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Marc J. Spears: Former NBA star Shawn Kemp slated to begin working out Morris twins in LA starting next week. Twitter

Shawn Kemp, Marcus Morris, Markieff Morris 

Fourteen years after he left Seattle in a trade to Cleveland that followed an ugly contract squabble, Shawn Kemp is more visible in Seattle. And, once again, The Reign Man reigns. "It's so touching when you have a connection like this with the city," Kemp said last week, sitting in the back of his Lower Queen Anne restaurant, Oskar's Kitchen. "You see a reaction like that and it reminds me that the people here never got a chance to see enough of me. I never really thought I was anything special on the basketball court or anything special as a man, but the one thing I always thought I could do is give out an extra effort. "But what I'm really proud of now, is being able to get outside of basketball and still reach outside to the community and give the extra effort there like I gave on the court. When I hear the cheers now, or talk with people, it keeps me on a straight path." Seattle Times

Shawn Kemp 

All these years later, there may not be a more popular athlete in the city than Kemp. Wherever he goes, he is his own force field. At his restaurant, thirtysomethings tentatively ask him for his autograph and he generously poses for pictures. At his free clinics, kids come up to him as if he were LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, or some other superstar they regularly see on television. They know Kemp. They know his dunks. They watch them all the time on YouTube. Kemp's career still lives on the Internet. Seattle Times

Shawn Kemp 

After his NBA career, he lived in Houston, but always a part of him wanted to be in Seattle. He just wasn't sure Seattle wanted him. "Absolutely I was nervous about moving back. Absolutely, man," Kemp said. "I'm still nervous a little bit. I think, as an individual, when you look back and you question some of your judgments, you look at yourself and you try to change things. You try to better yourself. You try to be smarter." He came back six years ago, but only in the last couple of years has Kemp felt comfortable returning to a more public life. Seattle Times

Shawn Kemp 

He was embarrassed about his weight gain and how it affected his game. He was embarrassed about the Sports Illustrated story. He said he felt as if he were a target. He didn't know what direction to take his life. "I never abused drugs or had an alcohol problem," he said. "I had a Shawn Kemp problem. That's what you find out. When you're unhappy with yourself, you do unhappy things. I just expected so much of myself, and when those doors that were open to you fall down, you have to find yourself. "Sometimes we get labeled as being a bad person when we're not. I've never been a bad person. The only bad things I've really done, I've done to myself. I really hurt myself. I put myself in a very negative position. But when I looked at the Sports Illustrated story, well, some of my actions were negative. It was up to me to change things." Seattle Times

Shawn Kemp 

Of his nine kids, four live in Seattle. One son, Shawn Kemp Jr., will be a scholarship freshman on the University of Washington's basketball team. I asked him if he thought he was a good dad. "I'm a work in progress. My life will remain a work in progress for the rest of my life. But I think I'm a pretty good dad," Kemp said. "Obviously, I could be better. My kids say I'm a little bit strict and I say there's reasons for that. I'm on them, all of them, but I think I'm a fair dad and I think that I listen to them. "I wish I could have changed things around years ago, but I don't carry that around with me. It's not a burden on my shoulder. I don't walk around and think I shoulda, woulda, coulda. You can't dwell on the past, man. I had to learn how to move on. If you're always looking back behind you, you don't feel so good." Seattle Times

Shawn Kemp 

Seattle brought its basketball players back together Friday -- on the baseball field. The Mariners honored the history of the SuperSonics before their game against Tampa Bay. They gathered many of the Sonics' greatest names, including Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens, George Karl, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Tom Chambers, Hersey Hawkins, Slick Watts, Dale Ellis, Jack Sikma, Spencer Haywood, Fred Brown, Gus Williams, Nate McMillan, Michael Cage and James Donaldson. ESPN.com

Seattle SuperSonics, Gary Payton, Nate McMillan, Lenny Wilkens, Shawn Kemp, Jack Sikma 

Among those kids from the state were Schrempf, Donaldson, Doug Christie, John Stockton, George Irving, Jamal Crawford, James Edwards, and more recently, Jason Terry, Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson, Spencer Hawes, Jon Brockman, Aaron Brooks, Martell Webster, Marcus Williams and Rodney Stuckey. "You have pride that you have a team, but when all of that went down it broke my heart," said Hawkins, who was part of the team that played the Bulls in the 1996 NBA Finals. "It was disheartening in the fact that the fans were left out in the cold." "Hopefully, we'll get a team back because this city definitely deserves a team, with all tradition and history the Sonics have," he added. ESPN.com

Seattle SuperSonics, Gary Payton, Nate McMillan, Lenny Wilkens, Shawn Kemp, Jack Sikma 

The son of former Seattle SuperSonics star Shawn Kemp has signed a scholarship agreement to play basketball at the University of Washington. The Olympian

