Anybody grow up with a future pro?

[Shouldamapads]

I went to HS with Shawn Kemp- Seattle Supersonics, Portland, Orlando..

There was no doubt he was a beast long before he was recruited to Kentucky. May have been the best if not one of the best dunkers in the history of the NBA. In HS he was a man among boys, blocked shots, 360 dunks, changed the whole flow of any team's game as they had no chance if they came in the lane.

We were ranked #2 in Indiana and the #4 team in the state came to play us. They had 3 guys on their front line 6'7"+. I really thought this was the game that would challenge Shawn. This team was from Hammond, which is about 20 minutes outside of Chicago and was a pretty rough town. Shawn blocked probably 3 or 4 shots in the first few minutes of the game and completely changed the tone of the game. Their front line had to start pump faking, etc and they were scared to death to go straight up and shoot. I've never seen anyone owned so bad by the mental stature Shawn set up.

It was not uncommon to see big name coaches in the stands. Bobby Knight, Gene Keady, Eddie Sutton to name a few. Coaches like that don't typically show up to HS games. Shawn was different- he might have been the best HS player in the nation.

I knew him fairly well, though he's a year older than me. He used to get tutored 7th period and I was in the same room with him as I had study hall, which I was able to be in the A/V room. I'd talk almost the whole hour with him for the entire year. Probably why he was a prop 48. He was a really nice guy, just wasn't especially good at school. I'd see him in the summers too after he went to the NBA. One day a white Grand Cherokee pulled up next to me bass kicking, all tinted. I look over...Shawn rolls his window down and says hi. I get him to pull over and he had gotten the GC from doing a commercial. Later that summer I saw him at the mall buying about 30 cds. I'd see him about 3-4 times a year throughout my college life until I moved here.



At our rival school, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Mirer was the star. AS you may recall he was drafted 2nd in the draft after a nice career at Notre Dame. I played baseball against him and went 3/4 the last time I faced him. AS a HS football player, he was the QB, LB, PK, punter - damn the guy probably was the towel and waterboy too. He was flat out heads above anyone on the field. I talked with him a few times outside of sports (we used to cruise in Goshen IN) and hang out at a few local places). Nice guy, humble, not a bad thing to say about him. Ended up being a good, but never great QB in the NFL. He did start for Seatlle as rookie, had a losing career record after playing for many teams along the way.