NBA Appreciation Day: Shawn Kemp Dunking All Over Dallas

It’s Friday, so that means it’s NBA appreciation day here at NBA247365.COM.  When I came up with this little idea last Spring I had planned on making a post like this every week, but I often found myself short of either time or ideas.  I kind of scrapped the whole thing, but who’s to say that I can’t bring it back every once in a while?  Besides, I need an excuse to post this mini highlight reel consisting of four single-game slams pulled off by none other than The Reign Man…

Not only was Kemp is rare form that day, but so was Kevin Calabro.  I’m not sure what I enjoyed more; the dunks or the commentary.  Either way, Kemp and Kevin were a perfect match–maybe the greatest commentator/player duo of all-time?  Their mutual enthusiasm about the slam dunk made them very complementary to one another.  The only other duo I can come up with that even comes close to comparing is Blake Griffin and Ralph Lawler.  As incredible as he is, Griff will never possess the swagger of Shawn Kemp, though… not even close.

You know, this video got me thinking… the Thunder are alright, but I miss the Seattle Sonics.  I really liked their colors, their logo, their jerseys, their commentators, and quite a few of their players.  Their games were on late at night over here on the East Coast, and 10:30 games are my favorite.  Basketball in OKC is cool, don’t get me wrong.  They love their team down there… but I wish it didn’t come at the expense of the Sonics; a team with over 40 years of history, including a title in 1979.

I almost feel like I shouldn’t tack this on here, but I’m going to: I liked it when Oklahoma had the Hornets.  The temporary move was obviously forced by very unfortunate circumstances, but if it wasn’t for the tragic hurricane I don’t think anyone would’ve been too distraught over New Orleans losing their NBA team.  Plus I liked that group for OKC; they had Chris Paul’s rising star power, and Desmond Mason was back playing where he went to college.  Chris Andersen is the type of dude you’d figure is probably from Oklahoma if you didn’t know better.  For whatever reason, they seemed like a great match for a small but passionate city.  They played a very inspired brand of basketball, and the personality of the squad seemed to parallel that of the town.  If that group had stayed together in Oklahoma and the Sonics were left in Seattle… yeah, I would’ve liked that better.