Shawn Kemp 

Then-Cleveland coach Mike Fratello said goodbye to one version of Shawn Kemp in the summertime and said hello to a much-bigger version six months later, when the then-29-year-old who had signed a seven-year, $98 million deal in 1997 reportedly arrived at training camp weighing more than 300 pounds and was never the same in the years to come. With Thursday's news that a lockout is about to begin, Kemp is officially the cautionary tale that is now a concern for executives and coaches around the league in this restrictive and unforgiving labor landscape. "If you don't have veteran guys, the rookies are going to struggle [in a lockout]," said Brown, whose team improved in the lockout-shortened season and survived until the second round of the playoffs. "You have to have leadership that has everyone ready to go when the time comes because you can't afford to have guys playing into shape in training camp." SI.com

Cleveland Cavaliers, CBA, Larry Brown, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Shawn Kemp, Mike Fratello 

Kemp joined KJR in Seattle to talk about how tough it would be for him if the Thunder and Heat were to advance to this year’s NBA Finals, how he was offered the opportunity by the Thunder to come down to Oklahoma City and sit in the front row and be honored during the Thunder-Nuggets series, why he declined the offer without hesitation, being happy that he didn’t see Gary Payton take the Thunder up on the same offer, and how his buddies joked that he should have gone and worn a Sonics jersey. Where his rooting loyalties would lie if the Thunder were advance on to the Finals to play the Heat: “It’s going to be tough but let me tell you guys this…I live out here in Seattle, I’ll cary the Sonics in my heart for the rest of my life, but I have a problem rooting for Oklahoma. I just do. I was invited to the last game when they played against in Denver to sit in the front row. I can’t do it.” Sports Radio Interviews

Oklahoma City Thunder, Seattle SuperSonics, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp 

On Gary Payton also declining similar offers from the Thunder: “I got to tell you the funny part about it. The funny part about it is this….I didn’t get a chance to call you guys but I was like ‘man, I hope I don’t turn this game on tomorrow night and see Gary sitting in the front row’. I knew it wasn’t going to happen that way and it wasn’t. I didn’t see any guys on the front row so they probably shot that down when they realized.” After the hosts joked that Payton might have gone just to play a joke on the Thunder organization, Kemp mentioned his buddies suggested he do something similar: “My buddies told me ‘you should have gone down there and put on your old Sonics uniform and sat in the front row.’” Sports Radio Interviews

Oklahoma City Thunder, Seattle SuperSonics, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp 

Shawn Kemp told @softykjr and @ian950kjr that OKC invited him to sit courtside vs. Denver and he refused Twitter

Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Shawn Kemp 

Shawn Kemp joined KJR in Seattle with Dave “Softy” Mahler to talk about the comments he made about Blake Griffin last week, whether or not he thinks he could beat Griffin in a game of one-on-one, and what he makes of the refereeing now as opposed to when he was playing. What he thinks of Blake Griffin as a player and who would win in a game of one-on-one between him and Griffin: “Blake Griffin is awesome and if you watched his game last night, he showed you want he can do. I think he’s a good player and reminds me of myself a lot. He’s one of the few guys that really do. I think a lot of him. I know last week we said some things about that last dunk that he had jumping over a car. The one thing I want everyone to know is throughout my career and even now I never want to criticize a player and I don’t want to criticize any of these young guys because I think all of them are good and fantastic. I think the guys playing the game today are a little faster than we were. Maybe just a little faster, but I think we were stronger and more physical. We played a more physical game. In a one-on-one competition it would be tough for Blake because I was much more of a physical player than he is so he would have a tough time with that and I was a little more agile so he would’ve had a strength problem. He does remind me of myself a lot. The only few things he has to work on are doing things a little easier.” Sports Radio Interviews

Los Angeles Clippers, Blake Griffin, Shawn Kemp 

Blake Griffin jumped over a car and threw down an alley-oop dunk to win the 2011 Dunk Contest over the weekend. However, former NBA player and dunking sensation Shawn Kemp didn't think much of it. The 41-year-old joined KJR in Seattle with Dave Mahler and Ian Furness on Wednesday and called Griffin's final dunk "weak." "I'm a big Blake Griffin fan, but that dunk at the contest might've been the weakest dunk in the dunk contest that I've seen in a long time," Kemp said. "I love the choir and all that stuff was great, but you at least gotta jump over the car though right." Huffington Post

Los Angeles Clippers, Blake Griffin, Shawn Kemp 

The NBA might be gone from Lower Queen Anne, but one former Sonic is back. Shawn Kemp and his wife, Marvena, opened Oskar's Kitchen last month at 621 1/2 Queen Anne Ave. N. across from the MarQueen Hotel last month. The restaurant, in the space formerly occupied by Acadia Bistro, features the Bubble Room lounge with a large fish tank housing the spot's namesake – Oskar the fish. Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Shawn Kemp, Seattle 

Shawn Kemp Jr., the son of former Cleveland Cavaliers star Shawn Kemp, failed to qualify academically at Auburn and won't play this season. Cleveland Plain Dealer

Shawn Kemp, Shawn Kemp Jr