Shawn Kemp Names One Player Who Could've Possibly Changed His NBA Career

NBA superstar Shawn Kemp believes things could have ended differently for him in the league if one of his teammates, Grant Hill, had been healthy enough on the court.

Kemp began his career with the Seattle Supersonics, and was a major force in the league for eight seasons while starring alongside Gary Payton. But in 1997, the team was broken up, sending "Reign Man" to a losing Cleveland Cavaliers squad.

At that point, Kemp was beginning to lose his desire to compete, but he would experience a change of heart after he was signed by the Orlando Magic in 2002.

With then-perennial NBA superstars Tracy McGrady and Hill, the veteran Kemp found hope with his new team.

Unfortunately, however, Hill was often on the sidelines due to injury, and to this day, Kemp believes he would have enjoyed more wins with his final NBA team had Hill managed to return to his lethal form.

“We could’ve done well,” Kemp recently told Basketball Network, “If Grant [Hill] could’ve stayed healthy, we would’ve been a pretty good team. ”

Looking further back, Kemp insisted that his roster in Seattle, with Payton as his co-star, was one of the best lineups in the NBA during the '90s.

The 50-year-old said he actually endured tougher challenges during team practices than he did in real NBA games because of the Supersonics' super-talented squad.

“Our practices were tougher than our basketball games because we had better guys on our team than what we were playing against,” the six-time NBA All-Star boasted.

In his interview with Basketball Network, Kemp also opened up about how a lack of winning in the NBA can get in the way of having “fun” on the court.

“Basketball is not as fun anymore ’cause you’re not winning,” he said. “Winning is what makes basketball fun.”

Another former Supersonic, Detlef Schrempf, believes that the departure of Kemp from Seattle marked the beginning of the end of that team's winning ways.

The German-American basketball legend recalled that due to Seattle’s aim to “get younger,” the team made a bad decision in trading Kemp.

“They made some changes the following year,” Schrempf said in an interview in 2019. “They broke up the team, wanted to get younger and just made a very bad trade (involving Kemp), and then the lockout happened. We got Vin Baker who was not himself, he had a lot of off-court issues and you know we struggled that season, and then the team kind of dismantled.”