May 4, 2021 • 55 mins
For the inaugural episode of Charges, Rex jumps in the hot seat and takes questions from his long-time friend, actor, podcaster, and former Five Star Basketball camper Michael Rapaport. Rex opens up about why Charges was created (2:12), how he and Rapaport first met (5:45), the glory days as a kid and attending the University of Kentucky (8:37), his NBA career (15:40), his battles with addiction that led his arrest in 2014 (27:38), his rebirth on Twitter (44:05), and so much more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Charges. That's created by Portalais and Control Media. It's produced
by dB Podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. This
time a former Son's player who you might remember as
t Rex. More video in just a moment, But this
is Rex Chapman's mug shot, and we are learning a
lot more about the charge of the Charge. When you
(00:22):
google Rex Chapman, the first image that I see is
your mug shot. But I've made it all the way
through an NBA career and now I'm a full blown
you know, OxyContin and Viking and attic. I feel so
bad for what I did to my children. Oh man,
(00:45):
oh I just want to cry. Welcome to episode one
of Charges. I'm your host, Rex Chapman. Today we take
a deep dive into my past and the trials and
tribulations that I've gone through in my highly publicized career.
To guide that conversation, we have my longtime friend, my dude,
(01:05):
my guy, Michael Rappaport, filling in his guest host. I've
known Mike since we were teenagers at the five Star
basketball camp where I was his camp counselor. He couldn't
play for ship. He's a talented actor, but his hoots
game leaves much to be desired. Enjoy Episode one of
Charges with Rex Chapman. Charges. All right, my name is
(01:32):
Michael Rappaport, the guest host of my long time friend,
someone who I was a fan of before I met
him as a basketball coach in the nineteen eighties, Rex Chapman.
Welcome to Charges with Rex Chapman. I am a special,
one time only guest host. This is Rex Chapman's podcast.
(01:56):
Will explain why I'm here, what I am doing here?
Sexy Rex Chapman. How are you? My friend? My goodness?
Charges with Rex Chapman. Who to thunk it? You? Me
and you from teenagers now doing this? Let's just explain
what people could expect why you're doing this podcast, Charges.
(02:17):
You know how you came up with the name and
the whole concept of it. Well, you know, I think,
uh me as an athlete, uh, and we've seen a
lot of people in every walk of life, but especially
for athletes come under a lot of scrutiny when they
when we get in trouble, and there's an never ending
supply of athletes, young athletes a lot of money and
(02:37):
uh a lot of free time that run a foul
and UM kind of came up with the idea for
this after bouncing back from you know, my troubles painkiller addiction, jail,
and UH really want to let people know, with the
people that we're going to talk to, that you're never
as bad as your worst moment as long as you
(02:58):
learn from it. You know, I'm ended on having guys
on the guys. I know guys I don't know who've
run a foul. Uh. We call it charges because you've
been charged with something. Uh you know, a bit of
a take on the old Twitter block or charge, but um,
you know charges, you've been charged with something. It was
an ugly time, it was a tough time in your life.
You've let a lot of people down, You've let yourself down,
(03:20):
and that moment when it happened to you is really painful.
It's painful to talk about, but I think it's cathartic
and I think people will get a lot out of it. Um,
all right, we're gonna get to your charges and uh,
you know what I started, you know, asking you questions,
but just to give people a little context. So, growing
up in the nineteen eighties, I had dreams and aspirations
(03:43):
of being a professional basketball player. At one point, uh
the McDonald's High School All American Game was a huge,
huge deal. I think it's a big deal now too,
but we're so oversaturated with Instagram and this torn and
in that tournent. But there was a time in the
eighties where the McDonald's High School All American Game was
(04:06):
that was the only game that mattered for high school stars.
I found you. I think I had heard about your name,
because again, this is the eighties, so it's not like
you could google every single high school player. What year
did you play in the high school the McDonald's High
School All American Game? Six? So yeah, I would have
been in a year or two ahead of you. Maybe, yes,
(04:29):
a year or two ahead of me. So I was
a a dreamer of playing high level college basketball, high
level uh NBA basketball. This is my dream. And I
remember hearing about Rex Chapman, but you didn't see clips.
But I remember first seeing you play in the High
School All American Game, and you were everything that I
wanted to be. High flying, shoot, athletic, fearless, dunking white
(04:55):
unicorn from down South. I didn't like the hair, I
believe you did. You have a mullet at this point,
was that a choice? Did you think that was cool?
I did. I thought it was cool. Also, I didn't
really call it a mullet. I called it a shag, Mike,
you might know. You might have heard about the shag
from back in the day. In fact, me and my boys,
you know who, we would do. We would short you know,
(05:18):
business in the front, but we would grow it out
in the back and permit we would get it permed
and then blow dry it, bless it out. Oh man, terrible,
just terrible. It was like a basketball player with a
wrestler's look like look like Billy ray Cyrus exactly. So
I saw Rex play in the high school All American Game,
and he had a great freshman year at Kentucky, which
(05:41):
I want to ask you about, but just to you know,
quickly contextualize how I met Rex. And then the summer
after your freshman year of Kentucky, I was, I believe,
going into the tenth grade of the eleventh grade, it
doesn't matter. And Rex um was one of the camp
counselors at the Covenant. Again it was the five Star
basketball camp was everything. Abc D camp was coming along,
(06:03):
but five Star was the place to be. And Rex
Chapman was one of the camp counselors there and he
had the pleasure of being my camp counsel for a
week at the five Star basketball camp. And Rex was
playing at quite the whole time. Uh. He had his
short shorts, he had his hair, um, but he was
(06:23):
a star. He had made a huge impact um in
the basketball world, um, in my life. And it was
just like dope, I mean, this is the high school
basketball camp. I was there with Seawan Kemp. Shawn Kemp
was probably older than you at the time. He had
like a full beard and the goat. But this is
the best of the best basketball game. Everybody went to
(06:44):
this camp, Michael Jordan led by his Patrick Ewing war
Dell Curry, and I was fucking with Rex the whole
week and talking ship to him, trying to get, you know,
attention from him because it was Rex Chapman, the high
flying white unicorn from Kentucky. D And then we connected
years later, but you remembered that time. What was most
(07:05):
impressive about what you saw from me that week in
my game and just my whole personna, Oh my gosh, hilarious. Um.
You know, I was there with Ramille Robinson. Both he
and I had been at the camp as campers like
two years prior, and so we decided to come back
and be counselors for Garf Howard Garfinkel, and then we drafted.
(07:28):
I end up drafting you on my team. You know,
only guy, I think probably only guy in five Star
history that could not do a jump stop. Just don't
know how to do a jump stop. You're not a
good player. You know the game, you know the game
incredibly well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got it. You're like
(07:49):
Chris Mullen, but a lot slower and yeah yeah, no, man,
you were hilarious with your New York bullshit all week long,
just laughing, making people laugh. And the funny thing about
that is, you know, after that, you know, I go
on back to Kentucky and then I'm in the NBA
and then I'm at a movie one time, a couple
(08:10):
of years later, and I'm I'm looking, I'm like, maybe
beautiful girls. It was. It was one of your early
early movies. And I I'm there and I'm like, who
the hell is this guy? Who is he? Who is he?
And one night I'm I'm asleep. I sat up in
the bed and I went fucking five star. That's exactly
who he is. That's Mike Rappaport, my boy six five
(08:38):
guard Rex Chapman, the features story on Al McGuire's preseason special.
And that's the way it was for this six Apollo
basketball team, having to deal with unbelievable hype. Possibly the
most publicized player in the history of Kentucky high school basketball.
He wants another freshman, chap shows was watching the future heavyweight.
(09:10):
First of all, at that time when you go from
high school All American to that first year in Kentucky.
And for people that don't know, and I'm really disappointed
that a lot of the footage is grainy, it's not
as good. It's not in high death um. But your
freshman season at Kentucky, I mean, was it everything that
you had hoped and dreamed from as a young kid,
(09:32):
like to get to Kentucky, growing up at Kentucky and
then having a very very good freshman season, Like, what
do you remember about that time? It was a typical,
my guy, It was a typical from a couple of standpoints.
I dreamed of going to Louisville. I had committed to
Louisville verbally, and then they Kentucky changed coaches, went from
(09:53):
Joeby Hall to Eddie Sutton, and I flip flopped and
went to Kentucky. I'll tell you though, Mike, I wait
a hundred and sixty pounds as a freshman. You know
when I got on campus. You know, today they talk
about high school seeing they first they talked about juniors
reclassifying and going to college. I could have never done that.
I mean I would have been broken in half. They
(10:13):
talked about seniors, you know, going a year of school
and then going in the NBA. I still in the way,
like one seventy at the end of my sophomore year.
And then the other part of that was my dad.
I grew up watching my dad, watching his team's play,
watching him coach. He coached at a high level Division
two school Kentucky West Lynn. They want a couple of titles.
(10:36):
I loved watching his teams play. That's how I learned
to play basketball, just watching his teams play, his players.
And he had me perfectly wired. You know. He when
I left home, he was like, man, I hope they
don't red shirt you this year, and he was being honest, um,
and I believed him. We got to school. I got
to school, the weightlifting was horrible. I could lift the
(10:58):
bar forty I pounds, that's how much I can bench press,
and um, the conditioning killed me. We got in the
first day of practice and I'll never forget it because
it was really awkward. And first day of practice and
my coach, Ettie Sunnon hall of Famer, just passed away
big big drinker though big drinker and a drinker at
this time, and we're running like a three man fast break,
(11:22):
three on two, two on one something like that. Very
first practice, I caught a pass. I faked a pass
ball fake threw it into the post. He stopped practice
and went, see that right there, that's why he's the
best player on the team. And I wanted to run
and hide. I got a seniors, juniors, James Blackman, ed Damnder,
(11:43):
Winston Bennett, the whole team of McDonald's all Americans that
I'm now competing against every day. It's my first practice
I did. I wanted to hide it. I just made
a pass to the post. What I didn't realize was
that everybody can't do those things. You know. I could
shoot and run and stuff, but I, you know, I
knew how to pass and how to play in time
and score and all that. And that was just coming
(12:05):
from my dad watching his stuff. So I was perfectly
prepared for that. Once we got out of the weight
room onto the basketball court, where I knew how to play,
I felt completely at home. Now. I took my lumps
in my freshman year plenty of times, but you know,
I got my shots in I think early on before
we played Louisville my freshman year, which was kind of
(12:26):
a coming out kind of thing because it was on
national TV. And let me just contextualize for those who
don't know, Louisville verse Kentucky and in the eighties college
basketball was as big as Lebron versus Steph. It's changed,
but Louisville versus Kentucky explained the enormity of that game.
Two people are non basketball fans, Yeah, it's huge. You know,
(12:48):
it's kind of back in the day, it was kind
of like Yankees Socks. You know, there were those rivalries
that you knew and and they were the only real
big rivalries that were on TV live on the weekend.
