DwightJaynes On sports Kemp’s ordeal reads like TV movie

By Dwight Jaynes

The Portland Tribune, Apr 13, 2001, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The wreckage that has been Shawn Kemp’s season will someday make a great made-for-television movie. But it could be written only after all the facts are out and Trail Blazer players are willing to talk to someone other than the New York tabloids. Eventually, we are going to find a gripping drama.

The facts, at this point, are in dispute. But one thing a lot of people in the NBA are talking about is why the Blazers ever obtained Kemp in the first place. “Didn’t they even interview him before they made the deal?” one NBA general manager said earlier this week. “It’s incredible they would take on that contract, knowing his weight problems and all the rumors of off-the-court stuff. Didn’t they see him play last year?”

Blazer GM Bob Whitsitt stood before the skeptical local media on the day of the Kemp trade, in what someday should be his Portland epitaph, and said, “I will vouch for Shawn Kemp.”

Ouch.

Kemp entered rehab last week, apparently for cocaine abuse. The official word is that he turned himself in. That, though, is in question. Peter Vecsey of the New York Post and NBC has written that Kemp has had an addiction problem for years, is still in denial about it and was, in fact, turned in to the league by Blazer teammates.

Vecsey said teammates were moved to intervene with Kemp only when his drug abuse became so out of control that they feared he would die on the court during the games and after he had been so careless that he was leaving evidence of drug use in the team bathroom.

“I can’t comment on that in any way,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “This kind of thing is so sensitive with the league. I just don’t want to say anything about any of that.”

There is a sense, though, that somebody talked. Player intervention on behalf of a teammate is probably a noble act in this case Ñ but revealing it to a reporter is quite the opposite.

Kemp’s absence will most certainly help the Blazers. He’s been nothing but a distraction for most of the season. The loss of Bonzi Wells to injury, though, is definitely a blow. It should, however, also thin out the player rotation and thereby make for more cohesion among the remaining players.

With $13.2 million in salary out for the season, there is still $74.3 million of healthy players on Portland’s payroll. Now we’ll find out if the rest of the team’s enormous payroll was as ill-advised as the $11.7 million spent this season on Kemp.

Dwight Jaynes can be heard from 3-5 p.m. Monday though Friday on KPAM (860 AM). Contact him at djaynes@portlandtribune.com.

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