Shawn Kemp
The Pioneer
The frontier and an appetite for the unknown, goes first.
Shawn Kemp reads as The Pioneer because his career is a sequence of frontiers crossed deliberately. He entered the NBA directly from high school without college play, built the Rain Man brand before athlete branding was common, and launched Rain Man Water before bottled water was mainstream retail.
“I learned how to be a millionaire off the court before I made a million on the court. I made my first million dollars off a bottle of water. Wasn't off basketball.”
On building wealth in Seattleundated
“I was the first athlete ever who got a hundred million dollars who still had six or seven years left on his contract. Usually you get that as a free agent.”
On breaking the $100M barrierundated
“The Dunk Contest was an opportunity for me to create my brand. Nobody knew who I was before the All Star. After the All Star, everybody knew who I was.”
On using the Dunk Contest strategicallyundated
Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles: “Shawn Kemp”
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