And the other big rivalry here was Indiana. And so
they're just right across the river louis and Kentucky hate
each other, but Indiana and Kentucky hate each other too,
(13:09):
And we played Indiana like I was three or four
games into my freshman year. We played him at Indiana
Bobby Knight. They actually won it that year. They had
Steve Alford, and I had watched Steve Alford play in
high school. I had watched him my whole you know,
three years of high school. He'd been playing at Indiana
and had mad respect for him all of that. Also,
(13:32):
I was kind of like, I can't wait to get
some of Steve Alford. And we played him in that game.
They beat us in overtime, but I had like twenty
six or twenty seven, and I thought I played against him.
He was supposed to be player of the year, maybe
player of the year. And that was the first time
I went and they were talking about him going into
the draft and getting drafted. That was the first time
(13:53):
I thought, you know, if he can play in the NBA,
maybe I can play in the NBA. And so a
week or two later, we played louis at home or
at Louisville in Freedom Hall. They had just won the
title the year before. With my boy never nervous Purvis
and Kenny Payne and Milt Wagner and that whole crew,
and they were good. They were supposed to smoke us.
(14:14):
And we went in there to Louisville. And also, I
should backtrack. I didn't play high school basketball with the
three point line. We didn't have a three point line.
But my first year of college they had the three
point line and I could shoot out there. I just
never had practice shooting, you know, I being behind the line,
I just shot out there on habit and so man,
(14:38):
we went into Louisville and just blitzed them. Muhammad Ali
was in the stands and uh we beat him eighty
five to fifty one, and I think I had twenty
six or so. And I just remember after the game
going to do the media and I came back through
talk about just I really remember very little about that
day other than coming back after the press conference and
(15:02):
our sports information person stopping me and saying, hey, Champ
wants to meet you, and I went, wow, who what
he said? Uh, Muhammad Ali? And I almost started crying,
like this is this Dude's Louisville, Kentucky man. This is
Cassius Clay And he came. We walked there in the
hallway and he said a couple of things, and uh,
(15:24):
I really don't remember. I could still almost cry to
this day thinking about so dope man. So you know,
after that Louisville game, you know, people knew nationally knew
my name, and um, yeah, that's kind of how things
got started. Now, I want to talk specifically about your athleticism,
(15:45):
because the athleticism in basketball sports, but we're talking basketball
for a white dude is just not a common thing.
And then I want to go into race and all
that stuff. You were a high flying, slam dunking fucking
like you played, especially from New York, Like we didn't
see white dudes that could dunk and jump. You know,
(16:08):
we had our Chris Mullins and we had we had
our dudes and you know Steve Alfred shoot KG crafty.
You know, you were sticking out because you were in
the high school the McDonald's All American dunk contes. You
were banging on people your first year. You had lift
on your jump shot. You essentially what they you know,
in simple terms, you played like a black dude. When
(16:31):
did you realize, like, obviously you can't that's god you
know what I mean, Like jumping being quick is god.
You know, I tried all the fucking I tried all
the jumping drills, and they don't fucking work. They do
not fucking work. If it's not in you, it's not
even if you could jump forty inches like you probably could,
maybe you could get to forty one inches, but when
you're jumping three inches like me and you get two
(16:53):
four inches, it means nothing. Talk about you know, your
style of play, and then talk about race and sports
and playing essentially like a black dude in like the
fine line between it becoming the elephant in the room
and also you're just like, I'm just trying to get
to the fucking league. Speak on that, Rex. Yeah, you know, Mike,
I just got lucky. Really, it's just luck. You know,
(17:14):
my parents genetics that with my mom, you know, long
arms and tall, and my dad's six six and you know,
was a professional basketball player. So that part of it's lucky. Now.
I didn't always have it. I dreamed for it every
night growing up. I measured myself. I grew so late.
I was a five seven, five eight freshman. I played varsity,
(17:34):
but I didn't start on the varsity and we had
my two best friends to this day still Greg Bond
and Jeff Stanford. They started all four years of high school.
I played freshman ball, JV ball and varsity ball my
whole freshman year and then had a gross spurt. And
I wasn't athletic before that even is just normal normal? No? No,
I mean I was. I was skilled. I could shoot
(17:54):
and handle and do all that stuff, but I wasn't. Yeah,
I was just average. I mean, you know, I may
have had quick burst and stuff, but I couldn't jump.
You know, I was happy to slap the board on
a layup man through my freshman year. And in about
three months between freshman sophomore year, I grew about six
inches from five seven to I don't know six to
(18:16):
or so, and uh started being able to jump now
And there wasn't a strong jumper, but I was long
to getting longer reach and all that stuff. But you know, again,
I dreamed for all the same ship my boys dreamed of,
all the same ship you dreamed of. Many of their
favorite players were guys like Larry Bird and Kyle Macy
(18:38):
and the guys, the the white guys. And I grew
up loving, loving, Darryl Griffith and David Thompson. You know,
they were both you know, I thought, man, if I
could get to be six three, six four, they can
dunk it, maybe I can dunk it. And so that
kind of became my I watched Darryl so much, honestly.
(18:59):
And the weird thing is, if you look at Darren
I became friends later on. If you look at our
career numbers, we were kind of the same player. Um,
you know, just jump shots and take it to the
basket every now and then, get steals, get out on
the break. But that's who I wanted to be. And
the other thing I fought too, because I hated hearing
on the news they would talk about an analyst would
(19:19):
talk about Jeff Lebo playing, and I love Jeff, but
he's the son of a coach. I hated here, and
I hated when people said that about me because right
away I thought it gave off the uh you're saying, well,
he just grew up in the gym. He has all
these advantages. It also said, and he's not athletic, because
(19:40):
no coaches sons were athletic, and they didn't know, you know, so,
I mean it seemed that way. So I was all
kinds of messed up, but all kinds of motivated to
Mike because I didn't mess around. I didn't drink, I
didn't smoke. I was purely focused on being a basketball
in high school and didn't have a drink. My I
didn't have a drink till I was too years in
the league. Yeah, all my boys, you know, smoke weed
(20:03):
and got high and drank from the age of thirteen fourteen,
Just me and my one other best friend who he
ended up going and playing basketball for my dad at
Kentucky Westland, really good high school basketball player. We didn't
we didn't drink. We but we hung out with all
our boys who did, and I do remember talking about
jumping and athleticism. We used to go to parties out
(20:25):
in the country and ship right uh farms and we
get out there. There'd be a bunch of bales of
hey and kids drinking and and just being stupid. But
me and my guys used to we bet people that
I couldn't jump over cars. They'd be like, you know,
Rex can jump over that truck right there, and they'd
be like, ah, fuck you man, No, I can't. And
(20:47):
we'd you know, We'd get them to throw in a
few bucks and then I'd go jump over the car.
And that's what we did to entertain ourselves. Just stupid
ship like that in high school. Um that came along,
just came along out of wished there was some folds
or some footage that you had, like a cell phone
video if you jumping over a fucking car with a
(21:08):
permed mullet. I know, gro so crazy, so crazy. But
talking about the race stuff, you know, I had hurtful
things said, and not only to me but to you know,
I saw so much racism and whatnot growing up. I
was lucky in that growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky. It's
(21:29):
a town of about sixty people, and not far away
is Evansville, Indiana. We have a larger percentage black population
in Owensboro, and at two of the four high schools,
the athletics programs at two of the four schools are
predominantly black. My dad grew up playing basketball in our
hometown and many of his best friends were the black
(21:54):
friends he played against in high school. So they all
had sons my age yea and about age six or seven.
My dad. You know, I loved basketball. I was going
to his practices, and I remember him telling me one time,
I said, well, if you want to play basketball, you
better start playing against the best players, because I was
just running rush shot over the white kids and in
(22:15):
first and second grade. So he would take me down
on the weekends and drop me off at uh Charlie
Taylor's house where two of my best friends were Avery
Taylor and Chuckie Taylor, and uh, you know they lived
in the projects. You know, two bedroom apartment, seven eight
people in two rooms. Maybe no air in the summer,
no heat in the winter, maybe eat once a day.
(22:37):
So I got to see a lot of stuff at
a very young age that I go home and that
I had all the trappings. I had somebody there to
make me get my grades. I had a parent at
home all the time. Most of my friends that I
and now these end up being guys that we played
on different high school teams, but we were a U
teammates until we were sixteen, and we killed people. I
(23:01):
was the only white guy on the team playing with
my guys from Owensborough High School. I went to Apollo
High School, where all but one of my teammates was white.
We had battles with those two had battles. Man, but
those guys the advantage I had coming out UH and
going to place like five Star. I knew my guys
(23:25):
on my AU team. They just didn't get invited to
five Star. They were good. They taught me how to play.
I had to play. There was five games a year
that I had to play hard, and it was when
we played Owensboro High School. So I knew whenever I
left Kentucky, I wasn't gonna really face anybody anymore athletic, UH,
(23:47):
any tougher than what I've been playing against for seven
eight years already. So it really helped him hold me.
One of the ugliest things I remember said to me
one time I was at AH. I was about fifteen,
and I just started you know. Yeah, it was a
sophomore and we were playing I won't say where it is,
but we were playing it a little bitty place right
outside of Owensboro, Kentucky. And we played the game and
(24:10):
I had a pretty good game, I guess, and we're
all kind of standing around waiting to get on the
bus to go back home, and this dude comes out
of the stands. He's a country dude. He's got on overalls.
He looks like a guy straight out his easy top.
And he put his arm. There are people all around,
and he put his arm on my shoulder and I
kind of, you know, look like you know, what are
you doing? And he said exactly this to me. I'll
(24:31):
edit it a little bit, but he said, my god,
he said, you play just like an inn word, but
you still get to be white. Mm hmm. It still
makes me want to cry because it's the ugliest. That's
one of the ugliest things you can say to He
said it out loud to begin with. And then what
(24:55):
what compounded everything was the kids, the adults, everyone standing around.
Nobody said a fucking thing to this guy. I just
looked at him kind of. I didn't know what to say.
I'm fifteen. I got this old man that spewing racist
stupidity in a gym full of people, and nobody's gonna
call him out on it. And around that time, you know,
(25:17):
I I started becoming a little bit more aware of
my surroundings and what was going on racially, um and
and and just because I'm sure we'll get into it.
Around this time, I'm you know, playing ball with my
guys in the summer. Uh, in the projects. And yeah,
for the last two or three years, me and one
of my teammates, sisters, We've become really good friends. And
(25:41):
I've never had a girlfriend before. I mean I don't,
but we just organically became boyfriend and girlfriend. She's black,
I'm white. People were not having it. They weren't having especially, Yeah,
they weren't having it. And you're the great white hope.
I was told to hide from an early age. She
was told to hide. We hid in high school, you know,
(26:05):
went to problems with other people. Oh yeah, dude, yes, dude,
it's it was confusing. It was really confusing. And uh,
you know. Then I went to Kentucky and there was
a little bit more of that at u K. She
went to UK as well. She also won the state
hundred two years in a row in high school, could fly.
