People mostly know Rex Chapman as that guy from Twitter, various podcasts, and TV appearances. He's become a big-deal personality. They might also know it's taken a long road of recovery for Chapman to reach this point in his life and career. And maybe people know Chapman used to play basketball ... but not much more than that.
That's where this episode of Prism comes in: Chapman's basketball career -- from Kentucky to various interesting stints in the pros -- is worth examining. There's a lot to it. Let's dig into the pretty good and very interesting basketball career of a person who's become more famous for something else.
That's where this episode of Prism comes in: Chapman's basketball career -- from Kentucky to various interesting stints in the pros -- is worth examining. There's a lot to it. Let's dig into the pretty good and very interesting basketball career of a person who's become more famous for something else.
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00:00 There is a strong chance that for a significant number of people, the name Rex Chapman calls
00:06 to mind this stuff.
00:09 Content.
00:10 Reposted viral videos of cute animals.
00:14 Clips of collisions with the caption "Block or Charge."
00:18 Maybe that one tweet about Nancy Pelosi.
00:21 Charity campaigns.
00:23 Podcasts.
00:24 TV.
00:25 A CNN gig.
00:27 People have come to know Rex Chapman as a social media personality, a presenter, an
00:33 influencer.
00:34 Maybe they vaguely know he used to play in the NBA.
00:37 This is pretty remarkable considering everything Chapman has done and been through.
00:43 Let's visit Rex in the prism.
00:47 For a period of time, it seemed like Chapman's legacy might be a cautionary tale.
00:53 Beginning early in his basketball career, Chapman felt the heat of the spotlight and
00:58 turned to gambling as an outlet.
01:00 Over time, Chapman suffered a succession of medical problems, many of them requiring surgery,
01:06 a horrible ankle dislocation, a nerve issue in his foot, and a sudden bout of appendicitis
01:12 in 2000.
01:14 On several occasions, Chapman got prescribed opioids to treat his pain.
01:19 And Chapman's dependency spread from gambling to pills.
01:24 His playing career faded.
01:26 Even after stints in rehab, he kept receiving prescriptions.
01:30 His second career as an NBA executive never flourished.
01:35 Chapman made headlines for a scandalous arrest for the tragedy of a fallen star.
01:41 With help and with time, Chapman found his way back to recovery.
01:46 In recovery, he launched a new career and became a celebrity again, on his own terms.
01:52 Beyond his cheerful social media presence, Chapman has used that attention to speak candidly
01:58 about his past and tell people about overprescription, addiction, and recovery.
02:03 He's written op-eds, done podcasts on the subject, and participated in an ESPN documentary.
02:10 This is a much happier legacy than the alternative, and that's a cause for celebration, a satisfying
02:16 story all of its own.
02:18 In that story's telling, the early parts tend to get kind of flattened.
02:23 Chapman played basketball.
02:24 He was a star at Kentucky, then not quite a star in the NBA.
02:28 That's all true, but it understates a pretty fascinating career.
02:32 So let's look closer.
02:35 Rex was the king of Kentucky, although first he was a prince.
02:39 Rex's father, Wayne Chapman, was born and raised in Owensboro, Kentucky, played college
02:44 ball at Western Kentucky, played pro ball for the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA, returned
02:49 to Owensboro to win titles as the coach of Apollo High School, and then coached at Kentucky
02:54 Wesleyan College.
02:55 That's a lot of Kentucky.
02:57 So in the 80s, when young Rex showed the same promise at the same high school as his dad,
03:02 the people and press of Kentucky quickly paid him a lot of attention.
03:07 Being a coach's son invites a stereotype.
03:11 Especially in the 80s, that phrase conjured the image of a kid, often a white kid, who
03:17 perhaps didn't possess obvious physical gifts, but had been drilled from infancy in the effort
03:23 and skills necessary to play tough, wholesome, fundamental basketball.
03:29 And make no mistake, Rex got all that from his dad.
03:32 He was smart, a team player, a student of the game, and yes, white and not particularly
03:39 tall.
03:40 However, when the basketball watchers of Kentucky watched Rex play basketball, they saw him
03:46 run fast, donk hard, pull up from deep, make circus shots around the basket, get into it
03:53 with opponents, and they thought, "Hey, this kid is kinda flashy, kinda feisty, and
03:58 also a natural athlete.
04:01 Not your average quote-unquote coach's son."
04:04 By 1986, when he was an award-laden senior at Apollo High, Rex ranked among the hottest
04:09 recruits in the country, pursued by the mightiest programs.
04:14 North Carolina coach Dean Smith deputized a recent Tar Heel, a fellow by the name of
04:19 Michael Jordan, to help recruit Rex on UNC's behalf.
04:23 Jordan read up on Chapman, and saw that Rex won a high school dunk contest with this little
04:28 flipper-oony.
04:29 That's fine, it's the 80s.
04:31 Either way, it was enough for Jordan to call Rex and cut through all the coach's son
04:36 euphemisms.
04:37 Quote, "I guess you don't have white man's disease."
