Shawn Kemp’s Top 10 Dunks

When it was unveiled Shawn Kemp was one of the newest screenshots for NBA 2K13 it was clinched for me: The first time I get on the game, I’m going straight to play as the Reign Man. There are dozens of better players included in the game to be sure, but none whose game was the video game template everyone strives for. Kemp is not just my choice but everyone’s, even if they don’t know it. The kind of mid-90s player Kemp was is now the player everyone unwittingly creates — unlimited hops, size and power — without realizing they just created essentially Shawn Kemp. The option to play as him means you can even try to restage his top 10 dunks. What are they? Glad you asked.

*** *** ***

10. RONY SEIKALY REVERSE
The ease with which he pulled off these dunks always stops me cold. Like this, on Rony Seikaly. I imagine Kemp’s mind thinking something like, Well why wouldn’t you reverse the oop off a pick and roll? Maybe because it’s insanely difficult with a defender reaching over your shoulder? It was plays like these that turned Seikaly into a electronic/house DJ.

9. 1991 DUNK CONTEST
We can go back and forth about how much value to assign dunk contest slams, where zero defense helps create slams you’ll never see in games. I’ll always take in-game vs. a contest; however, Kemp blurred that line like few others, (Dominique Wilkins was probably the leader at this) and his dunk from inside the free throw line, where he almost touched his heel to his back, could easily have been something he’d have pulled off in a game. It’s a moot point I suppose on that front, really, as he never did this outside of All-Star Weekend. And yet, the dunk is so good it more than stands alone. Reggie Miller and Chris Webber‘s points in the video are the best about why it’s in here.

8. CRACKING ON CLIFF
Cliff Robinson doesn’t play terrible defense here after recovering from overplaying Kemp’s right hand. He hawks Kemp all the way to the hoop after Kemp’s spin to the middle but the Sonic is able to extend himself so far past Robinson’s reach (and then contort himself to the side) it makes it appear Robinson was never even close. Only the elite dunkers could react in the air like Kemp does here.

7. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
It’s worth it to use players as your barometer with these types of lists. After years of watching the game I think I have a pretty good eye at what’s “good” and what’s “wow,” but I’m always looking for teammate input. For instance, watch Kevin Garnett‘s eyes bulge during Vince Carter‘s Olympic dunk over Frederic Weis. It’s applicable here, too, to watch Sam Perkins after he dishes to Kemp, driving baseline, until Kemp delivers an up-and-under while spinning himself back toward the center of the key. This dunk made a grown man skip down the court.

6. HANGING ON RODMAN
Any playoff series involving Michael Jordan was always going to be about MJ first and foremost. As the constant of ’90s basketball, his Finals appearances can be ranked in order of the subplots if not the actual competition. Kemp vs. Dennis Rodman in 1996 is one to remember, with a face-off between the cartoon skills of Kemp’s leaping against Rodman, a cartoon embodied. Kemp’s reverse spin and baseline reverse dunk take all of about three steps to go from a fairly awkward first couple steps to the pretty finish. Rodman clearly overplays him away from the baseline to goad Kemp into spinning with his left hand here, thinking help would come. He erred in forgetting, however, help defense is worthless against Kemp.

5. PISTON VICTIMIZED
What’s often forgotten is how Kemp was able to make his own dunk. No disrespect to those in the mold of Tyson Chandler, but all of his dunks as a Hornet came via lobs from Chris Paul. Kemp, however, went coast-to-coast more than once, or finished mightily out of half-court sets (see Nos. 1 and 2). This was easily the best of the coast-to-coast category after he mercilessly went through the chest of a Detroit defender, even if it was probably an offensive foul.

4. ANTOINE CARR IS MUGGED
Utah’s Carr is stuck in a no-win situation as the deep man on this fast break. He can’t let Kemp get a free shot knowing Jerry Sloan will dismember him in the next timeout for it, and yet Kemp will do the very same to him if he tries to defend it. We win, though, with this replay.

3. SCOTTIE GETS A FACIAL
Throwing down like this on an eight-time First-Team Defensive player is nothing to shrug off. Yes, Kemp did things like this all the time to the also-rans of the world in the mid-90s but, after a while, they just stopped contesting. Pippen though, wasn’t going to let anyone get off a free dunk. To let Pip know, in turn, he wouldn’t be getting off easy, Kemp put a little oomph on this at the end.

1. and 2. DOUBLE THE PAIN
Kemp’s two nastiest in-game dunks both happened in the same game, and the totality of it all nearly caused longtime Sonics TV guy Kevin Calabro to have a coronary on radio row at Key Arena. The (Alton) Lister Blister is No. 1, far and away. The way he takes two enormous steps in the lane having curled the ball into his forearm at the free throw line sets up a jaw-dropping dunk. Now, I don’t think of Kemp as being one of the game’s smartest players, but he’s one of the best-ever in-game dunkers because he had a nearly unmatched ability to figure how how long it would take to get to the rim and what he could do in an instant. In basketball’s own specific kind of physics, Kemp had a PhD. The Lister dunk was murderous in its pre-meditation; he knew Lister was going to be standing there.

The sneaky pick for No. 2 is the tomahawk on Chris Gatling. Some of you may prefer a different alley-oop or dunk where he’s moving, but one that powerful and from half a step (while being surrounded by at least four players) is a quintessential Kemp slam. Raw, brute power. It was so nice in the extended cut of this dunk, Gatling gives Kemp the “OK, OK” nod and some dap immediately afterward. And like any characteristic Kemp slam, it’s followed by a bellowing Calabro.