(26:27):
Her brother Mark played in the NFL for years, Mark Higgs.
But and and Sean and I my girlfriend were still
good friends. She we talked regularly, but we kind of
went through it, and she especially went through it. Um.
I didn't tell her about all the times that people
were telling me to hide or be discreet or you know, racist. Ship.
(26:49):
There were times that I told her though, and see
they're telling me one thing. They're saying to me, you're
better than dating her. There. What it's saying to her
is she's not good enough for me. And it's just
fucking racist, mean ignorance. I didn't have the courage to
say any of that at the time. People are telling
(27:13):
me to worry about my image. And again, Mike, I
hadn't made a fucking dollar and so I don't these
are people I should be trusting. But a lot of
it was hurtful to both of us. Yeah, that's right,
(27:39):
as you said. Former Sons player Rex Chapman, he just
got out here to the jail and police arrested him
for shoplifting over fourteen thousand dollars worth of Apple products
just like this. Now, the first round draft pick to
Charlotte in now faces nine counts of organized retail depth
and five counts of trafficking stolen property, all felonies. When
(28:04):
you google Rex Chapman, and this is again in the age,
with a person who's got a very active, very um
beloved Twitter account, you would think something else would come up.
But when I Google you, the first image that I
see is your mug shot. Now being a fan of
yours and you know, knowing you peripherally. But I remember,
(28:29):
I think for some reason, when I heard about where
you were at, I think I saw it in a
Sports Illustrated article about you, because I had a subscription
to Sports Illustrated, and Sports Illustrated was everything. That's how
you got your news. There was no Twitter and all
that stuff. Talk to the people, explain what was going on,
(28:50):
how you wound up in an Apple store in Phoenix,
stealing where your life had gotten you to that moment.
And again I'm skipping forward because I can't do the
life and times of Rex Chapman, because that's not what
this podcast is about. Speak to me about how you
wound up in an Apple store in Phoenix, you know,
essentially trying to steal who the funk knows what? And
(29:13):
it wasn't because you were broke. Yeah, uh man, it
probably was in some part because I was going broke,
you know, Mike, it's still it's so hard to talk about. Uh.
You know, I know people know about it, you can
read about it. Uh you know, I talk about it,
you know when I go and speak and whynot, It's
(29:34):
still really hard to talk about the details just because
you man, I let so many people down, myself, my kids,
my family, friends. But like I said to you, I
didn't drink. I wasn't a drink or smoker anything like that.
If I played, you know, twelve years in the NBA,
if I had a dozen drinks the night before a game,
(29:57):
that would be I just didn't. You know, I might
go out on a night off with you know, Stevie Nask,
Jason Kidd would go out and have a beer the
night before. I just felt like I couldn't end. Maybe
that was just my dad, you know, hearing my dad
and about what are you doing drinking night before a game?
Something like that. So I wasn't that guy. But I
had a lot of injuries when I was playing, and
(30:17):
my last three years of playing, I had seven orthopedic surgeries.
Right at the end of my last year though, right
before the playoffs, I had and I was going to
retire at the end of the year because I just
wasn't very good. I had I hadn't had. It was
two thousand. I had had a dunk every year in
my life since I was fifteen, and now I'm thirty two,
and I hadn't had a dunk the whole season. I
(30:39):
had been hurt on and off hamstrings hand, but I
wasn't very good and the first time in my life
I had an average double figures, probably since I was five.
But out of nowhere, emergency happened deck to me and
I'm fine, get off the plane. The next day at home.
That happened in Oakland, I get off the plane. The
doctor gave me prescription for oxy conton, and I took it,
(31:02):
and in two days Mike maybe less, I knew I
was in love. Man. I felt smarter and funnier, and
it felt like I was walking about an inch and
a half off the ground. And when people would come
up and I want to talk to me, I've always
had some social anxiety, you know, just being recognized from
a young age and wondering if are they talking about me?
(31:24):
Are they you know? As you do, you know, the
older you get, especially if you're known a little bit.
And all of a sudden, I realized I didn't care
if people came up and talked to me. I felt
nicer and smarter and funnier, better dad and a better husband,
all that, you know. And that was another part in
a tough marriage because of me. You know, I've struggled
(31:45):
with depression and probably some sort of form of mental
illness since I was in my teenage years. I quit
my high school basketball team, you know, so I had
my issues, but i'd made it all the way through
an NBA career and now I'm a full blown you know,
OxyContin and Viking and addict. How quick did you realize
(32:07):
or maybe you only know it now in hindsight, but
like you're saying, two days, you were like, boom, you
don't want to ever stop. Two days. It was kind
of like that. I had been an addict, a basketball attict,
a horse racing addict my whole life. Thoroughbreds gambling everyday,
golf attict, baggae, jolly ranchers. Don't just give me one,
I want fucking all of them. So I'm that guy.
(32:31):
It had just never manifested itself in drugs and and
you know, honestly, drug addiction and alcoholism on my mom's
side of the family, gambling on my dad's side of
the family. So I kind of come by it, honestly,
I guess. However, when I took that medicine, man, I
was kind of off to the races. And without going
through all of the stupid details. About a year and
(32:53):
a half of that, I was now living out of
the house. I had moved out. We've got three children
and another on the way. My life's going to hell.
Danny Ainge shows up at this little apartment where I'm
living one morning, our Danny Ainge with the Celtics and says,
you gotta go to rehab. You're not right. Look at you.
(33:15):
You look terrible. You're fat, you're gaining weight. Yeah. I
don't know what you're doing to your kids and your wife,
but Rex, it's too much. And for whatever reason, I
listened to Danny. I love him and I think he's
the best. I just love him to death. But I
listened to him. I drove myself to rehab. And when
I got in there, Mike I was. I had to
(33:37):
tell him what I was taking, and uh, they said,
what are you taking? I said, I'm taking about ten
oxyconton a day and about forty viking in a day. Damn,
I was, yeah, And I was just chewing him up.
No water, no chair, good thing. I didn't drink because
I for sure be dead. I mean, if I tried
to wake up today, I would just chew him up
just to get him in my system earlier, which with
(33:57):
oxyconton is very dangerous because it has time release sort
of thing about it, and you chew it up, you
just break through all that time release. So I was
perfectly just messed up all the time. But when I
got in there and I told him that, I said,
what's the detox like? They said, well, boxy conton. They
said it's gonna be seven days, just like seven days
of coming off of heroin. And when I heard that,
(34:18):
I was like what what? And they were right it was.
It was awful. I got out of that rehab and
within six months I had to have another surgery on
my wrist. They put me on vicing in. I probably
should have told him I don't need to be taking this.
I took it and I was back off to the
(34:38):
races on Viking. And again, were you when they told
you they gave you vicat in for the surgery? Was
the addicting you like, oh cool, yes, yes, I don't
need like you know, it's not right. You know what
it does to you specifically, and you're kind of like,
well I got surgery. Fuck, And exactly, Mike, You're exactly right,
(35:01):
And the other part about it is and for me,
the coward part of it was, yeah, but this is
an OxyContin, right, this is just Viking and I can
handle the Viking in. What is the difference between the two.
Oxonton is Uh. It's a major, major drug. I mean
it probably. I don't think it should be used on
(35:24):
just people walking around if you're terminal, if you're you know,
compound fracture surgery, stuff like that. But people just using
it for back pain and knee pain. It's dangerous, Mike,
It's really dangerous. It's synthetic, for lack of a better term,
synthetic heroin, synthetic morphine. It's too good. It's too good.
(35:46):
So yeah, so I'm back on the Viking in and
I'm on that for six eight months, and you know,
I came clean and told my ex wife, I said,
I'm back on it. I gotta go get clean again.
So I went back to rehab, got off of it.
They put on something called the box zone after that,
and that's supposed to be something that weens you off
of opioids. I was on that for ten years, from
(36:08):
about two thousand four to two thousand and fourteen, and
my life just kept getting worse and worse. My decisions
kept getting worse and worse. Until I'm gambling every day.
I gotta have my medicine every day. And I when
I say, I'm gambling every day, Mike. You know, from
the time I was about twenty, if I had an
off day in the summer, I went to the track
(36:32):
ten grand in my pocket, and you know, if I
want to have it the next day. If I lost
ten grand that day, I go get another ten grand
and go to the That was my thing. That's what
I did so and I got to support this habit,
you know. And I can also look and go, oh ship,
I'm starting for the first time in my life, going
(36:53):
when's that investment come in? When's that payment, when's that
licensing check coming in? And Mike, I played twelve years
in the NBA and probably made forty million dollars. You
should be good. Yeah, I mean not divorce and gambling
and all that stuff. But still, come on, man, and
my two youngest girls are living with me part of
(37:16):
the time. They're in middle school, confusing time. Before I
know it, I don't really know. All I know is
I'm I'm running. I think I'm running low on money,
I'm running low on drugs, and I'm in an Apple
store out of my mind, and there are people all around,
(37:37):
and I just start putting stuff in my bag in
a Nike stores right across the street where I've got
a Nike bag. I've just come from the Nike store
and I start putting stuff in my bag and left,
and oh, man, oh, I just want to cry. Uh
(38:04):
And I guess, well, I had decided I was going
to take that stuff start pawning it fun. And I know,
I don't know, I should know that I'm Rex Chapman,
the basketball player who everybody knows here, everybody you know,
Phoenix suns Um. And I can't see it. I can't
(38:26):
see any of it. I can't see that what I'm
doing is illegal and wrong and criminal. I can't see
that anybody knows me, you know, I can't see that.
I think there were a handful of times that I
was in there with my daughters, so man, it was
(38:48):
so hard just and then okay, then so I think
that happened several times. It did happen several times. And
I don't know how long later, whether it was a
year or six months. I'm at home one day and
I'm getting ready to go pick my daughters up from
school to thirty. I get in my car, I pull out.
(39:12):
As soon as I pull out of my gate, there's
like six uh Scott's Dale police officers just pen me in,
him me in, and I don't know what the funk
is going on. I truly didn't. I had had some
problems with my driver's license, driving on a suspended license.
I I hadn't had a license or insurance in years,
but driving everywhere, so I've been pulled over taken to
(39:33):
jail before for a suspended license. So I didn't really
put anything together and I started at They got me
out of the car, handcuffs, threw me on the hood.
They're like six dudes, and I'm going, what's going on?
And none of them are saying anything. One of them
came back with a real smart answer and said light
day on crime in Scottsdale. I guess huh, And I
(39:54):
was like, will you tell me what's going on? They said,
you'll find out, So they put me in the car.
I went to the jail. I got to the jail.
