Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 3:58 pm  |  30 responses

Dime Drop with Matt Kemp

Free agency notwithstanding, it IS the offseason, so…Go Dodgers!

by Ben Osborne

Getting at least one baseball and football player per season that played basketball growing up and/or follows the game closely today into our monthly Dime Drop column is, by design, a goal of our magazine…the fact that this season’s interviewees play for my favorite teams is a lucky coincidence.

As those of you who have read through our new issue should have noticed, this month’s Dime Drop interview is with Matt Kemp, center fielder of my favorite MLB team, the Los Angeles Dodgers (and, as you basketball-only folks out there might not know, a future star to boot. Matt, who plays an athletic, exciting brand of baseball with power, speed and defense, almost got that “fans’” 30th All-Star slot this season—by next season he’ll be an obvious choice.) Much like when I got at Giants’ TE Kevin Boss for issue 125, I came about this story legitimately (as in, it’s not like I scouted the Dodgers’ roster to find a basketball fan). It was probably about two years ago that I read about this up-and-coming Dodger prospect who had played high-level high school basketball alongside Shelden Williams. I kept this knowledge in the back of my head and then, totally out of the blue, bumped into Matt at the T-Mobile party held during All-Star Weekend in Phoenix. I introduced myself, we rapped for a minute, and he expressed serious interest in being in SLAM (said he used to read it a lot back in the day).

Once the season started and Matt showed his promise was now a reality, the story was a go. I would have been happy to go through Dodgers’ PR to do this, but Matt was cool about getting back to me via cell phone so we just hooked the interview up ourselves. And now, with the issue on sale everywhere (with the star of his favorite team on the cover, no less) and Matt the star of yesterday’s game, I wanted to get this online.

Here’s the story as it runs in issue 131…

Dodge Ball

Young baseball star Matt Kemp was almost as nice on the hardwood as he is on the diamond.

As baseball season takes center stage in the sports world (maybe not in these pages, but it is the biggest sport playing real games right now), we figured the time was right to check in with one of the game’s freshest young players, the first-place L.A. Dodgers’ 24-year-old centerfielder Matt Kemp, who also has some great basketball history. The 6-2 Kemp, hitting .311 with 8 home runs and 16 stolen bases through mid-June, came up on the outskirts of Oklahoma City and used to play big-time bball.

SLAM: Is it true that basketball was your “first love?”
MK: Definitely. I went to a high school (Midwest City) with a powerhouse basketball program. We won the state two years in a row and we were ranked as high as third in the nation. We had Shelden Williams and some other really good players.

SLAM: How many years did you play varsity, and at what position?
MK: I played from my sophomore to  senior years, and I played all over. I could bang down low if needed, but mostly I was a shooting guard.

SLAM: Did you have college interest for basketball, and when did baseball become the more obvious route?
MK: D065207006.jpgI heard from some colleges for basketball but my senior year things pointed to baseball. If you’re my size in basketball, you better have hops like Dwyane Wade. In baseball, I was big. There were a lot of scouts coming to my baseball games, and then the basketball coaches heard I was going to play baseball so they stopped coming around.

SLAM: Did you play any big names?
MK: Yes, when we were ranked we traveled and played a national schedule. We went to Delaware, Houston, and played against Carmelo, Chris Bosh, Tyson Chandler and Hassan Adams, a lot of guys.

SLAM: Are you familiar with SLAM diarist Xavier Henry out of OKC?
MK: I knew his brother [CJ] well. We played a little AAU together. Now Xavier is supposed to be the man. I tried to catch some of his games when I was home over the holidays.

SLAM: How about the Thunder? Catch any of their games?
MK: I haven’t. I think it’s real cool Oklahoma City has the Thunder though. The Hornets got a lot of support there and I thought they’d stay, but now it’s the Thunder and they get support, too. It’s a good NBA city.

SLAM: Who’s your team?
MK: I’m a Laker fan. I’ve been a Laker fan since the Shaq days. I didn’t just pick them up as my team, they were my team, and that’s cause when you grow up in a city with no team, you can pick whoever you want.

