7. “The Reign Man” Shawn Kemp
One of the more dominant flashes of brilliance in terms of shear physical power and ferociousness that the NBA has ever seen was Shawn Kemp at the peak of his abilities with the Seattle SuperSonics. The big man was more explosive, bigger, and stronger than almost anyone he came up against. That and his propensity for throwing down monster dunks led to him being dubbed the “Reign Man.”
The nickname is one that worked for Kemp on a number of levels. For one, Kemp was so dominant when he was at his peak that he really was reigning over the other big men in the league. Moreover, Kemp was at his best when he was playing in Seattle, a city notorious for their rainy weather. Subsequently, having the play on words there only endeared him more to the city and to those teams.
There’s also the nice play on words for the Dustin Hoffman movie that comes into consideration. It’s a name that was already in the pop culture lexicon at the time of Kemp’s rise to prominence, so playing off of it simply made sense and made the name flow easily off of the tongue. All things considered, “The Reign Man” is just an amazing nickname that lives on.
Next: No. 6 Larry Legend