They put me in a cell right away with a
naked dude who's jacking off? Um, straight, just naked dude
jacking off and I'm sitting in the corner. Jesus yeah,
(40:14):
and you know, and in jail they got those like
they got high school mirrors that are just you can
kind of seeing him, and it's like a piece of aluminum,
you know. And Uh, I look at myself due jacking
off in the corner. I look at myself in this mirror,
and I'm wearing a fucking basket Nike basketball shirt that
says basketball never stops. Sure as Funk did that day,
(40:41):
I couldn't laugh at it, and I forgot about that
story until about six months ago. I was on Sarah
Spain's UH show and remembered it, told her about and
started laughing about it. But it damn sure wasn't funny
at the time. I remember them giving me my phone.
They asked me if I could wanted to make a call?
I said, or they said, do you want to make
costs that I don't know anybody's numbers, Nobody. One dude
(41:04):
grabbed my phone and said, here, find the number you need.
And as soon as I opened my phone, the phone's
just going crazy. People have started finding out. I guess
and I had one message from my boy that I
remember Josh Hopkins and you know Josh, I know actor.
(41:24):
Uh he's my homeboy, Kentucky home boy I'm doing another
podcast with. There was a message from him that said,
I don't know what happened. I just no, I love you, man.
And I ended up living on Josh's couch for a
couple of years after all that, but I went back
into jail. I got out, Mike, and you know, I
just felt broken. And about a week later I went
(41:46):
to rehab in Louisville, Kentucky, and Uh, I took it seriously,
learned a lot about started learning about myself. When that happened,
there was a little bit of a relief. I remember
getting into rehab and sitting back and thinking, alright, dude,
this is where you need to be. I felt a
little sense of peace for the first time in a
(42:08):
long time. And I think when I look back about it,
I always felt like a little bit of a fraud, Mike,
just from a young age. People they had a view
of me, or I thought they had a view of
me as this all American white kid, and I had
apparently sold out my whole fucking life to that ideal,
(42:28):
knowing that's not who I was inside. You know, look,
I'm a flawed dude. I got no patience, I have
all kinds of wartz. I'm you know, depressed, I you know,
but it was the first time in my life I
really felt like, all right, now the facade has gone,
you know, Now I can just see me. I can
just you know. But I gotta get better, And so
(42:50):
I did. I took it really seriously for a month,
and then I went three months. I stayed with John
Lucas out at Houston. Uh, I've loved forever. John has
a story similar, and he really helped get me back.
Then I moved out to l A, stayed with my
buddy Mark Verge out there and my other buddy, Josh
Hopkins for a couple of years, and really tried getting
(43:11):
myself together. I had when I checked into rehab that year, Mike,
I was two hundred and sixty pounds. God damn, how
tall are you? Six three six four? Maybe? But I'd
never played more than one ninety. So it took me
a couple of years to lose get down about two
hundred pounds, and slowly but surely just doing the next
(43:35):
right thing every day, you know. I started building back
and then my guy named Paul Archie called me at
uh j M I, which is the media arm of
Kentucky Sports UK Basketball and Football Network, and uh, he said,
you want to do our pregame shows back here? I
said yeah. He said, we can't really pay you. I said,
I don't want to be paid. I don't give a ship.
(43:57):
I love to. So I came back to Kentucky and
started doing that. I've always had seventy five thousand or
so Twitter followers from my MBA days, but when I
got back here, I found some stupid video started doing
this blocker charge thing, and then that Twitter thing took off,
and now here we are. One thing that I mean,
(44:20):
I've sort of taken on these battles because I consider
you a friend. One of the things that where we
are today in is like I said earlier, when you
bring up Rex Chapman, you know, the first thing or
the first or second thing is this, uh you know
time in your life where you were at the bottom.
(44:42):
It's not you dunking on this person, dunking on that person,
hitting this iconic three point shot for the Phoenix songs.
It's not even the tweets, the fun tweets, And I've
sort of stepped into your battles because I'll see you
make a tweet and people be like you fucking drug addict,
you junkie, you this that, And I know that that
(45:06):
because it bothers me, Like there, I have my my
ship that I don't like to talk about or the
things that I've said. And you know, and you've moved
on with your life. But how how frustrating is it
that when you're like, your whole life becomes this fucked
up incident and you could be saving babies, saving cats
(45:26):
and dogs for a burning building and someone would be like,
you fucking junkie, you stole phones in Phoenix. How frustrating
is that that that's always gonna be around you? Or
is it a good thing that reminds you? You know,
what's your take on that? It's a little of both, Mike,
you know, yes, of course as a person, you know,
I put out some we raised oh last year, this
(45:48):
stupid Twitter account raised like grand for COVID relief across
the country. I mean NBA teams to frontline workers, to
food banks, to everything. And I put out some recap
of that about three or four weeks ago, and I
see one of the comments has my mug shot and
(46:10):
saying this you Rex and I you know, it's frustrating,
but every time I I do that because I joke
about people, I do. I joke about people all the time.
And life is hard. Life is also funny. And if
(46:31):
you can't laugh at yourself some it's gonna be a long,
hard life for you. I've also realized, Look, if they're
attacking you, they're not attacking what I was saying. If
they're attacking you, you're winning. You're winning. If they're attacking
you as a person, your person, then that's okay, and
you just gotta let that go. I'm not trying to
corral those people in any kind of way because I
(46:53):
know who they are. I hear you. And as far
as you know, you play in the NBA, you played
in the era of the eighties and the nineties. You
know your comrades, your brothers with you mentioned, you know
you're talking and passing about Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, you know,
Michael Jordan's every single person that played in that era.
(47:17):
As far as this Twitter verse, Twitter success, who has
been You're like, oh, ship, this person follows me, or
this person retweets me, because your Twitter is a dope engagement.
Who have been a few of the retweets or like
responses you've gotten from people that you were like, what
the fuck? Bro? It's been a slow build, but over
(47:38):
the last couple of years, I've just been amazed. I
mean everybody from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Nancy Pelosi, Chris Pratt,
Ben Stiller, John Legend, Chrissy Teagan, all the major I
remember I freaked out sort of one day about two
years ago. I looked up and TMZ was following me.
(47:58):
I was like, fuck, what have I done? I write
the Yeah, I was like exactly, So, yeah, man, it's
been crazy, you know. And to be honest, a lot
of the people you know that I grew up watching,
you know, some of your peers, you know Jane lynch,
(48:22):
Andy Richter, you know, just people who I really look
Sasha Baron Cohen out of nowhere, Mike, this is I
haven't told you this. About a month ago, two months ago.
Maybe I'm sitting around here watching basketball one night and
I get a direct message from Sasha Baron Cohen Borat
(48:44):
and immediately I look and I go, how do I
have more fucking followers than Sasha Baron Cohen And he says, Rex, listen, man.
He writes a really nice thing saying, we got to
really try to get Trump off for Twitter and off
of social media. You know, would you mind amplifying this
message a little bit? And I was like, bro, anytime,
(49:07):
come on, let's go. Uh. Two days later, he's off.
Trump has been kicked off. Sasha sends a message saying
we did it two days two days. Man, that's dope, right,
that's dope. That's dope. That's crazy. Yeah, I was living
in my car, man, I was living in my car
for a minute. And now Barrat's colleague. What do you
(49:28):
want to do with the rest of your life in
regarding because you know you're the Twitter thing is one thing?
You have a podcast in regards to basketball because I
know you love basketball. You're always gonna love basketball. What
what are your goals and hopes and dreams for the
rest of your life? How old are you now, Mike Ship,
(49:50):
You're a young guy. Can you dunk anymore? I tried
it at fifty, I did it at fifty. We don't
want to get it past you. Know I haven't try
I haven't tried it in three years because I hurt
myself when I landed at fifty and I did it
at fifty, hurt my back and was like, this is stupid.
I can't do it anymore, this is dumb. So uh No,
(50:12):
I would say I probably can if I had to
maybe one handed or two handed dunk. It's a one
handed dunk. It's a one and in fact, how about this,
it's a one step, two ft, one handed dunk. I
can't even know. I can't even I wouldn't even think
about jumping off a one leg I wouldn't even think
about it. Pull hammy, I I would look like you man,
(50:37):
I wish I could fucking dunk. Okay, So fifty three,
you've got this new notoriety in regards to this Twitter world.
You're starting this podcast, charges you're starting another podcast. What
do you want out of life professionally outside of being
you know, a good person, a consistent person, a person
(50:57):
who's not in trouble, a good father your kids or older?
What do you want out of life professionally going forward?
Because you're a young guy. Uh, basketball will always be
a part of it. I enjoy like crazy, finding and
getting to know guys like Bam out of Bio and
Tyler Hero and hand delivering them to my friends in
(51:21):
the NBA. Who I go, dude, I'm telling you, not
that one, this one. This is the guy I enjoy that.
I enjoy watching good young basketball players who are conscientious,
who never take plays off, who always know what defense
you're in. I just like that as much as anything,
so I'll always continue to do that. I'm gonna do
(51:41):
these podcasts, Mike. You know, there are a lot of
things that I should have said and could have said
when I was younger, when I was a teenager, about race,
about you know, injustice, bigotry, whatnot. And I think I
want to tackle a lot of that stuff, uh in
the right way, uh, with people from different walks of life. Uh,
(52:03):
just to you know, there's a lot of hatred and
division right now. We're all people, and I know, like you,
you and I have we have people who really like us,
and we do We're polarizing. We have people who just
can't stand what we do or they can't stand the
things they hear us say publicly. I've yet to really
(52:24):
sit down with anybody who dislikes me, you know, based
on what they think of me, sat down to have
a beer where we can't have some find some common ground.
And I think with these pods, i'd like to, you know,
show hey, yeah, we all may be different, but we're
not that different. And I want to have some good discussion,
learn about people that I don't know, and maybe make
(52:45):
a little bit of a difference. And you said it,
I feel so bad for what I did to my
children that I'm I've got to spend every day trying
to make up for it. And uh, you know, I've
spent the last few years just trying to build back
where I can take care of them financially, and so
(53:05):
I'm still working on the relationship part of it. And
I love all my kids, they love me, but I
owe it to them to continue to keep doing the
next right thing and trying to make them proud. That's dope. Well,
I wish you nothing but luck in real life. Personally,
I wish you nothing but luck with the Charges podcast.
(53:27):
Charges with Rex Chapman. I am so appreciative and honored
that you let me interview you, uh in a broad
sense for this first episode of Charges, and uh, what
can I say I'll let you sign off. This is
your podcast. You do that. I can't do all the
fucking heavy lifting. I'll let you sign off right now. Jesus,
(53:49):
thank you buddy. First of all, I'm honored that you
would do this. I really you're my boy. I love
you to death. Um, and I you know, look, this
is not happening without some nerves. Uh Um. I've been
interviewed since I'm fifteen years old. I can sit here
and be interviewed all damn day. But I'm taking pointers
from you today. I gotta learn how to interview and
(54:12):
how to listen. So there's gonna be a little bit
of a learning curve that I'm excited about, anxious, nervous,
all of that. But the guests we're gonna have are
gonna be dope, dope dope, and uh people need to subscribe.
