FanHouse ShawnKemp

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Bounce: Shawn Kemp returns to the court, and looks pretty good.

2. Jones on the NBA: Notes on Game 4 of the '87 Finals.

3. Cuzoogle: Rating the celebrity fans of the Lakers and Celtics.

4. Red's Army: You got Rondo'd.

5. Hardwood Paroxysm: It's getting harder to hate Kobe these days.

6. Upside and Motor: Ranking every number one draft pick since 1980.

I guess today just seemed like a great day for guys who were All-Stars in 1994 to make a comeback. Scottie Pippen wants to come back this year, and, according to this from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Shawn Kemp wants to come back next year. And yes, it is probably best to wait until after the All-Star weekend in Vegas to bring Kemp back. He's been known to impregnate women by staring at them.

It's not the first time Kemp has voiced an intention to come back. He's gotten looks in the past from the Mavericks and the Nuggets, but for various reasons, it hasn't worked out. It says in the article that his best chance to come back is by getting an invite to a training camp in the fall and making the best of it.

But a scout did point out one little problem Kemp might have. He can't jump.

"When you look at him on the court, he looks the same. He got himself into shape. But like most guys that age, he can't get off the ground anymore. It just shows you that time gets everybody."

That could be a problem. Jumping is somewhat essential in the NBA.

I would love to see him get back in the league, if for no other reason than the good of Shawn Kemp. He doesn't like how his career ended, he doesn't like that he wasted his previous opportunities, and he wants to fix it. I admire that. It takes a lot of courage to try to come back after being out so long.

I remain skeptical, though, and I'd actually give Scottie Pippen a better chance of making it happen, despite being five years older. Pip's game relied on a lot of things, only one of them being athleticism. He was a very cerebral player, he relied a lot on technique, and he may still be able to get by on those things.

Kemp, though, was an athletic freak. That's not to say he wasn't a smart player; you don't get to the level Kemp was at without having some basketball sense, but Pippen was in another class. Kemp without the athleticism is like Pamela Anderson without the giant jugs. I don't know how much substance when you get past that.