Kemp Becomes Invisible
Gracious, is what it was.
The Sonics, seeing the Bulls grieving without their starting power forward and premier goof, surrendered their starting power forward and premier goof.
This is the kind of hospitality for which the region has a growing reputation. The reputation the region has for basketball in June, well, that may have been a one-time thing.
That would be due to the fact that a suspended Dennis Rodman is not nearly so consequential to the Bulls as a Shawn Kemp in suspended animation is significant to the Sonics.
As planned, Rodman was nowhere in sight, rendering Sunday’s KeyArena event one bearded fat lady shy of a full Bull circus. As unplanned, Kemp was not there - at least, not there in the basketball sense.
It should not be necessary to resort to dental records to establish Kemp’s presence. But sadly for Sonic fans, he turned in what may have been the worst 16-point, eight-rebound game in recent NBA memory.
Ah, my memory is short. The previous Sunday, Kemp had a 4-of-13 shooting game against the Los Angeles Lakers in which he was disqualified after 32 minutes. In the race for most ineffectual All-Star heading into Sunday’s game in Cleveland, it is hard to say which game is more representative of his recent play, but it reasonable to conclude he is ready to lap the field.
Shadow Shawn is back. The Drained Man.
“We’re not happy with how we’re getting him the ball, and we’re not happy with how he gets out of the double-team,” said Sonics coach George Karl. Nor is Karl all giggles about the fact that as a fairly direct result of Kemp’s mysterious paralysis, the Sonics are 0-2 in those nationally televised games, following the 91-84 loss to the Bulls - a score as unreflective of Chicago’s dominance as Kemp’s points and rebounds were unreflective of his poor play.
Meantime, Michael Jordan went upper-case ballistic while the rest of the Bulls didn’t even rate lower case. Watching him score 45 of his team’s 91, the wonder is how the other guys got 46. With this kind of offensive versatility, Karl could spend weeks studying video and never figure out where the Bulls’ other shot is coming from.
The Bulls had no trouble getting the ball to their guy. Then again, the ball is his anyway. Not to mention the league. In full wink-and-snicker throughout, Jordan answered the legion of doubters who said he should have never given up baseball.
Getting the rock to Kemp, however, has become for the Sonics an engineering nightmare on the order of getting a broken Apollo 13 to loop the moon. When he does get the ball, the problem gets real hard.
“If he gets it low in the post one-on-one, I don’t think there’s anybody in the league that can stop him, with his speed and leaping ability,” said the Bulls’ Scottie Pippen. “But we want to see if he can make good decisions out of the double-team.”
As his six turnovers attest, the Bulls saw what they were hoping to see.
When they weren’t draping Luc Longley’s big-as-the-Aussie-outback frame over him, Kemp was attracting swarms. None of this is particularly unusual. What is odd is that throughout most of last year, especially including the Finals against the Bulls, Kemp handled the hassles with aplomb. Some would even argue that Kemp was the most unstoppable player in the championship series - and that was with Rodman in his face as principle thug.
But now Kemp catches the ball and holds onto it like the last paycheck of his life. Already frog-tongue quick, the Bulls’ defenders are thrilled to be given the time to reposition. If Kemp gets around to a move, it’s often a dribble off somebody’s foot or an over-the-shoulder fling between teammates.
Against the Bulls, near-flawless play is always the minimum requirement. But after more turnovers than field goals (five), Kemp did not execute worthy of a triumph over the Grizzlies. Coming on the heels of a fine for a missed practice, Kemp needed to dominate the middle and dismiss the suspicions.
Instead as Karl put it, “Chicago controlled the paint better than we thought they would.”
Fault doesn’t lie exclusively with Kemp, but against the Bulls it has almost always been his broad back that the Sonics rode to three wins over Chicago last year as well as in five of the previous six games in Seattle.
The Seattle sports scene’s most popular guessing game is whether the Sonics of spring will be the same underachieving Sonics of winter. Given that the Sonics of Karl, Kemp and Payton have been NBA finalists and first-round losers, the fate of the Schizosonics still is anybody’s guess.
But as long as it’s Shadow Shawn in the middle, the winless streak against L.A., Utah, Houston and now Chicago will remain an infinite o-fer.