04:41 But Rex spurned UNC, and the rest of them.
04:44 He stayed home, committing to play for the Kentucky Wildcats.
04:49 By the time he arrived in Lexington, Chapman had only built his legend.
04:54 He won Mr. Basketball of 1986, and put on a show for Kentucky fans.
05:00 See this game-winning bucket?
05:02 This is at UK's Memorial Coliseum.
05:05 The kid guarding Rex is Sean Sutton, another coach's son.
05:09 Specifically, the son of Kentucky coach Eddie Sutton.
05:12 Coach Sutton was enamored.
05:14 Before Rex had even played a game, his coach was making very big statements and very big
05:19 gestures.
05:21 When CBS checked in on freshman Rex, his foremost concern was all the fan mail piling up in
05:26 his dorm closet.
05:27 I get a lot of mail.
05:29 They told me to start answering it.
05:31 So about two weeks ago, for about four or five hours, I was in my room answering fan
05:35 mail.
05:36 The kid was a big deal.
05:38 And then the basketball began, and forces conspired to open up a big role for Rex.
05:44 One was a rash of injuries in the Kentucky lineup.
05:48 Another was a new rule.
05:50 Chapman's '86-'87 freshman season was the first ever in which all NCAA games were played
05:56 with a three-point line.
05:58 Rex had that range.
06:00 Before the games even counted, fans were imploring him to shoot.
06:05 This comes from an exhibition against Drozhen Petrovic and the Yugoslavian national team.
06:10 In this footage, I think you can actually hear the crowd begging Rex to take threes.
06:15 He eventually obeyed.
06:20 Within a few weeks, Rex stopped hesitating.
06:23 A couple days after Christmas 1986, Kentucky paid a visit to Louisville.
06:28 An in-state rival, a school that heavily recruited Rex, and the defending national champion.
06:34 In their home arena.
06:35 So enemy territory.
06:37 Big time.
06:38 And Rex made it his own.
06:40 Remember when he was hesitant to pull up from three?
06:43 Here's an NBA three over two people.
06:46 See this guy?
06:47 This is Purvis Ellison, the reigning Final Four Most Outstanding Player.
06:51 And here's little freshman Rex trying to posterize it.
06:55 With the first half winding down, Rex got to hot-dogging.
06:58 Behind the back, spin move, buzzer breeder.
07:02 In an absolute blowout, Rex finished with 26 points, nearly outscoring the entire Louisville
07:09 starting lineup.
07:11 He hit five of eight threes, and he got his poster in, too.
07:15 Throwing down this transition slam on Kenny Payne, with Muhammad Ali looking on.
07:20 This is just unbelievably cool.
07:22 So if Rex was a Kentucky celebrity in 1986, he'd become a national celebrity by '87.
07:30 The "not your average coach's kid" stuff was replaced by such jaw-dropping comparisons
07:35 as Jerry West, Larry Bird, Pete Maravich, Joe Namath, Billie Jean King, and sorry, is
07:44 this a comparison to Jesus Christ?
07:48 Freshman Rex tried to dismiss this heavy expectation.
07:51 Presciently, he said he wanted to get as much as he could out of a game he couldn't play
07:55 forever.
07:56 And what he got was buckets.
07:59 Even as a freshman, Rex shot his way onto SEC leaderboards and award teams.
08:04 But with such high expectations, even that wasn't enough sometimes.
08:08 Here, the day after Chapman hit a game-winner, is a Lexington paper harping on Chapman's
08:14 percentages.
08:15 And I mean, this number isn't great, but it's funny in retrospect that someone thought 38%
08:21 was a bad mark on threes.
08:23 Rex shot poorly in Kentucky's swift '87 NCAA tournament flameout and spoke candidly about
08:30 the pressure he felt, how Coach Sutton told him to be thick-skinned.
08:35 And while Chapman polished his accuracy as a sophomore, Sutton himself added to the pressure
08:40 by publicly criticizing Rex's shot selection.
08:45 Rex was not into it.
08:46 His dad told him you gotta take risks to be the hero.
08:50 Chapman wasn't going to let anyone knock his style, especially someone who didn't have
08:54 to take the floor and make split-second decisions like he did.
08:58 Later, after Rex received some praise from Coach Sutton, reporters asked him if he was
09:03 playing any differently.
09:04 Nope.
09:05 This is spicy.
09:06 Rex, it turns out, had one foot out the door.
09:10 First, he finished out a great second season as a Wildcat, even after a back fracture.
09:15 Bigger numbers all around, plus a 23-point outing to lead Kentucky back to the SEC title.
09:22 In the big tournament, Chapman dragged his team to the Sweet 16 and dropped a career-high
09:27 30 in the knockout loss to Villanova.
09:30 And ah, see, if you look at the record of those '88 tournament performances, you'll
09:34 see a hint of what was to come.
09:37 Chapman first indicated he might play just one more college season and declare for the
09:42 1989 NBA draft after his junior year.
09:46 This was when even the biggest pro prospects usually stayed all four years.
