As a companion piece to my Shawn Kemp player profile over at Cavs News, I wanted to give the fans a voice. Shawn Kemp fans are fans for life; the reaction to Bounce Magazine's recent Reign Man sighting was immediate and dramatic.

Fans log on to SK40 and Reignman every day to talk about their man, Shawn.

Wasn't sure what I was going to find researching Shawn's childhood but I never expected to find he wore leg braces for several years in elementary school. Shawn talking about wearing the braces begins at 2:00.

Shawn Kemp: The Reignman (Part 2)

Jeff Sack, when I mentioned I was writing about Shawn, sent this spontaneous memory:

True story - Kemp's last season in Cleveland, Cavaliers win, Kemp has a rare good game, and even rarer he stayed around to talk to us. At the time, the Cavaliers would give out coupons after the game from Taco Bell if Cleveland scored 100 points, win or lose (personally I hated the promotion, I loved it when the Cavaliers would win 99-95, so the free loaders could not get their fast food!) (Editor's note to Jeff: They still do this]

Cleveland scored like 102 or 104 points, something like that. So down the end of the game, you would hear the nightly cry "Chalupa!" The heck with the win, we want our food. For some reason, a reporter asked Kemp what he thought about all the screaming for chalupas down the stretch.

Kemp's response:

"Man they have called me so many names this season, I don't even listen no more."

Several people responded to my requests for memories. Arthur Ohm and Dan (Reignman_2263) are more Flickr friends (you may remember JBM216. Let's listen in as they reminisce:

Q. How old were you when you first saw Shawn Kemp play?


Dan: About 12-13 is when I really started watching basketball in general. I used to watch NBA games on TV all the time back then.

Arthur: Middle school, so I was probably 13 or 14.



Q. What was it about Shawn that made you such a fan?


Dan: His honestly electrifying playing ability. Anytime, anywhere, his throwing down could happen.

Arthur: The dunks. The crazy antics after the dunks. The amazing thing about Kemp was that he was such a superior athlete compared to most NBA players at the time.

Some of his moves down at the baseline were completely new to me and I still don't see much of the combination of quickness, leaping ability, and ferocity. Going back to the post-dunk antics, I knew when I watched him for the first time, that he was a complete nut-case, quite a character.

You just can't fabricate those types of dunk-celebrations. It comes from deep within where it's both dark and beautiful.



Q. Were your friends into Shawn as well?

Dan: Not really. The Sonics were my 2nd favorite team during Shawn's playing days (behind only the Cleveland Cavs)

Arthur: Yes. We all had posters of Shawn and would argue about who's the most important Sonic - of the mid-90s squad headed by Karl. GP and Kemp are my two top favorites, but Kemp may have a slight edge, since he's such an oddity.



Q. Did you or do you play basketball?

Dan: 
Three years in junior high school. Was also the team manager my senior year of high school.

Arthur: I play with my friends in the summer time. I'm not very good, but I try to incorporate some of Shawn's moves on the courts. Most of my shots get blocked like Dikembe on Shawn. Ouch.



Q. Have you ever seen Shawn play live?

Dan: 
Twice. Once when he was with Cleveland (it was the night of Mark Price's jersey retirement), and once when he was with Portland (his first game back in Cleveland since being traded to the Blazers)

Arthur: No, I never had the chance to. I still regret it. I never got to check out my mid-90s Sonics team at the old Coliseum. I saw the crappy post-Karl team at MSG and of course, they were killed by the woeful Knicks.



Q. Favorite Shawn Kemp individual memory?


Dan: Two come to mind for this one.

The first one is the night the trade went down to bring him to Cleveland. I was sitting at home, with a pair of his shoes on actually, and the 10pm news came on. They started the news with three little words: "The Reignman cometh". I still have the entire Cleveland Plain Dealer from that day, with the trade making the front page.

The other one was the night of Mark Price's (my all time fave basketball player) jersey retirement. It was the first time I got to see Shawn play in person.

Arthur: Dunk on some Warrior. Nutty celebration afterwards that was the epitome of taunting. Kemp gets an errant pass up near the arc and he drives it for a facial. Then when the Warrior's down on the ground Kemp does this pointing-thing with both arms in a squat position. Makes me laugh every time I think about it.[Editor's note: Sounds like an Alton Liston dunk to me]

Shawn Kemp Dunks On Alton Lister



Q. How did you feel about the '93 series against the Suns?

Dan: 
I think it really showed Shawn as a force to be reckoned with.



Arthur: One of many Sonic Failures. But, really, start of a great run of that mid-90s Sonics team. Of course, I can complain about the refs favoring the Suns and what not, but in the end, the better team won.

Getting past Houston that year, to me, was one of the greatest thrills. The near-elimination at the hands of Jazz was also wild. But going back to the Suns, 93 was when I truly began to hate the Suns. Majerle. Chambers. Kevin Johnson. Ainge. Barkley. Enemies for Life. Banging with Charles took a lot out of Shawn and of course, we all know who got more calls between those two guys.

Q. How old were you when you first heard bad press about Shawn and how did it effect you?

Dan: 
I was about 20-21 (I'm 30 now). The first press I heard was about his illegitimate kids. All I could think of was "I hope he's doing the right things and bouncing back."

Arthur: I think the bad press started when I was a sophomore or junior in high school. There was a lot of chirping among the players and Karl, not to mention the media and apparently the fans (according to the media).

I always felt Shawn was under-appreciated in Seattle, but that really goes for all players that play for Seattle, but that might have something to do with the fact that they haven't won a championship - minus the Wilkins team, which happened when I was just a year old or something, living in Korea.