Charges Rex Chapman, let's go charges seven no run Nians
with the law charges sut Lee, send the tennis and
(54:32):
balls and charges the celebrity gank thorms charge we came
along with from Living Law. That's charges seven no run
Nians with the law charges set Lee, send the tennis
and balls and charges the celebrity Gank Forlorums. Charge we
came along with from Living Lawless Judge. Charges is created
by Portlay and Control Media is produced by DV Podcasts
(54:56):
in association with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for
my heart video, visit I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. M m hm
Charges. That's created by Portalais and Control Media. It's produced
by dB Podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. This
time a former Son's player who you might remember as
t Rex. More video in just a moment, But this
is Rex Chapman's mug shot, and we are learning a
lot more about the charge of the Charge. When you
(00:22):
google Rex Chapman, the first image that I see is
your mug shot. But I've made it all the way
through an NBA career and now I'm a full blown
you know, OxyContin and Viking and attic. I feel so
bad for what I did to my children. Oh man,
(00:45):
oh I just want to cry. Welcome to episode one
of Charges. I'm your host, Rex Chapman. Today we take
a deep dive into my past and the trials and
tribulations that I've gone through in my highly publicized career.
To guide that conversation, we have my longtime friend, my dude,
(01:05):
my guy, Michael Rappaport, filling in his guest host. I've
known Mike since we were teenagers at the five Star
basketball camp where I was his camp counselor. He couldn't
play for ship. He's a talented actor, but his hoots
game leaves much to be desired. Enjoy Episode one of
Charges with Rex Chapman. Charges. All right, my name is
(01:32):
Michael Rappaport, the guest host of my long time friend,
someone who I was a fan of before I met
him as a basketball coach in the nineteen eighties, Rex Chapman.
Welcome to Charges with Rex Chapman. I am a special,
one time only guest host. This is Rex Chapman's podcast.
(01:56):
Will explain why I'm here, what I am doing here?
Sexy Rex Chapman. How are you? My friend? My goodness?
Charges with Rex Chapman. Who to thunk it? You? Me
and you from teenagers now doing this? Let's just explain
what people could expect why you're doing this podcast, Charges.
(02:17):
You know how you came up with the name and
the whole concept of it. Well, you know, I think,
uh me as an athlete, uh, and we've seen a
lot of people in every walk of life, but especially
for athletes come under a lot of scrutiny when they
when we get in trouble, and there's an never ending
supply of athletes, young athletes a lot of money and
(02:37):
uh a lot of free time that run a foul
and UM kind of came up with the idea for
this after bouncing back from you know, my troubles painkiller addiction, jail,
and UH really want to let people know, with the
people that we're going to talk to, that you're never
as bad as your worst moment as long as you
(02:58):
learn from it. You know, I'm ended on having guys
on the guys. I know guys I don't know who've
run a foul. Uh. We call it charges because you've
been charged with something. Uh you know, a bit of
a take on the old Twitter block or charge, but um,
you know charges, you've been charged with something. It was
an ugly time, it was a tough time in your life.
You've let a lot of people down, You've let yourself down,
(03:20):
and that moment when it happened to you is really painful.
It's painful to talk about, but I think it's cathartic
and I think people will get a lot out of it. Um,
all right, we're gonna get to your charges and uh,
you know what I started, you know, asking you questions,
but just to give people a little context. So, growing
up in the nineteen eighties, I had dreams and aspirations
(03:43):
of being a professional basketball player. At one point, uh
the McDonald's High School All American Game was a huge,
huge deal. I think it's a big deal now too,
but we're so oversaturated with Instagram and this torn and
in that tournent. But there was a time in the
eighties where the McDonald's High School All American Game was
(04:06):
that was the only game that mattered for high school stars.
I found you. I think I had heard about your name,
because again, this is the eighties, so it's not like
you could google every single high school player. What year
did you play in the high school the McDonald's High
School All American Game? Six? So yeah, I would have
been in a year or two ahead of you. Maybe, yes,
(04:29):
a year or two ahead of me. So I was
a a dreamer of playing high level college basketball, high
level uh NBA basketball. This is my dream. And I
remember hearing about Rex Chapman, but you didn't see clips.
But I remember first seeing you play in the High
School All American Game, and you were everything that I
wanted to be. High flying, shoot, athletic, fearless, dunking white
(04:55):
unicorn from down South. I didn't like the hair, I
believe you did. You have a mullet at this point,
was that a choice? Did you think that was cool?
I did. I thought it was cool. Also, I didn't
really call it a mullet. I called it a shag, Mike,
you might know. You might have heard about the shag
from back in the day. In fact, me and my boys,
you know who, we would do. We would short you know,
(05:18):
business in the front, but we would grow it out
in the back and permit we would get it permed
and then blow dry it, bless it out. Oh man, terrible,
just terrible. It was like a basketball player with a
wrestler's look like look like Billy ray Cyrus exactly. So
I saw Rex play in the high school All American Game,
and he had a great freshman year at Kentucky, which
(05:41):
I want to ask you about, but just to you know,
quickly contextualize how I met Rex. And then the summer
after your freshman year of Kentucky, I was, I believe,
going into the tenth grade of the eleventh grade, it
doesn't matter. And Rex um was one of the camp
counselors at the Covenant. Again it was the five Star
basketball camp was everything. Abc D camp was coming along,
(06:03):
but five Star was the place to be. And Rex
Chapman was one of the camp counselors there and he
had the pleasure of being my camp counsel for a
week at the five Star basketball camp. And Rex was
playing at quite the whole time. Uh. He had his
short shorts, he had his hair, um, but he was
(06:23):
a star. He had made a huge impact um in
the basketball world, um, in my life. And it was
just like dope, I mean, this is the high school
basketball camp. I was there with Seawan Kemp. Shawn Kemp
was probably older than you at the time. He had
like a full beard and the goat. But this is
the best of the best basketball game. Everybody went to
(06:44):
this camp, Michael Jordan led by his Patrick Ewing war
Dell Curry, and I was fucking with Rex the whole
week and talking ship to him, trying to get, you know,
attention from him because it was Rex Chapman, the high
flying white unicorn from Kentucky. D And then we connected
years later, but you remembered that time. What was most
(07:05):
impressive about what you saw from me that week in
my game and just my whole personna, Oh my gosh, hilarious. Um.
You know, I was there with Ramille Robinson. Both he
and I had been at the camp as campers like
two years prior, and so we decided to come back
and be counselors for Garf Howard Garfinkel, and then we drafted.
(07:28):
I end up drafting you on my team. You know,
only guy, I think probably only guy in five Star
history that could not do a jump stop. Just don't
know how to do a jump stop. You're not a
good player. You know the game, you know the game
incredibly well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got it. You're like
(07:49):
Chris Mullen, but a lot slower and yeah yeah, no, man,
you were hilarious with your New York bullshit all week long,
just laughing, making people laugh. And the funny thing about
that is, you know, after that, you know, I go
on back to Kentucky and then I'm in the NBA
and then I'm at a movie one time, a couple
(08:10):
of years later, and I'm I'm looking, I'm like, maybe
beautiful girls. It was. It was one of your early
early movies. And I I'm there and I'm like, who
the hell is this guy? Who is he? Who is he?
And one night I'm I'm asleep. I sat up in
the bed and I went fucking five star. That's exactly
who he is. That's Mike Rappaport, my boy six five
(08:38):
guard Rex Chapman, the features story on Al McGuire's preseason special.
And that's the way it was for this six Apollo
basketball team, having to deal with unbelievable hype. Possibly the
most publicized player in the history of Kentucky high school basketball.
He wants another freshman, chap shows was watching the future heavyweight.
(09:10):
First of all, at that time when you go from
high school All American to that first year in Kentucky.
And for people that don't know, and I'm really disappointed
that a lot of the footage is grainy, it's not
as good. It's not in high death um. But your
freshman season at Kentucky, I mean, was it everything that
you had hoped and dreamed from as a young kid,
(09:32):
like to get to Kentucky, growing up at Kentucky and
then having a very very good freshman season, Like, what
do you remember about that time? It was a typical,
my guy, It was a typical from a couple of standpoints.
I dreamed of going to Louisville. I had committed to
Louisville verbally, and then they Kentucky changed coaches, went from
(09:53):
Joeby Hall to Eddie Sutton, and I flip flopped and
went to Kentucky. I'll tell you though, Mike, I wait
a hundred and sixty pounds as a freshman. You know
when I got on campus. You know, today they talk
about high school seeing they first they talked about juniors
reclassifying and going to college. I could have never done that.
I mean I would have been broken in half. They
(10:13):
talked about seniors, you know, going a year of school
and then going in the NBA. I still in the way,
like one seventy at the end of my sophomore year.
And then the other part of that was my dad.
I grew up watching my dad, watching his team's play,
watching him coach. He coached at a high level Division
two school Kentucky West Lynn. They want a couple of titles.
(10:36):
I loved watching his teams play. That's how I learned
to play basketball, just watching his teams play, his players.
And he had me perfectly wired. You know. He when
I left home, he was like, man, I hope they
don't red shirt you this year, and he was being honest, um,
and I believed him. We got to school. I got
to school, the weightlifting was horrible. I could lift the
(10:58):
bar forty I pounds, that's how much I can bench press,
and um, the conditioning killed me. We got in the
first day of practice and I'll never forget it because
it was really awkward. And first day of practice and
my coach, Ettie Sunnon hall of Famer, just passed away
big big drinker though big drinker and a drinker at
this time, and we're running like a three man fast break,
(11:22):
three on two, two on one something like that. Very
first practice, I caught a pass. I faked a pass
ball fake threw it into the post. He stopped practice
and went, see that right there, that's why he's the
best player on the team. And I wanted to run
and hide. I got a seniors, juniors, James Blackman, ed Damnder,
(11:43):
Winston Bennett, the whole team of McDonald's all Americans that
I'm now competing against every day. It's my first practice
I did. I wanted to hide it. I just made
a pass to the post. What I didn't realize was
that everybody can't do those things. You know. I could
shoot and run and stuff, but I, you know, I
knew how to pass and how to play in time
and score and all that. And that was just coming
(12:05):
from my dad watching his stuff. So I was perfectly
prepared for that. Once we got out of the weight
room onto the basketball court, where I knew how to play,
I felt completely at home. Now. I took my lumps
in my freshman year plenty of times, but you know,
I got my shots in I think early on before
we played Louisville my freshman year, which was kind of
(12:26):
a coming out kind of thing because it was on
national TV. And let me just contextualize for those who
don't know, Louisville verse Kentucky and in the eighties college
basketball was as big as Lebron versus Steph. It's changed,
but Louisville versus Kentucky explained the enormity of that game.
Two people are non basketball fans, Yeah, it's huge. You know,
(12:48):
it's kind of back in the day, it was kind
of like Yankees Socks. You know, there were those rivalries
that you knew and and they were the only real
big rivalries that were on TV live on the weekend.
