25 Most Dynamic Duos in NBA History

#21 Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp (Seattle SuperSonics)

Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton

The 1990's Supersonics weren't ahead of their time. They were from another planet! When they took a gamble on a controversial high school kid named Shawn Kemp in 1989 and drafting the sometimes unpredictable Gary Payton the following year, no one knew about the storm that was brewing in Seattle.

In an era of post-ups and isolation play, the Sonics were frantic. It was chaos every time they took the floor. The mid-90s Sonics were the definition of flawed, but when they got going, they were mesmerizing. Oh, and they let you know about it too.

The duo of Kemp and Payton won 357 regular season games in six years. They finished top of their conference in four of those years. The playoffs though were a different story.

In 1993 they reached the Conference Finals before losing to Phoenix. In 1994 they became the first number one seed to lose to a number eight seed in the playoffs. They followed it up with another first-round exit in 1995.

In 1996 though, they got it together for the first and only time when they reached the NBA finals. They went 3-0 down but rampantly fought back to 3-2. In game six they became the team that came closest to forcing a game seven against Michael Jordan but to no avail.

Kemp was traded to the Cavaliers in 1997.