Former Sonics superstar Shawn Kemp has only had sporadic communication with his 17 year old son Shawn Jr., a top-ranked recruit with offers from Alabama, Cincy, Georgia and Ole Miss.Realizing it's time to man-up (or get a piece of the action should his seed goes pro) Shawn Sr. has invited his son to work out with him in Houston this summer.
Kemp Jr. has the nose, the ears, and the forehead of his father, but junior's overall mien is friendlier. He is 6-foot-9. Raised by his mother, Genay Doyal, in Marietta, Ga, he has a four-star rating from Rivals.com, and is ranked 83rd overall in the class of 2009.
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.
With scholarship offers coming all over the place, in the winter of 2009 he'll likely make his college debut. And in his first televised playing time, the network will surely show flashbacks of the first Shawn Kemp. "Some people say I play like my dad," Kemp Jr. said. "I do what I do, but I'm trying to be my own person, too."
Unlike his father -- who was kicked out of Kentucky in 1988 before playing a game, but was still taken in the first round of the 1989 NBA draft by Seattle -- Junior is not yet forecasted as a major pro prospect.
Kemp has too much of everyone's favorite recruiting buzzword -- "upside" -- to be ignored, though. That begins with his growth potential. Junior's feet, size 19 already, come with a 7-1 wingspan. Kemp said doctors have told him he should become a 7-footer by the age of 21.
With limited exposure to the game, Kemp Jr. didn't start playing hoops competitively until the eighth grade, but has quickly developed into a dunking force.
Goyal, who grew up in Bellevue, Wash., said she met Kemp's dad in 1989, just weeks after he had arrived in Seattle as a 19-year-old NBA rookie. Although they never married, they jointly decided to name the boy Shawn Kemp Jr.
They would regularly attend Sonics games for the first few years of his life, and "while he was somewhat conscious of it," Doyal said, "I don't think it really kicked in for [Shawn Jr.] that he had a famous father." Story continues...