This New Story Of How Shawn Kemp Got Kicked Off UK's Team Pissed Me Off Even More Than I Imagined

[The Athletic] - “I’ve never talked about this,” Sean Sutton told The Athletic recently. “In the past, I just said, ‘That’s not something I care to revisit.’ But I think everybody probably deserves to know the real truth. I want Kentucky fans to realize that Shawn Kemp was a good guy. It got so out of control, became such a big story, and it’s really, really unfortunate how it all played out. He was gone before any of us really understood what was happening. If I could go back 32 years, I’d probably do things differently.

“Because in my mind, and I would know as well as anybody, he didn’t take that stuff.”

“I wish I never filed that report,” Sean Sutton says. “At first, it was all, Shawn did this, but as you talked to more people, it was pretty clear, No, no, no. Shawn didn’t steal anything,” Hanson says.

Fuuuccckkkkkkk this. Shawn Kemp should have been a Kentucky player. Shit, he was a Kentucky player. He was on campus. He pretty much dreamed of playing for Kentucky. He was a goddamn star. Instead we never got to see him play for Kentucky because of $700 at a pawn shop and what may or may not have been stolen chains from Sean Sutton - head coach Eddie's son.

But now this? For the first time Sean Sutton coming out saying he wished he never filed a report. Wished he never said anything. Wished that Kentucky hoops would have been altered even more?!? Come on man, you're fucking killing me as I sit here in quarantine. Shawn Kemp was FILTHY, absolutely filthy. The guy we remember doing shit like this in the NBA was doing that at pick up games, high school and what would have been in college: 

Without a doubt the 2 biggest recruits in Kentucky history are Jamal Mashburn and John Wall. They both made it cool to go to Kentucky again - Mashburn after the sanctions because of Chris Mills and John Wall after the disaster that was Billy Gillispie. Shawn Kemp would have been on this list if he never got kicked off the team. Why? That roster would have been absolutely loaded. He would have likely spent his career playing with people like Rex Chapman, the Unforgettables, Jamal Mashburn and LeRon Ellis. 

Do you know how awesome it would be to have Shawn Kemp, former Kentucky player instead of Shawn Kemp, what could have been at Kentucky? He would have led Kentucky to a title, no doubt about it. The dude was unstoppable back then. This line by Chapman did make me chuckle

“He put on the tape and me and Reggie were like, Oh, my God. Oh, holy shit,” Chapman recalls. “He kind of looked like Zion Williamson out there, but thin.”

Big time ricochet shot at Zion there. All because of $700 and Sean Sutton deciding to bring it up. What could have been, man.