An NBA Legend And One Of The Few Stars To Get Drafted Into The League Straight Out Of High School Shares A Wild Story.

Growing up in the 90's as a sports fan you know who Shawn Kemp is. He was known as "The Reign Man", a six-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA Second Team member from 1989 to 2003.

While Kemp continues to wait to see if he'll ever make it to the Basketball Hall Of Fame, he recently shared a story about time he spent in East Texas before going to the NBA.

Kemp Was Known As One Of The NBA's Best Dunkers.

Kemp is originally from Indiana and after he lead his high school to a state championship. After being named a McDonald's High School All American, he received an offer from Kentucky to play basketball but he never played for the Wildcats due to his SAT scores being too low to get into school and accusations that he pawned jewelry that was stolen from a teammate.

It was at this time that Kemp decided to transfer to a Community College here in East Texas that you maybe familiar with in Athens.

 Kemp transferred to Trinity Valley Community College In 1988.

Kemp came to Athens with plans to continue his basketball dreams and get back up to a Division 1 program but he only spent one semester there and never played for the school.

But a "radio announcement" that he heard while there changed his life and would lead to him making history.

Kemp Shared What Happened In An Episode Of The "All The Smoke" Podcast.

In a recent episode of "All The Smoke" with Matt Barnes and Steven Jackson, Kemp shares a wild story of how he heard a radio ad for a slam dunk contest with the winner getting a chance to try-out and practice with the Dallas Mavericks (you can go to the 21:10 mark in the video).

Kemp won the contest but only got to practice with the team ONCE despite being promised that he would get to practice with them for 3 practices. But he impressed scouts so much that it motivated him to declare for the 1988 NBA Draft where he ended up being drafted 17th overall by the Seattle Supersonics in the first round and the rest is history.