Madison Square Garden is called the "Mecca of Basketball" for a reason. The home arena of the New York Knicks has seen its fair of legendary performances and moments. From Michael Jordan's double-nickel to Reggie Miller's epic eight points in nine seconds, the Garden has witnessed it all. It's also the place of one of Shawn Kemp 's most impressive dunks.
Kemp, then a member of the Seattle SuperSonics, was known for his high-flying and rim-rattling throwdowns. On this particular night, he delivered one of his most memorable ones. In a game against the Knicks, Kemp received a pass off a pick-and-roll and took off toward the rim. With his eyes fixed on the basket, he rose over New York's defense, dropped the ball to his waist, and brought it back up for a thunderous reverse slam.
As the "Reign Man" landed, people in the entire arena were stunned, unsure of what they had just witnessed.
Kept the fancy stuff for the "Garden"
According to Kemp, who was named an All-Star six times in his 14-year career, it was his mother who suggested he should keep the flashy dunks for Madison Square Garden. And boy, did Shawn heed her advice.
"My mom had told me something, man. She said, 'Don't do none of that fancy sh** until you get you somewhere big,'" Kemp revealed during a conversation with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on "All The Smoke." "So, I waited till we got to New York. We got there, and I told Dana Barros, 'Man, if you see me tonight, throw that sh** in the middle somewhere, just throw it anywhere. I don't care where you throw it, I'm gonna go get that sh**.'"
Motivated to deliver something special that night, the 6-foot-10 forward received a pocket pass from Barros and threw down the jaw-dropping slam.
"That night, I made this one dunk, double pump reverse dunk in New York's Garden, man. The ref stopped, the ball just bounced, and Pat Riley called a timeout, yelling at his players because nobody was moving—they were all in awe a little bit. You know, I felt the crowd, I felt the energy," Shawn added.
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Unleashed the beast
That dunk opened up a whole new world of possibilities for Kemp. From then on, he attacked the rim with a ferocity the league had never seen before. With his explosive leaping ability and powerful frame, Shawn quickly rose to superstardom.
"I'm telling y'all, in the next 30 days, I think I had like 54 dunks. It just created a beast in me. When I say about dunking, it wasn't just regular dunks—I went from dunking to trying to motherf*****g rip it down every time. It didn't matter," the three-time All-NBA team member said.
Shawn disclosed that he and his friends even took note of who his next targets should be, putting their pictures on his bathroom mirror.
"My boys would be like, 'You gotta get this big motherf****r,' and I'd be like, 'Motherf****r, why don't we just get everybody—guards, big men, anybody under there. It doesn't matter,'" Kemp continued. "My mindset was just like, 'I could dunk on any and everybody.' It didn't matter—five feet away, three feet away, double pump, reverse, double windmill—anything was possible, man."
The legendary high-flyer posterized his fair share of rim-protectors during his career, including Alton Lister, Chris Gatling, and even the infamous posterization of Dikembe Mutombo. However, all these wouldn't have happened had it not been for the confidence he got from performing well at MSG.
Related: "He about to kill your a*s tomorrow" – Shawn Kemp shares what he would tell Gary Payton to get him hyped against MJ
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