Anyway, I just remember feeling bad for Shawn and how he should just focus more on basketball rather than how the city and the fans viewed him. I heard stories about how he would be at The Keg or something, downing a lot of alcohol and flicking peanuts across the bar and what not. Crazy. But I was thinking, also, that I'd like to have a few drinks with him.



Q. What player today would you compare him to?


Dan: JUST on his ability of going off and being a real force, I would compare him to Tim Duncan.

Arthur: I always think about this, and there's really no comparison. Maybe Rudy Gay? But he's got a real outside shot already and Shawn's range was not his forte. But around the rim, Gay clearly has the similar athleticism. On the other hand, Gay doesn't have that fierceness that Shawn possessed. Their temperaments are completely different.

I've seen LeBron do some thing around the rim that reminded me of Shawn, but comparison with LeBron also really ends at the athleticism and above the rim play. In the end, all we can say is that Shawn Kemp was truly a one of a kind player that NBA and the world has seen and we all need to do a better job of remembering and celebrating his amazing talent on court which brought a whole lot of excitement and entertainment value to the NBA.



Q. Do you think Gary Payton would be a potential Hall of Famer without Shawn Kemp?


Dan: No. I think they worked very well together. Much like Karl Malone/John Stockton. I think each one made the other one better.

Arthur: Definitely not. But at the same time, with a similar PF presence, GP would be right there. GP-Kemp combo was a killer.



Q. Do you remember Shawn going up against Jordan and/or Barkley? Can you talk about that?

Dan: 
'96 NBA Finals against the Bulls. I watched every single game.

Arthur: Barkley, I felt, was able to out-muscle Kemp down low. Kemp put on a lot of weight towards the end of his career, but at his prime, he was pretty much rail-thin. Yes, strong, don't get me wrong, but he just didn't have the body mass of Charles.

So he lost a lot of battle at the post vs Barkley, and that gave Barkley a slight edge, not to mention that all the calls would go against Kemp, since the NBA "protects" their "stars." On the other hand, Kemp had the quickness and there was no way Barkley had anything for Shawn when it came to guarding him when Kemp had got the ball in motion and was facing the basket.

As for Jordan, I have to just say, Jordan's just on a whole different level than anyone else who's played the game - that I've seen, in the past 15 years. Also, I never felt there was ever a real Jordan vs Kemp thing.

Q. If you could write Shawn Kemp's bio, what would you say?


Dan: Great career cut short by bad decisions.

Arthur: I'd first have a spent a lot of time with Shawn to write his bio to get his side of all the stories in his personal life. But more than his personal life, I'd focus more on the on-court and team-oriented aspects of his life, get a first-hand account of all the playoff games, stories of what the team went through over the years.

I'd also have to get to know his childhood and his transition from high school to the pros. I would definitely keep it positive, but at the same time truthful. It would be a biography of Shawn Kemp through the eyes of a fan.

Q. Do you feel Shawn Kemp was blackballed because of the bad press? Do you feel it stunted his development?

Dan: 
Compared to some of the things going on in the NBA today, absolutely. There's been the Auburn Hills Brawl (Pistons-Pacers), Kobe Bryant's "womanizing" [Editor's note: Dan has strong feelings about the Colorado incident. He did not use the word "womanizing." That is my condensed version of Dan's thoughts.] and running teammates out of LA, the Tim Donaghy scandal, AI and Carmelo showing very thug-like behavior, all of that stuff makes Shawn's actions seem like small potatoes.

Arthur: Yes. I don't know about blackballed, but it definitely had an affect on his development. Being a real young guy in the league and being as sensitive as anyone else in the world - we are all sensitive - I'm sure it was hard to deal with all the issues that came with not only the bad press, but also his lifestyle which I imagine was less than perfectly behaved.

I firmly believe that Shawn is quite a character, something of an eccentric being, and that also plays a role in how the public views him. His post-dunk celebrations raised eyebrows and I think the media and the public viewed him as a bad "role model." Especially in an era when professional athletes' value, and stardom correlated directly with how marketable they were to the general public.



Q. Could George Karl have played a larger role, personally and physically, on and off the court, in Shawn's maturation as a person and a player?

Dan: 
I think ANY coach, when they see a player of theirs trying to go astray like that, should do whatever they can to help their players follow the right path. Granted, the players have to be willing to accept the help, but the coaches should do everything they can.

Arthur: For sure. I really have no hard feelings for Karl, and I actually am a fan of Karl, but I also know the bad-side of Karl - which is something that as fans, we all need to recognize and be able to accept. Karl had an on-going childish bickering with GP and I think if Karl could have been a more mature presence for that mid-90s Sonics team, we could have had at least one championship, in particular the year we lost in the first round to the Nuggets.

In the short 5-game series, the panic and the finger-pointing really killed us. But in the end, Shawn's shortcomings are his shortcomings and we can't put blame anywhere else. Kemp had the talent and the desire. He could have achieved more. But other things in his life got in the way, and well, I suppose it can be viewed as a tragic story, but I just hope Shawn, as a person, is doing well at this point in his life and working on some productive things.



Q. Please answer a question I didn't ask.

Dan: 
I don't have a question, but I have a funny story. Back when Shawn was with Cleveland, I picked up one of his jerseys in a local store. It was of those nice authentic jerseys and all, and to this day I still wear it once in a while. Every time I wear it, people ask me "Wow Dan, where did you get the throwback Kemp jersey?" Their jaws hit the floor when I tell them that I bought it back in 99 when he was with the team!


I will take Arthur's ominous silence on this one to mean all the brilliant questions have already been posed. Or maybe I forgot to send him this one.

Thanks to Dan and Arthur. Look for a 2nd chat with Dan soon; his Great Aunt was an usher(ette?) at the Coliseum.