And the other big rivalry here was Indiana. And so
they're just right across the river louis and Kentucky hate
each other, but Indiana and Kentucky hate each other too,
(13:09):
And we played Indiana like I was three or four
games into my freshman year. We played him at Indiana
Bobby Knight. They actually won it that year. They had
Steve Alford, and I had watched Steve Alford play in
high school. I had watched him my whole you know,
three years of high school. He'd been playing at Indiana
and had mad respect for him all of that. Also,
(13:32):
I was kind of like, I can't wait to get
some of Steve Alford. And we played him in that game.
They beat us in overtime, but I had like twenty
six or twenty seven, and I thought I played against him.
He was supposed to be player of the year, maybe
player of the year. And that was the first time
I went and they were talking about him going into
the draft and getting drafted. That was the first time
(13:53):
I thought, you know, if he can play in the NBA,
maybe I can play in the NBA. And so a
week or two later, we played louis at home or
at Louisville in Freedom Hall. They had just won the
title the year before. With my boy never nervous Purvis
and Kenny Payne and Milt Wagner and that whole crew,
and they were good. They were supposed to smoke us.
(14:14):
And we went in there to Louisville. And also, I
should backtrack. I didn't play high school basketball with the
three point line. We didn't have a three point line.
But my first year of college they had the three
point line and I could shoot out there. I just
never had practice shooting, you know, I being behind the line,
I just shot out there on habit and so man,
(14:38):
we went into Louisville and just blitzed them. Muhammad Ali
was in the stands and uh we beat him eighty
five to fifty one, and I think I had twenty
six or so. And I just remember after the game
going to do the media and I came back through
talk about just I really remember very little about that
day other than coming back after the press conference and
(15:02):
our sports information person stopping me and saying, hey, Champ
wants to meet you, and I went, wow, who what
he said? Uh, Muhammad Ali? And I almost started crying,
like this is this Dude's Louisville, Kentucky man. This is
Cassius Clay And he came. We walked there in the
hallway and he said a couple of things, and uh,
(15:24):
I really don't remember. I could still almost cry to
this day thinking about so dope man. So you know,
after that Louisville game, you know, people knew nationally knew
my name, and um, yeah, that's kind of how things
got started. Now, I want to talk specifically about your athleticism,
(15:45):
because the athleticism in basketball sports, but we're talking basketball
for a white dude is just not a common thing.
And then I want to go into race and all
that stuff. You were a high flying, slam dunking fucking
like you played, especially from New York, Like we didn't
see white dudes that could dunk and jump. You know,
(16:08):
we had our Chris Mullins and we had we had
our dudes and you know Steve Alfred shoot KG crafty.
You know, you were sticking out because you were in
the high school the McDonald's All American dunk contes. You
were banging on people your first year. You had lift
on your jump shot. You essentially what they you know,
in simple terms, you played like a black dude. When
(16:31):
did you realize, like, obviously you can't that's god you
know what I mean, Like jumping being quick is god.
You know, I tried all the fucking I tried all
the jumping drills, and they don't fucking work. They do
not fucking work. If it's not in you, it's not
even if you could jump forty inches like you probably could,
maybe you could get to forty one inches, but when
you're jumping three inches like me and you get two
(16:53):
four inches, it means nothing. Talk about you know, your
style of play, and then talk about race and sports
and playing essentially like a black dude in like the
fine line between it becoming the elephant in the room
and also you're just like, I'm just trying to get
to the fucking league. Speak on that, Rex. Yeah, you know, Mike,
I just got lucky. Really, it's just luck. You know,
(17:14):
my parents genetics that with my mom, you know, long
arms and tall, and my dad's six six and you know,
was a professional basketball player. So that part of it's lucky. Now.
I didn't always have it. I dreamed for it every
night growing up. I measured myself. I grew so late.
I was a five seven, five eight freshman. I played varsity,
(17:34):
but I didn't start on the varsity and we had
my two best friends to this day still Greg Bond
and Jeff Stanford. They started all four years of high school.
I played freshman ball, JV ball and varsity ball my
whole freshman year and then had a gross spurt. And
I wasn't athletic before that even is just normal normal? No? No,
I mean I was. I was skilled. I could shoot
(17:54):
and handle and do all that stuff, but I wasn't. Yeah,
I was just average. I mean, you know, I may
have had quick burst and stuff, but I couldn't jump.
You know, I was happy to slap the board on
a layup man through my freshman year. And in about
three months between freshman sophomore year, I grew about six
inches from five seven to I don't know six to
(18:16):
or so, and uh started being able to jump now
And there wasn't a strong jumper, but I was long
to getting longer reach and all that stuff. But you know, again,
I dreamed for all the same ship my boys dreamed of,
all the same ship you dreamed of. Many of their
favorite players were guys like Larry Bird and Kyle Macy
(18:38):
and the guys, the the white guys. And I grew
up loving, loving, Darryl Griffith and David Thompson. You know,
they were both you know, I thought, man, if I
could get to be six three, six four, they can
dunk it, maybe I can dunk it. And so that
kind of became my I watched Darryl so much, honestly.
(18:59):
And the weird thing is, if you look at Darren
I became friends later on. If you look at our
career numbers, we were kind of the same player. Um,
you know, just jump shots and take it to the
basket every now and then, get steals, get out on
the break. But that's who I wanted to be. And
the other thing I fought too, because I hated hearing
on the news they would talk about an analyst would
(19:19):
talk about Jeff Lebo playing, and I love Jeff, but
he's the son of a coach. I hated here, and
I hated when people said that about me because right
away I thought it gave off the uh you're saying, well,
he just grew up in the gym. He has all
these advantages. It also said, and he's not athletic, because
(19:40):
no coaches sons were athletic, and they didn't know, you know, so,
I mean it seemed that way. So I was all
kinds of messed up, but all kinds of motivated to
Mike because I didn't mess around. I didn't drink, I
didn't smoke. I was purely focused on being a basketball
in high school and didn't have a drink. My I
didn't have a drink till I was too years in
the league. Yeah, all my boys, you know, smoke weed
(20:03):
and got high and drank from the age of thirteen fourteen,
Just me and my one other best friend who he
ended up going and playing basketball for my dad at
Kentucky Westland, really good high school basketball player. We didn't
we didn't drink. We but we hung out with all
our boys who did, and I do remember talking about
jumping and athleticism. We used to go to parties out
(20:25):
in the country and ship right uh farms and we
get out there. There'd be a bunch of bales of
hey and kids drinking and and just being stupid. But
me and my guys used to we bet people that
I couldn't jump over cars. They'd be like, you know,
Rex can jump over that truck right there, and they'd
be like, ah, fuck you man, No, I can't. And
(20:47):
we'd you know, We'd get them to throw in a
few bucks and then I'd go jump over the car.
And that's what we did to entertain ourselves. Just stupid
ship like that in high school. Um that came along,
just came along out of wished there was some folds
or some footage that you had, like a cell phone
video if you jumping over a fucking car with a
(21:08):
permed mullet. I know, gro so crazy, so crazy. But
talking about the race stuff, you know, I had hurtful
things said, and not only to me but to you know,
I saw so much racism and whatnot growing up. I
was lucky in that growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky. It's
(21:29):
a town of about sixty people, and not far away
is Evansville, Indiana. We have a larger percentage black population
in Owensboro, and at two of the four high schools,
the athletics programs at two of the four schools are
predominantly black. My dad grew up playing basketball in our
hometown and many of his best friends were the black
(21:54):
friends he played against in high school. So they all
had sons my age yea and about age six or seven.
My dad. You know, I loved basketball. I was going
to his practices, and I remember him telling me one time,
I said, well, if you want to play basketball, you
better start playing against the best players, because I was
just running rush shot over the white kids and in
(22:15):
first and second grade. So he would take me down
on the weekends and drop me off at uh Charlie
Taylor's house where two of my best friends were Avery
Taylor and Chuckie Taylor, and uh, you know they lived
in the projects. You know, two bedroom apartment, seven eight
people in two rooms. Maybe no air in the summer,
no heat in the winter, maybe eat once a day.
(22:37):
So I got to see a lot of stuff at
a very young age that I go home and that
I had all the trappings. I had somebody there to
make me get my grades. I had a parent at
home all the time. Most of my friends that I
and now these end up being guys that we played
on different high school teams, but we were a U
teammates until we were sixteen, and we killed people. I
(23:01):
was the only white guy on the team playing with
my guys from Owensborough High School. I went to Apollo
High School, where all but one of my teammates was white.
We had battles with those two had battles. Man, but
those guys the advantage I had coming out UH and
going to place like five Star. I knew my guys
(23:25):
on my AU team. They just didn't get invited to
five Star. They were good. They taught me how to play.
I had to play. There was five games a year
that I had to play hard, and it was when
we played Owensboro High School. So I knew whenever I
left Kentucky, I wasn't gonna really face anybody anymore athletic, UH,
(23:47):
any tougher than what I've been playing against for seven
eight years already. So it really helped him hold me.
One of the ugliest things I remember said to me
one time I was at AH. I was about fifteen,
and I just started you know. Yeah, it was a
sophomore and we were playing I won't say where it is,
but we were playing it a little bitty place right
outside of Owensboro, Kentucky. And we played the game and
(24:10):
I had a pretty good game, I guess, and we're
all kind of standing around waiting to get on the
bus to go back home, and this dude comes out
of the stands. He's a country dude. He's got on overalls.
He looks like a guy straight out his easy top.
And he put his arm. There are people all around,
and he put his arm on my shoulder and I
kind of, you know, look like you know, what are
you doing? And he said exactly this to me. I'll
(24:31):
edit it a little bit, but he said, my god,
he said, you play just like an inn word, but
you still get to be white. Mm hmm. It still
makes me want to cry because it's the ugliest. That's
one of the ugliest things you can say to He
said it out loud to begin with. And then what
(24:55):
what compounded everything was the kids, the adults, everyone standing around.
Nobody said a fucking thing to this guy. I just
looked at him kind of. I didn't know what to say.
I'm fifteen. I got this old man that spewing racist
stupidity in a gym full of people, and nobody's gonna
call him out on it. And around that time, you know,
(25:17):
I I started becoming a little bit more aware of
my surroundings and what was going on racially, um and
and and just because I'm sure we'll get into it.
Around this time, I'm you know, playing ball with my
guys in the summer. Uh, in the projects. And yeah,
for the last two or three years, me and one
of my teammates, sisters, We've become really good friends. And
(25:41):
I've never had a girlfriend before. I mean I don't,
but we just organically became boyfriend and girlfriend. She's black,
I'm white. People were not having it. They weren't having especially, Yeah,
they weren't having it. And you're the great white hope.
I was told to hide from an early age. She
was told to hide. We hid in high school, you know,
(26:05):
went to problems with other people. Oh yeah, dude, yes, dude,
it's it was confusing. It was really confusing. And uh,
you know. Then I went to Kentucky and there was
a little bit more of that at u K. She
went to UK as well. She also won the state
hundred two years in a row in high school, could fly.
