Marcelus Kemp Heads to Italy

Shapecity · Sep 16, 2008

Marcelus Kemp's potential road to the NBA will begin in Italy. The former Wolf Pack shooting guard has signed a contract with Basket Livorno and just completed training camp at the team's headquarters in Livorno, Italy (on the Western edge of the Tuscany).

He will join former teammates Kevinn Pinkney (Italy), Denis Ikovlev (Ukraine) and Mo Charlo (Belgium) in playing overseas this season.

As was the case with those players, the financial element of playing in Europe was one of the deciding factors.

Kemp's agent, John Greig, said the typical contract overseas is six times that of an NBA Development League deal (a D-League contract is worth about $25,000 per year on average).

"Getting the chance to see the world is another aspect," Kemp's father, Darryl, said of his son's decision to play in Italy. "He said that he's liking it over there. He's really excited by the opportunity."

This isn't the first time Kemp has been to Italy. He was part of the Wolf Pack team that played a five-game tour in the country before the 2005-06 season.

Kemp's team, Basket Livorno, is part of the LegADue, also known as Serie A2, the second division of Italian professional basketball. Current NBA players Brad Miller of the Sacramento Kings and Charlie Bell of the Milwaukee Bucks played for Basket Livorno early in their careers. Greig said the league's talent level is above what Kemp would have seen in the D-League.

"Probably top to bottom it is," Greig said. "You see players sign and go to the NBA out of those leagues all the time."

Kemp's team, which has played a few preseason games, opens the regular season the first week of October.

Greig said he wasn't surprised that his client ended up in Europe after finding sparse playing time on the Los Angeles Lakers' summer league team.

"We were evaluating the NBA situation," Greig said. "Like a lot of young players, Marcelus falls into the group where if you aren't going to get a fully guaranteed contract in the NBA, you might as well go overseas and get a year of solid playing time under your belt and fill up your bank account a little. He'll be able to play a lot of minutes. If he would have stayed here and hoped for an NBA contract to come, we could have been in the same situation 12 months from now."

Still, Kemp's focus is on eventually making it to the NBA, both Greig and the player's father said.

"This is a good step toward getting him where he wants to go," Greig said.
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Source: Reno Gazette Journal

cpawfan · Sep 17, 2008

Kemp's going to have to do a lot to make it to the NBA. He was an old man (relatively speaking) when he left college so he is well past the point of having potential in the eyes of NBA FO's. I see him spending all of his career overseas.

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Marcelus Kemp Heads to Italy

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Marcelus Kemp Heads to Italy

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