SLAM: Do you get to their games?
MK: Yeah, I go to a bunch. One of my best friends is Trevor Ariza, so I follow them closely.

SLAM: Do you play ball anymore?
MK: I’m scared, because you hear so many stories of guys getting hurt playing. The thing is, I’m so competitive, that if I had a ball in my hand and someone was talking trash, I’d just want to do them. So it’s better not to play at all. When we’re in Denver we stay near this court Carmelo has and we’ll play some H-O-R-S-E.

SLAM: Editing SLAM is my job, but my hobby is rooting hard for the Dodgers. Will this be a title year?
MK: I think the sky’s the limit for us.

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  • Moose Posted: Jul.20 at 4:05 pm
    Ben, this is good. But, the man when it comes to basketball in other professional sports is Julius Peppers. I think we’d all love to get a feature or interview with him at some point, if possible.

  • Ben Osborne Posted: Jul.20 at 4:06 pm
    Yeah, we’ll get at Julius someday, for sure. The NFL has a lot of good candidates, actually, some who we’ve done and some we still need to…

  • Moose Posted: Jul.20 at 4:14 pm
    Sweet. While we’re on requests, I’m kind of interested in Ice Cube’s hoops history, if there is any. Remember on “It Was A Good Day”? “Which park are y’all playing basketball/Get me on the court and I’m trouble/Last week, f*cked around and got a triple double/Getting guys out the way like MJ/I gotta say/Today was a good day”.

  • Ben Osborne Posted: Jul.20 at 4:16 pm
    Ice Cube was a feature subject with Nick Van Exel in SLAM #7, actually.

  • Tzvi Twersky Posted: Jul.20 at 4:23 pm
    Love Matt Kemp’s baseball game. Dislike K.Boss (mainly bc of his “gang” affiliation) strongly.

  • nick Posted: Jul.20 at 5:05 pm
    The Julius Peppers UNC team actually featured both Peppers AND Ron Curry (UNC’s erstwhile QB, now wide receiver for the Raiders). Those two, plus Joe Forte, somehow made it to the final four (or the elite 8…I forget). That team had more NFL players on it than NBA players, which is in itself an interesting story.

  • nick Posted: Jul.20 at 5:09 pm
    Peppers also set the single most devastating pick possibly in the history of the universe. Some hapless mid-major backup PG trying to harass Ron Curry in the backcourt, Peppers blindsided him, and the kid, for lack of a more accurate term, exploded. It was like one of those terribly melodramatic euro-flops, only far more melodramatic and not the least bit a flop.

  • donovan Posted: Jul.20 at 5:17 pm
    @nick: As a lifelong Raiders fan, I feel obligated to point out that RC, who was the man, is now a Detroit Lion.

  • Tight Guy Posted: Jul.20 at 5:22 pm
    MK: I’m scared, because you hear so many stories of guys getting hurt playing. The thing is, I’m so competitive, that if I had a ball in my hand and someone was talking trash, I’d just want to do them. Pause. No rainbow!

  • Who Is On The Dime | All Days Long Posted: Jul.20 at 5:45 pm
    [...] Dime Drop with Matt Kemp SLAM Online As those of you who have read through our new issue should have noticed, this month's Dime Drop interview is with Matt Kemp, center fielder of my favorite … See all stories on this topic [...]

  • LB Posted: Jul.20 at 6:01 pm
    Hey nice dimedrop
    Ben, I remember there was a 6’10 guy who played for the Dodgers who also spent a minute playing in the NBA. Oh man, I cant remember his name, but it’ll be cool to do a dime drop with him too. Even though he was a garbage player in both leagues, not too many guys can say they reached the top level of any sport, let alone two.

  • LB Posted: Jul.20 at 6:03 pm
    And Ben, I didnt know you guys ran a feature on Nick Van Exel! Dude was my favorite player when I was first starting to get into the game. What was the article about?

