Shawn Kemp played in the NBA for 14 seasons. He had his share of success too. He was a six-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA Second Team member. If you asked anyone who played with or against Kemp, they would say that he was a physical force on the floor.

Kemp was the type of player that when he dunked, you would feel it the entire game. He has memorable moments throwing down dunks during games. One of his top dunks was against the Golden State Warriors during a 1992 playoff game. That’s when Kemp disrespected Alton Lister.

Shawn Kemp’s dunk on Alton Lister

Kemp was already known for his leaping abilities when he came into the league. During that 1992 playoff series against the Warriors, Kemp put on a dunking clinic. In game Game 4 of the first round against the Warriors, Kemp had a game-clinching alley-oop with less than a minute left in a tied game.

In the next game, is when Kemp met Lister. During the second quarter, the Seattle Supersonics had the ball on offense. Kemp got the ball at the top of the key, saw an open lane, and took flight over Lister. After the dunk, Kemp pointed in celebration right at Lister as he was on the ground. That dunk brought the fans to their feet, and the atmosphere was electric.

Lister had no chance when Kemp was going up for that dunk. Looking at the video, it seemed as if Lister was trying to set a charge on Kemp, but could not get there in time. When Kemp saw that open lane, there was no stopping him, and he didn’t care who was in his way. He was going to throw that dunk down and do it with some authority.

Revenge dunk on Lister

Kemp’s monstrous dunk on Lister could have been revenge for Kemp. In Game 2 of the series, Lister did a good job of defending Kemp and throwing him off his game. Kemp would eventually end up losing his temper and punches were thrown. Kemp and Lister each received a technical foul from that.

But Game 4 was a whole different story. Kemp made sure he was going to have a good game, and that’s what he did. What made that dunk so much better was the fact that Kemp pointed at Lister, making sure he was aware of what happened.

That dunk will go down as one of the top posters in the history of the league. If that dunk happened when social media was around, who knows the interaction it would have got from people.

Shawn Kemp, the dunker

Kemp was known as a professional dunker. Whether it was catching alley-oops or dunking on people, that’s what he was known for. Surprisingly, he didn’t win a dunk contest during his career.

You don’t see NBA players dunking now like how Kemp did back in the day. Just watching dunk highlights of Kemp, you could see how powerful his dunks were. He wasn’t trying to be pretty or nice with it; he was trying to make his presence known.