Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis Business Opening is a success, The line stretched down the block, around the corner and snaked into the alley on the back side of the street. Most people were wearing green and gold. All of them were there for a glimpse, maybe an autograph and maybe some product to take home.

“My name is on this company and I have worked hard to bring Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis to fruition,” Kemp said in a statement. “I want to provide nothing short of the best selection, customer experience and prices in Seattle. I have incredible partners in Matt Schoenlein and Ramsey Hamide to make sure we deliver on that promise to our customers, who are our top priority.”

Even 23 years after he last played for the Seattle SuperSonics, Shawn Kemp is still loved and admired, he can still manage to draw a huge crowd, even at lunchtime on a Friday in the midst of a pandemic.

This time it was for his latest business venture, partnering with and lending his name to the first of what he hopes is a franchised line of cannabis dispensaries. Along with his name on the front of the building and a large mural on the side, the dispensary called Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis comes with the additional novelty of being just a couple blocks away from the building where Kemp became an All-Star with the SuperSonics in the 1990s and where he hopes to see the NBA return one day.

Kemp said he never imagined when he was leading the Sonics, one of the best teams in the NBA in the mid-1990s, that a player would ever have his name across the front of a marijuana shop.

“If you had asked me to do this when I was playing, probably not. But I think things change as we go and business as we know will also change. And that’s what I did throughout the years,” Kemp said. “I don’t know if there’s a cool way to promote and to do cannabis, but I think here we’re going to be able to do that in a positive and professional manner.”

Kemp is a partner in the project with Main Street Cannabis, which operates three other dispensaries in Washington state. Kemp hopes it can be a business example for the Black community. The first store had 35 employees on the first day, with plans to reach 40.

“Marijuana has been part of the Black community forever. This is putting a positive spin on it,” Kemp said.

Kemp was joined in opening the store by former Seattle teammate Gary Payton, whose cannabis cookies with his name on the front were available for sale inside. Payton wore a SuperSonics face covering with “Glove” embroidered on the front.

He said the change in how marijuana is viewed by the NBA now is part of an evolution on the overall view of cannabis.

“I think we’re finding out the cannabis to be valuable to us in a lot of different ways, whether it be through medicine or to athletic skills,” Kemp said. “And I think that’s why you see the NBA bending their rules and I think you’ll see several other leagues probably do the same.

Kemp now owns a part of Amber’s Kitchen on 1st Avenue in Seattle, WA as well as a controlling interest in several Seattle venues.

Career information
High school Concord (Elkhart, Indiana)
NBA draft 1989 / Round: 1 / Pick: 17th overall
Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics
Playing career 1989–2003
Position Power forward
Number 40, 4
Career history
1989–1997 Seattle SuperSonics
1997–2000 Cleveland Cavaliers
2000–2002 Portland Trail Blazers
2002–2003 Orlando Magic
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points 15,347 (14.6 ppg)
Rebounds 8,834 (8.4 rpg)
Blocks 1,279 (1.2 bpg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com