Shawn Kemp

Retired NBA

Shawn Kemp was one of the most dominant power forwards of his era, and a key member of the great Seattle SuperSonics teams of the mid-1990s. A ferocious dunker, he was a six-time All-Star and was named to the All-NBA second team three times. In 1995–96, he and point guard Gary Payton led Sattle to a franchise-record 64 wins. Kemp average 19.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game during the regular season. The Sonics lost the Finals, but pushed Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls to six games. In the series, Kemp averaged 23.3 points and 10.0 rebounds, and finished a close second to Jordan in the voting for Finals MVP. Just 19 at the beginning of his rookie season, Kemp was the youngest player in the league in 1989–90. He had been selected in the first round of the 1989 NBA draft despite never having played college basketball. A star at Concord High in Elkhart, Ind., he committed to Kentucky, but never played for the Wildcats because of academic troubles. He instead went to Texas’s Trinity Valley Community College for one semester before declaring for the draft. Nicknamed “the Reign Man,” Kemp played for three other teams besides Seattle in his NBA career: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers and Orlando Magic.