Kemp attended Concord High School in Elkhart, Indiana. A four-year varsity starter, he was considered to be one of the top four or five players nationally his senior year, and led his team to the state championship finals. Kemp ended his high school career as Elkhart County\'s all-time leading scorer and the owner of Concord\'s career, single-game and single-season scoring records. Despite his achievements and accolades, Kemp was bypassed for the title of Indiana Mr. Basketball; Woody Austin won the award that year instead. There has been some speculation that Kemp was purposely passed over for the award because he verbally committed to the University of Kentucky and didn\'t express interest in staying in-state to play college ball (Austin committed to Purdue University.) Kemp was selected to the 1988 McDonald\'s High School All-American team (considered one of the best classes of all-time), along with such notable players as Alonzo Mourning, Billy Owens, Todd Day, Lee Mayberry, Chris Mills, Anthony Peeler, and Stanley Roberts. Kemp scored a team-high 18 points for the West in a losing cause. The final score was 105–99 in favor of the East.\n', '

During his senior year, Kemp signed a national letter-of-intent to play basketball at the University of Kentucky. Kemp failed to score the minimum of 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, and was forced to miss his freshman year under the NCAA\'s Proposition 48 rules. Jim Hahn, Kemp\'s high school coach, didn\'t like the idea of Kemp being in Kentucky without playing basketball, saying "To have Shawn in a college environment without basketball, the one thing he loves, was, I felt, a big mistake. It even crossed my mind to advise him to go right into the NBA, and the only thing that stopped me was the fact that so few players have done it." Kemp decided to enroll at Kentucky. However, he left the team in November 1988 after he was accused of pawning two gold chains that had been reported stolen from his teammate Sean Sutton, the son of then Kentucky head coach Eddie Sutton. Sean Sutton did not press charges, but Kemp transferred to Trinity Valley Community College in Texas. After a semester at TVCC, where he did not play, 19-year-old Kemp declared himself eligible for the 1989 NBA draft.\n', '

The Seattle SuperSonics drafted Kemp in the first round of the 1989 NBA draft. Although extremely athletic, Kemp was the youngest player in the NBA at that time and struggled to find his place. In his first season in Seattle, Kemp was mentored heavily by teammate Xavier McDaniel. As the season progressed, so did Kemp\'s skills, which propelled him into stardom. Kemp began to find his place in the NBA as a star during his second season with the Sonics. Together with Gary Payton, Eddie Johnson, Ricky Pierce and Nate McMillan, they became a highly successful squad.\n', '

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