Kemp Rebuffs Rumors Slumping Sonic Offers No Reasons For Tardiness

Shawn Kemp gave a lot of answers, but whether he has answered all the questions is still to be determined.

Kemp, the Seattle SuperSonics’ all-star forward, conducted his much-ballyhooed meeting with the media Tuesday. He said most of the right things while denying that he has been battling personal problems during his recent on-court slump, or that he has a drug problem or that he is unhappy with his contract.

Kemp tried to clear the air about the events surrounding his missing two practices and one plane ride, and being late to another team meeting since March 29.

“As for being late to practices and meetings and stuff, there’s nothing to that,” Kemp said. “It was just me being tardy and being frustrated from not playing well the past month.”

There have been reports that Kemp has been bothered by off-court problems. But Kemp was evasive about all personal matters.

“The personal stuff, I’m going to keep that stuff personally to myself and just worry about basketball,” Kemp said. “Everybody goes through personal problems but you don’t necessarily want to see them hanging on the sign up there. There’s nothing happening on the personal side with me, though. The only personal problem with me right now is basketball. I’m just not playing well.”

Kemp also didn’t provide specific reasons for any of his recent absences, or why he didn’t bother to simply call and let the team know what was going on.

The press conference attracted an overflow crowd of media to the Sonics practice facility in downtown Seattle, and the team now hopes it won’t have to deal with the incident anymore.

“We’ve been trying to put this behind us for a week,” said Sonics coach George Karl, who had convinced Kemp he had to talk to the media if the team was to move forward.

Kemp said lateness has been a problem of his since joining the Sonics in 1989. But he said the uproar over the events of the past 10 days have made him decide to change his ways.

With that, Kemp promised to make it to practices and other team functions on time from now on, and also to put in extra work to get over the post All-Star break slump that has seen his average drop from 21.3 points and 11.0 rebounds to 18.8 and 9.9 heading into Thursday’s game at Dallas.

Kemp also said he wasn’t unhappy with his contract, and said any question of him having a drug or alcohol problem “is ridiculous.”

“I’ve played eight years, and I’ve never been in any trouble at all,” he said.