09:51 Rex's three-year plan wasn't popular with Kentuckians and near unheard of in school
09:56 history.
09:57 But then came the real shocker.
09:59 Rex called an abrupt audible to declare immediately for the '88 draft, after just two college
10:05 seasons.
10:06 Why?
10:07 Well, besides money and besides the relationship with Coach Sutton, this had to have something
10:12 to do with it.
10:13 The NCAA was investigating alleged recruiting violations, and they eventually came down
10:18 quite hard on Kentucky.
10:21 So while Rex risked alienating his home state, his kingdom, he got out just in time and looked
10:27 smart in the long run for betting on himself.
10:31 Chapman stands out in the '88 draft.
10:33 He was the eighth pick overall, the first ever selection of the new Charlotte Hornets
10:37 franchise.
10:38 And he was the first and only sophomore drafted in the first round, the only underclassman
10:44 taken within the first 17 picks.
10:47 And Rex's early departure didn't cost him his crown, not with that recruiting scandal
10:52 unfolding in his wake.
10:54 The Hornets scheduled a 1989 exhibition in Lexington, where Rexmania proved to be very
11:00 much still alive, with a sold-out arena draped in Rex merch.
11:05 Rex remained the king of Kentucky, and decades later, made Lexington his home.
11:11 This would be satisfying, and probably still true, if Rex's pro career was a total bust,
11:16 but that's not the case.
11:19 It is true that injuries and their aftermath stopped Chapman short of his potential.
11:24 In terms of individual and team accomplishment, his is a career of almosts.
11:30 Chapman was never quite an all-star.
11:32 The one year he seemed like a strong candidate, '93-'94 with the Washington Bullets, his season
11:38 got cut short by that gruesome ankle injury.
11:41 Gruesome enough that we're just gonna let Dennis Rodman describe it instead of showing
11:45 you.
11:47 Chapman was never quite a contender, often just missing a team's rise.
11:52 For a time, Rex was the Hornets' all-time leading scorer, but poorly timed injuries
11:57 made him the odd man out just before Charlotte's first playoff success in '92-'93.
12:02 Rex played one season in Miami right before their rise under Pat Riley, followed by a
12:08 few years in Phoenix after their deepest postseason runs.
12:12 Injuries will do that.
12:14 Teams just wouldn't commit to Rex, so he missed out on some history.
12:18 But history isn't only greatness.
12:20 History, for one thing, happens in trends.
12:23 Like, it wouldn't be long before NBA draft boards were covered in underclassmen, Kentucky
12:29 underclassmen in particular.
12:31 And just like in college, Rex joined the NBA's three-point vanguard, shooting not just a
12:37 high volume, but a dynamic variety of deep balls, contested, off-balance, and off-the-bounce.
12:45 Rex got 'em up.
12:46 The dude was not shy.
12:47 And on that note, history happens in flashes, too.
12:51 Jordan's connection to Michael Jordan continued after the '88 draft, when they trained together
12:56 for a few weeks before Rex reported to the Hornets.
12:59 But by far their most compelling interaction came in 1996, when Jordan's stampeding
13:05 bulls went 72-10.
13:08 And Rex caused one of those 10 losses.
13:11 Yes, on February 23, 1996, the Bulls rolled into Miami with a 48-5 record.
13:18 They faced a heat team that was A) pretty bad, and B) only dressing eight players because
13:24 they had just made some deadline trades.
13:27 Rex was one of those eight, and he played the game of his life.
13:32 Buried the J over a Michael Jordan closeout, snaked Michael off the screen, then drilled
13:37 the pull-up, got in Michael's face, and not only lived to tell the tale, but finished
13:44 the job.
13:45 The open under in transition, get some Steve Kerr, and the dagger.
13:59 Thirty-nine points on 17 shots, including 9 of 10 from downtown, and a blowout win over
14:06 one of the best teams ever.
14:09 A footnote in history is still history.
14:12 So was this.
14:13 The closest Chapman came to playoff success was with the tumultuous '97 Suns, who were
14:18 severely overmatched in a first-round series against the Seattle Supersonics.
14:23 But in Seattle for game one, Chapman piloted a surprise Phoenix victory with 42 points,
14:31 including nine three-pointers, a playoff record that stood until Klay Thompson broke it 20
14:36 years later.
14:37 And that's not even Rex's most famous performance of that series.
14:41 The Suns had their chance to completely upset if they won game four at home.
14:45 Phoenix trailed by three in the closing seconds, until Rex caught a high outlet pass like a
14:51 wide receiver, then buried this contested, one-footed turnaround three for overtime.
15:03 Even though the Suns lost that game in OT, and eventually lost the series, that shot
15:08 is still just called "the shot."
15:10 Say that to a Suns fan and they'll know you're talking about Rex.
15:14 And that is the point here.
15:16 Rex Chapman's basketball career is fun to talk about if you look at the right parts.
15:21 This version of Rex is known best, and the challenges he overcame mean the most.
15:27 But these versions also hold meaning, and they too are worth knowing.
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