Shawn Kemp
The Pioneer
The frontier and an appetite for the unknown, goes first.
Shawn Kemp reads as The Pioneer because his career is a sequence of frontiers crossed deliberately. He entered the NBA directly from high school without college play, built the Rain Man brand before athlete branding was common, and launched Rain Man Water before bottled water was mainstream retail. He was also the first player to secure a 100 million dollar contract mid-deal rather than as a free agent, new ground claimed each time.
“I learned how to be a millionaire off the court before I made a million on the court. I made my first million dollars off a bottle of water. Wasn't off basketball.”
“I was the first athlete ever who got a hundred million dollars who still had six or seven years left on his contract. Usually you get that as a free agent.”
“The Dunk Contest was an opportunity for me to create my brand. Nobody knew who I was before the All Star. After the All Star, everybody knew who I was.”
Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles: “Shawn Kemp”
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