(26:27):
Her brother Mark played in the NFL for years, Mark Higgs.
But and and Sean and I my girlfriend were still
good friends. She we talked regularly, but we kind of
went through it, and she especially went through it. Um.
I didn't tell her about all the times that people
were telling me to hide or be discreet or you know, racist. Ship.
(26:49):
There were times that I told her though, and see
they're telling me one thing. They're saying to me, you're
better than dating her. There. What it's saying to her
is she's not good enough for me. And it's just
fucking racist, mean ignorance. I didn't have the courage to
say any of that at the time. People are telling
(27:13):
me to worry about my image. And again, Mike, I
hadn't made a fucking dollar and so I don't these
are people I should be trusting. But a lot of
it was hurtful to both of us. Yeah, that's right,
(27:39):
as you said. Former Sons player Rex Chapman, he just
got out here to the jail and police arrested him
for shoplifting over fourteen thousand dollars worth of Apple products
just like this. Now, the first round draft pick to
Charlotte in now faces nine counts of organized retail depth
and five counts of trafficking stolen property, all felonies. When
(28:04):
you google Rex Chapman, and this is again in the age,
with a person who's got a very active, very um
beloved Twitter account, you would think something else would come up.
But when I Google you, the first image that I
see is your mug shot. Now being a fan of
yours and you know, knowing you peripherally. But I remember,
(28:29):
I think for some reason, when I heard about where
you were at, I think I saw it in a
Sports Illustrated article about you, because I had a subscription
to Sports Illustrated, and Sports Illustrated was everything. That's how
you got your news. There was no Twitter and all
that stuff. Talk to the people, explain what was going on,
(28:50):
how you wound up in an Apple store in Phoenix,
stealing where your life had gotten you to that moment.
And again I'm skipping forward because I can't do the
life and times of Rex Chapman, because that's not what
this podcast is about. Speak to me about how you
wound up in an Apple store in Phoenix, you know,
essentially trying to steal who the funk knows what? And
(29:13):
it wasn't because you were broke. Yeah, uh man, it
probably was in some part because I was going broke,
you know, Mike, it's still it's so hard to talk about. Uh.
You know, I know people know about it, you can
read about it. Uh you know, I talk about it,
you know when I go and speak and whynot, It's
(29:34):
still really hard to talk about the details just because
you man, I let so many people down, myself, my kids,
my family, friends. But like I said to you, I
didn't drink. I wasn't a drink or smoker anything like that.
If I played, you know, twelve years in the NBA,
if I had a dozen drinks the night before a game,
(29:57):
that would be I just didn't. You know, I might
go out on a night off with you know, Stevie Nask,
Jason Kidd would go out and have a beer the
night before. I just felt like I couldn't end. Maybe
that was just my dad, you know, hearing my dad
and about what are you doing drinking night before a game?
Something like that. So I wasn't that guy. But I
had a lot of injuries when I was playing, and
(30:17):
my last three years of playing, I had seven orthopedic surgeries.
Right at the end of my last year though, right
before the playoffs, I had and I was going to
retire at the end of the year because I just
wasn't very good. I had I hadn't had. It was
two thousand. I had had a dunk every year in
my life since I was fifteen, and now I'm thirty two,
and I hadn't had a dunk the whole season. I
(30:39):
had been hurt on and off hamstrings hand, but I
wasn't very good and the first time in my life
I had an average double figures, probably since I was five.
But out of nowhere, emergency happened deck to me and
I'm fine, get off the plane. The next day at home.
That happened in Oakland, I get off the plane. The
doctor gave me prescription for oxy conton, and I took it,
(31:02):
and in two days Mike maybe less, I knew I
was in love. Man. I felt smarter and funnier, and
it felt like I was walking about an inch and
a half off the ground. And when people would come
up and I want to talk to me, I've always
had some social anxiety, you know, just being recognized from
a young age and wondering if are they talking about me?
(31:24):
Are they you know? As you do, you know, the
older you get, especially if you're known a little bit.
And all of a sudden, I realized I didn't care
if people came up and talked to me. I felt
nicer and smarter and funnier, better dad and a better husband,
all that, you know. And that was another part in
a tough marriage because of me. You know, I've struggled
(31:45):
with depression and probably some sort of form of mental
illness since I was in my teenage years. I quit
my high school basketball team, you know, so I had
my issues, but i'd made it all the way through
an NBA career and now I'm a full blown you know,
OxyContin and Viking and addict. How quick did you realize
(32:07):
or maybe you only know it now in hindsight, but
like you're saying, two days, you were like, boom, you
don't want to ever stop. Two days. It was kind
of like that. I had been an addict, a basketball attict,
a horse racing addict my whole life. Thoroughbreds gambling everyday,
golf attict, baggae, jolly ranchers. Don't just give me one,
I want fucking all of them. So I'm that guy.
(32:31):
It had just never manifested itself in drugs and and
you know, honestly, drug addiction and alcoholism on my mom's
side of the family, gambling on my dad's side of
the family. So I kind of come by it, honestly,
I guess. However, when I took that medicine, man, I
was kind of off to the races. And without going
through all of the stupid details. About a year and
(32:53):
a half of that, I was now living out of
the house. I had moved out. We've got three children
and another on the way. My life's going to hell.
Danny Ainge shows up at this little apartment where I'm
living one morning, our Danny Ainge with the Celtics and says,
you gotta go to rehab. You're not right. Look at you.
(33:15):
You look terrible. You're fat, you're gaining weight. Yeah. I
don't know what you're doing to your kids and your wife,
but Rex, it's too much. And for whatever reason, I
listened to Danny. I love him and I think he's
the best. I just love him to death. But I
listened to him. I drove myself to rehab. And when
I got in there, Mike I was. I had to
(33:37):
tell him what I was taking, and uh, they said,
what are you taking? I said, I'm taking about ten
oxyconton a day and about forty viking in a day. Damn,
I was, yeah, And I was just chewing him up.
No water, no chair, good thing. I didn't drink because
I for sure be dead. I mean, if I tried
to wake up today, I would just chew him up
just to get him in my system earlier, which with
(33:57):
oxyconton is very dangerous because it has time release sort
of thing about it, and you chew it up, you
just break through all that time release. So I was
perfectly just messed up all the time. But when I
got in there and I told him that, I said,
what's the detox like? They said, well, boxy conton. They
said it's gonna be seven days, just like seven days
of coming off of heroin. And when I heard that,
(34:18):
I was like what what? And they were right it was.
It was awful. I got out of that rehab and
within six months I had to have another surgery on
my wrist. They put me on vicing in. I probably
should have told him I don't need to be taking this.
I took it and I was back off to the
(34:38):
races on Viking. And again, were you when they told
you they gave you vicat in for the surgery? Was
the addicting you like, oh cool, yes, yes, I don't
need like you know, it's not right. You know what
it does to you specifically, and you're kind of like,
well I got surgery. Fuck, And exactly, Mike, You're exactly right,
(35:01):
And the other part about it is and for me,
the coward part of it was, yeah, but this is
an OxyContin, right, this is just Viking and I can
handle the Viking in. What is the difference between the two.
Oxonton is Uh. It's a major, major drug. I mean
it probably. I don't think it should be used on
(35:24):
just people walking around if you're terminal, if you're you know,
compound fracture surgery, stuff like that. But people just using
it for back pain and knee pain. It's dangerous, Mike,
It's really dangerous. It's synthetic, for lack of a better term,
synthetic heroin, synthetic morphine. It's too good. It's too good.
(35:46):
So yeah, so I'm back on the Viking in and
I'm on that for six eight months, and you know,
I came clean and told my ex wife, I said,
I'm back on it. I gotta go get clean again.
So I went back to rehab, got off of it.
They put on something called the box zone after that,
and that's supposed to be something that weens you off
of opioids. I was on that for ten years, from
(36:08):
about two thousand four to two thousand and fourteen, and
my life just kept getting worse and worse. My decisions
kept getting worse and worse. Until I'm gambling every day.
I gotta have my medicine every day. And I when
I say, I'm gambling every day, Mike. You know, from
the time I was about twenty, if I had an
off day in the summer, I went to the track
(36:32):
ten grand in my pocket, and you know, if I
want to have it the next day. If I lost
ten grand that day, I go get another ten grand
and go to the That was my thing. That's what
I did so and I got to support this habit,
you know. And I can also look and go, oh ship,
I'm starting for the first time in my life, going
(36:53):
when's that investment come in? When's that payment, when's that
licensing check coming in? And Mike, I played twelve years
in the NBA and probably made forty million dollars. You
should be good. Yeah, I mean not divorce and gambling
and all that stuff. But still, come on, man, and
my two youngest girls are living with me part of
(37:16):
the time. They're in middle school, confusing time. Before I
know it, I don't really know. All I know is
I'm I'm running. I think I'm running low on money,
I'm running low on drugs, and I'm in an Apple
store out of my mind, and there are people all around,
(37:37):
and I just start putting stuff in my bag in
a Nike stores right across the street where I've got
a Nike bag. I've just come from the Nike store
and I start putting stuff in my bag and left,
and oh, man, oh, I just want to cry. Uh
(38:04):
And I guess, well, I had decided I was going
to take that stuff start pawning it fun. And I know,
I don't know, I should know that I'm Rex Chapman,
the basketball player who everybody knows here, everybody you know,
Phoenix suns Um. And I can't see it. I can't
(38:26):
see any of it. I can't see that what I'm
doing is illegal and wrong and criminal. I can't see
that anybody knows me, you know, I can't see that.
I think there were a handful of times that I
was in there with my daughters, so man, it was
(38:48):
so hard just and then okay, then so I think
that happened several times. It did happen several times. And
I don't know how long later, whether it was a
year or six months. I'm at home one day and
I'm getting ready to go pick my daughters up from
school to thirty. I get in my car, I pull out.
(39:12):
As soon as I pull out of my gate, there's
like six uh Scott's Dale police officers just pen me in,
him me in, and I don't know what the funk
is going on. I truly didn't. I had had some
problems with my driver's license, driving on a suspended license.
I I hadn't had a license or insurance in years,
but driving everywhere, so I've been pulled over taken to
(39:33):
jail before for a suspended license. So I didn't really
put anything together and I started at They got me
out of the car, handcuffs, threw me on the hood.
They're like six dudes, and I'm going, what's going on?
And none of them are saying anything. One of them
came back with a real smart answer and said light
day on crime in Scottsdale. I guess huh, And I
(39:54):
was like, will you tell me what's going on? They said,
you'll find out, So they put me in the car.
I went to the jail. I got to the jail.
