the eldest child of the former NBA forward, and one of at least eight kids -- with at least six different mothers -- fathered by the elder Kemp. Out of the Reign Man's scattered DNA has grown another power forward who has played his way onto the national recruiting radar.

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pretty sure it was the same shawn kemp jr

he was at the rose city exchange about a month ago. he had game.

"Honor Terry Porter." Email me with your TP stories and memories.

by Ben Golliver on Jul 9, 2008 1:37 PM PDT reply actions

how many kids?

did he have? thats the only way he can prove to me he is Reign Man’s kid

I remember the good old days. The Rasta Monsta days.

by GreatOden'sRaven on Jul 9, 2008 2:22 PM PDT up reply actions

Just rude ...

... I like it.

RipCity -- now, now ...

by Y5k on Jul 10, 2008 6:59 AM PDT up reply actions

I've been waiting for this

I figured it was any day now we’d start seeing his kids causing ripples in the NBA ocean.

He was too big, too athletic, too good not to have at least 2 or 3 kids who could make the NBA, out of his 16 or whatever it is (maybe less, maybe a lot more, neither would surprise me).

Just playing the odds, I mean. You have that many kids and you’re as naturally gifted as Shawn Kemp, there’s gonna be some NBA kids there. A smart agent would have been babysitting them since they were in diapers, or adopting them from the various mothers spread out across the country.

The kid in the photo above looks like a mix of Kevin Durant and Michael Finley to me. Shawn Kemp needs to get a baby daddy test!!

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Jul 9, 2008 3:00 PM PDT reply actions

I re-read it

Only 8 kids attributed to Kemp? That’s disappointing.

That brings the odds to only one NBA kid, at most. DAMMIT.

8 has to be a conversative estimate. I could make 8 babies in my sleep, that isn’t hard.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Jul 9, 2008 3:02 PM PDT up reply actions

LOL

I could make 8 babies in my sleep, that isn’t hard.

Classic! Hey Mort tell us again what isn’t hard?

Someone should make this their sig, but it wont be me. :)

LMA's reign as "LaMonster of the Low Post" has just begun!

by LaMarvelous on Jul 9, 2008 7:31 PM PDT up reply actions

We're all Shawn Kemp's children

Each one of us as a little of Kemp’s DNA

The inbound to McGinnis, drives, stops, pumps, shoots, short, no good...AND THE GAME IS OVER! ~ Bill Schonely

by SandbergOnSports on Jul 9, 2008 3:01 PM PDT reply actions

it resides in all of our hearts.

"I think it’s going to be very beautiful game next year."
-Batuuuuuuuum!

by rockingharder on Jul 9, 2008 5:03 PM PDT up reply actions

Boy do I miss Shawn Kemp Sr.

No, not the young PHENOM 19-year old who jumped into the pros and immediately become one of the most physically impressive and athletic players in the league. Nope, that dude who who was the star player with the Sonics in Seattle’s hey-day as leaders of the Western Conference. No….

My favorite Shawn Kemp moment of all time was back in the Bob Whitsitt era of Portland Trail Blazers history. First hand, I went to a home game back in 2001-2002 season, which was Shawn Kemp’s second season in Portland… and second season interrupted by REHAB and “other personal problems”. What was so memorable about this game was that Kemp was clearly not the player I had seen 6-8 years prior dominating the rim, paint and glass like he could, but rather how ridiculously lost and spacey Kemp was in only a few minutes of this game that I was at.

Seriously, Kemp looked so messed-up in the eye’s (I was close enough to notice). I asked my dad, who was at the game with me, “What is wrong with Kemp? Look at him, he looks like he is on another planet”. Kemp was out there, on the court, on offense, standing feet behind the 3-point line, and kind of doing a drag-step-fake-em-out cross-over motion… with out the ball in his hands and unguarded. I remember laughing at him. Seriously laughing. It was so ridiculous. Who the hell was Kemp trying to juke? I have no idea. What was he on… I also have no idea. But it was really telling to me that someone who at one point was so reveared had brought himself down to be a laughing-stock, quite literally.

It was that shadow-juke-step that sticks out in my mind, not the thundering dunks. Go figure.

Makes me think of that tune, “Because I got high”...

by Portland Dynasty on Jul 9, 2008 3:12 PM PDT reply actions