  • Ed Posted: Jul.20 at 6:04 pm
    Should have been an All-Star to replace injured Beltran anyway regardless of fan vote but Charlie Manuel had to pick his boy.

  • showmeyourwits Posted: Jul.20 at 6:35 pm
    @LB, the guy I think you’re talking about is Mark Hendrickson, who now plays for the Orioles. co-sign Ed. It just gives me more reason to hate Lame Victorino on top of what happened last year in the playoffs. Lakers and Dodgers chips in 1 year? If Boston can do it we can

  • donovan Posted: Jul.20 at 6:42 pm
    Don’t forget Donovan McNabb…

  • Joey E. Posted: Jul.20 at 6:49 pm
    oh hell yeah Matt Kemp! GO DODGERS! He does it big. last night game winning HR in the 8th

  • Joey E. Posted: Jul.20 at 6:51 pm
    they compare him to BO too guys. flat out beast. “the bison”

  • TADOne Posted: Jul.20 at 7:01 pm
    Kevin Boss has “gang” affiliation? Isn’t he from Idaho or something??

  • that dude Posted: Jul.20 at 7:34 pm
    @LB, the feature on Nick Van Exel was probably about Nick Van Exel

  • Ben Osborne Posted: Jul.20 at 10:56 pm
    Great comments…some I have to answer back in the office tomorrow, but for starters…
    @showmeyourwits: Former Washington State star Mark Hendrickson indeed. I did a story on Basketball players with Baseball backgrounds in SLAM maybe 8 years ago and I think I interviewed Hendrickson. I’m going to find the story and maybe run it on the site later this week. Also, I turned on the Yankee game tonight and Hendrickson was on the mound for the Orioles.
    @Donovan: We did a Dime Drop with Donovan McNabb two years ago.
    @Joey E: Word.
    @TADOne: Tzvi is an Eagles fan. I believe the “gang” he is referring to is the Giants. BTW, I hate the Eagles. And Kevin Boss is from Oregon.

  • Ben Osborne Posted: Jul.21 at 10:37 am
    Re Van Exel, as one of the cooler players of the 90s, he was featured in SLAM several times, but the Ice Cube story ran in SLAM 6 and was a three-way q+a between SLAM, Cube and Nick. It was pretty cool. We have no copies for sale from our office, and our back issue site (http://www.primediabackissues.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PB&Category_Code=SLAM) appears to be sold out as well, so if you want issue 6 (MJ’s first SLAM cover, by the way), your best bet is probably Ebay.

  • Tuesday Bolts – 7.21.09 | Daily Thunder.com - Where Thunder Happens Posted: Jul.21 at 10:47 am
    [...] Former Midwest City star and current Dodger center fielder Matt Kemp had a Q&A with SLAM: ”How about the Thunder? Catch any of their games? MK: I haven’t. I think it’s real cool Oklahoma City has the Thunder though. The Hornets got a lot of support there and I thought they’d stay, but now it’s the Thunder and they get support, too. It’s a good NBA city.” [...]

  • Boing Dynasty aka Free Lester Hudson Posted: Jul.21 at 1:29 pm
    You know who else is a dope baller? R. Kelly. Back when he was touring he would show up at courts all over the country dolo and eat cats up. You shold holla at him for a dimedrop, if you can see pass his indisgressions.

  • Armando Montero Posted: Jul.21 at 5:20 pm
    GO DODGERS!!!!!! MAKE IT 2 FOR LA

  • Z Posted: Jul.21 at 8:18 pm
    I always thought that Kels was just talking. He can hoop for real?

  • Dark Knight Posted: Jul.21 at 10:47 pm
    TO is awsome at BBall

  • CJK Posted: Jul.22 at 12:44 am
    ^true that

  • hillbilly Posted: Jul.22 at 10:45 am
    R. Kelly can make it rain…

  • hillbilly Posted: Jul.22 at 10:46 am
    Quite literally.

  • E. Posted: Jul.22 at 12:15 pm
    DOYERS!!!!!!!!!!!

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