They put me in a cell right away with a
naked dude who's jacking off? Um, straight, just naked dude
jacking off and I'm sitting in the corner. Jesus yeah,
(40:14):
and you know, and in jail they got those like
they got high school mirrors that are just you can
kind of seeing him, and it's like a piece of aluminum,
you know. And Uh, I look at myself due jacking
off in the corner. I look at myself in this mirror,
and I'm wearing a fucking basket Nike basketball shirt that
says basketball never stops. Sure as Funk did that day,
(40:41):
I couldn't laugh at it, and I forgot about that
story until about six months ago. I was on Sarah
Spain's UH show and remembered it, told her about and
started laughing about it. But it damn sure wasn't funny
at the time. I remember them giving me my phone.
They asked me if I could wanted to make a call?
I said, or they said, do you want to make
costs that I don't know anybody's numbers, Nobody. One dude
(41:04):
grabbed my phone and said, here, find the number you need.
And as soon as I opened my phone, the phone's
just going crazy. People have started finding out. I guess
and I had one message from my boy that I
remember Josh Hopkins and you know Josh, I know actor.
(41:24):
Uh he's my homeboy, Kentucky home boy I'm doing another
podcast with. There was a message from him that said,
I don't know what happened. I just no, I love you, man.
And I ended up living on Josh's couch for a
couple of years after all that, but I went back
into jail. I got out, Mike, and you know, I
just felt broken. And about a week later I went
(41:46):
to rehab in Louisville, Kentucky, and Uh, I took it seriously,
learned a lot about started learning about myself. When that happened,
there was a little bit of a relief. I remember
getting into rehab and sitting back and thinking, alright, dude,
this is where you need to be. I felt a
little sense of peace for the first time in a
(42:08):
long time. And I think when I look back about it,
I always felt like a little bit of a fraud, Mike,
just from a young age. People they had a view
of me, or I thought they had a view of
me as this all American white kid, and I had
apparently sold out my whole fucking life to that ideal,
(42:28):
knowing that's not who I was inside. You know, look,
I'm a flawed dude. I got no patience, I have
all kinds of wartz. I'm you know, depressed, I you know,
but it was the first time in my life I
really felt like, all right, now the facade has gone,
you know, Now I can just see me. I can
just you know. But I gotta get better, And so
(42:50):
I did. I took it really seriously for a month,
and then I went three months. I stayed with John
Lucas out at Houston. Uh, I've loved forever. John has
a story similar, and he really helped get me back.
Then I moved out to l A, stayed with my
buddy Mark Verge out there and my other buddy, Josh
Hopkins for a couple of years, and really tried getting
(43:11):
myself together. I had when I checked into rehab that year, Mike,
I was two hundred and sixty pounds. God damn, how
tall are you? Six three six four? Maybe? But I'd
never played more than one ninety. So it took me
a couple of years to lose get down about two
hundred pounds, and slowly but surely just doing the next
(43:35):
right thing every day, you know. I started building back
and then my guy named Paul Archie called me at
uh j M I, which is the media arm of
Kentucky Sports UK Basketball and Football Network, and uh, he said,
you want to do our pregame shows back here? I
said yeah. He said, we can't really pay you. I said,
I don't want to be paid. I don't give a ship.
(43:57):
I love to. So I came back to Kentucky and
started doing that. I've always had seventy five thousand or
so Twitter followers from my MBA days, but when I
got back here, I found some stupid video started doing
this blocker charge thing, and then that Twitter thing took off,
and now here we are. One thing that I mean,
(44:20):
I've sort of taken on these battles because I consider
you a friend. One of the things that where we
are today in is like I said earlier, when you
bring up Rex Chapman, you know, the first thing or
the first or second thing is this, uh you know
time in your life where you were at the bottom.
(44:42):
It's not you dunking on this person, dunking on that person,
hitting this iconic three point shot for the Phoenix songs.
It's not even the tweets, the fun tweets, And I've
sort of stepped into your battles because I'll see you
make a tweet and people be like you fucking drug addict,
you junkie, you this that, And I know that that
(45:06):
because it bothers me, Like there, I have my my
ship that I don't like to talk about or the
things that I've said. And you know, and you've moved
on with your life. But how how frustrating is it
that when you're like, your whole life becomes this fucked
up incident and you could be saving babies, saving cats
(45:26):
and dogs for a burning building and someone would be like,
you fucking junkie, you stole phones in Phoenix. How frustrating
is that that that's always gonna be around you? Or
is it a good thing that reminds you? You know,
what's your take on that? It's a little of both, Mike,
you know, yes, of course as a person, you know,
I put out some we raised oh last year, this
(45:48):
stupid Twitter account raised like grand for COVID relief across
the country. I mean NBA teams to frontline workers, to
food banks, to everything. And I put out some recap
of that about three or four weeks ago, and I
see one of the comments has my mug shot and
(46:10):
saying this you Rex and I you know, it's frustrating,
but every time I I do that because I joke
about people, I do. I joke about people all the time.
And life is hard. Life is also funny. And if
(46:31):
you can't laugh at yourself some it's gonna be a long,
hard life for you. I've also realized, Look, if they're
attacking you, they're not attacking what I was saying. If
they're attacking you, you're winning. You're winning. If they're attacking
you as a person, your person, then that's okay, and
you just gotta let that go. I'm not trying to
corral those people in any kind of way because I
(46:53):
know who they are. I hear you. And as far
as you know, you play in the NBA, you played
in the era of the eighties and the nineties. You
know your comrades, your brothers with you mentioned, you know
you're talking and passing about Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, you know,
Michael Jordan's every single person that played in that era.
(47:17):
As far as this Twitter verse, Twitter success, who has
been You're like, oh, ship, this person follows me, or
this person retweets me, because your Twitter is a dope engagement.
Who have been a few of the retweets or like
responses you've gotten from people that you were like, what
the fuck? Bro? It's been a slow build, but over
(47:38):
the last couple of years, I've just been amazed. I
mean everybody from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Nancy Pelosi, Chris Pratt,
Ben Stiller, John Legend, Chrissy Teagan, all the major I
remember I freaked out sort of one day about two
years ago. I looked up and TMZ was following me.
(47:58):
I was like, fuck, what have I done? I write
the Yeah, I was like exactly, So, yeah, man, it's
been crazy, you know. And to be honest, a lot
of the people you know that I grew up watching,
you know, some of your peers, you know Jane lynch,
(48:22):
Andy Richter, you know, just people who I really look
Sasha Baron Cohen out of nowhere, Mike, this is I
haven't told you this. About a month ago, two months ago.
Maybe I'm sitting around here watching basketball one night and
I get a direct message from Sasha Baron Cohen Borat
(48:44):
and immediately I look and I go, how do I
have more fucking followers than Sasha Baron Cohen And he says, Rex, listen, man.
He writes a really nice thing saying, we got to
really try to get Trump off for Twitter and off
of social media. You know, would you mind amplifying this
message a little bit? And I was like, bro, anytime,
(49:07):
come on, let's go. Uh. Two days later, he's off.
Trump has been kicked off. Sasha sends a message saying
we did it two days two days. Man, that's dope, right,
that's dope. That's dope. That's crazy. Yeah, I was living
in my car, man, I was living in my car
for a minute. And now Barrat's colleague. What do you
(49:28):
want to do with the rest of your life in
regarding because you know you're the Twitter thing is one thing?
You have a podcast in regards to basketball because I
know you love basketball. You're always gonna love basketball. What
what are your goals and hopes and dreams for the
rest of your life? How old are you now, Mike Ship,
(49:50):
You're a young guy. Can you dunk anymore? I tried
it at fifty, I did it at fifty. We don't
want to get it past you. Know I haven't try
I haven't tried it in three years because I hurt
myself when I landed at fifty and I did it
at fifty, hurt my back and was like, this is stupid.
I can't do it anymore, this is dumb. So uh No,
(50:12):
I would say I probably can if I had to
maybe one handed or two handed dunk. It's a one
handed dunk. It's a one and in fact, how about this,
it's a one step, two ft, one handed dunk. I
can't even know. I can't even I wouldn't even think
about jumping off a one leg I wouldn't even think
about it. Pull hammy, I I would look like you man,
(50:37):
I wish I could fucking dunk. Okay, So fifty three,
you've got this new notoriety in regards to this Twitter world.
You're starting this podcast, charges you're starting another podcast. What
do you want out of life professionally outside of being
you know, a good person, a consistent person, a person
(50:57):
who's not in trouble, a good father your kids or older?
What do you want out of life professionally going forward?
Because you're a young guy. Uh, basketball will always be
a part of it. I enjoy like crazy, finding and
getting to know guys like Bam out of Bio and
Tyler Hero and hand delivering them to my friends in
(51:21):
the NBA. Who I go, dude, I'm telling you, not
that one, this one. This is the guy I enjoy that.
I enjoy watching good young basketball players who are conscientious,
who never take plays off, who always know what defense
you're in. I just like that as much as anything,
so I'll always continue to do that. I'm gonna do
(51:41):
these podcasts, Mike. You know, there are a lot of
things that I should have said and could have said
when I was younger, when I was a teenager, about race,
about you know, injustice, bigotry, whatnot. And I think I
want to tackle a lot of that stuff, uh in
the right way, uh, with people from different walks of life. Uh,
(52:03):
just to you know, there's a lot of hatred and
division right now. We're all people, and I know, like you,
you and I have we have people who really like us,
and we do We're polarizing. We have people who just
can't stand what we do or they can't stand the
things they hear us say publicly. I've yet to really
(52:24):
sit down with anybody who dislikes me, you know, based
on what they think of me, sat down to have
a beer where we can't have some find some common ground.
And I think with these pods, i'd like to, you know,
show hey, yeah, we all may be different, but we're
not that different. And I want to have some good discussion,
learn about people that I don't know, and maybe make
(52:45):
a little bit of a difference. And you said it,
I feel so bad for what I did to my
children that I'm I've got to spend every day trying
to make up for it. And uh, you know, I've
spent the last few years just trying to build back
where I can take care of them financially, and so
(53:05):
I'm still working on the relationship part of it. And
I love all my kids, they love me, but I
owe it to them to continue to keep doing the
next right thing and trying to make them proud. That's dope. Well,
I wish you nothing but luck in real life. Personally,
I wish you nothing but luck with the Charges podcast.
(53:27):
Charges with Rex Chapman. I am so appreciative and honored
that you let me interview you, uh in a broad
sense for this first episode of Charges, and uh, what
can I say I'll let you sign off. This is
your podcast. You do that. I can't do all the
fucking heavy lifting. I'll let you sign off right now. Jesus,
(53:49):
thank you buddy. First of all, I'm honored that you
would do this. I really you're my boy. I love
you to death. Um, and I you know, look, this
is not happening without some nerves. Uh Um. I've been
interviewed since I'm fifteen years old. I can sit here
and be interviewed all damn day. But I'm taking pointers
from you today. I gotta learn how to interview and
(54:12):
how to listen. So there's gonna be a little bit
of a learning curve that I'm excited about, anxious, nervous,
all of that. But the guests we're gonna have are
gonna be dope, dope dope, and uh people need to subscribe.
Charges Rex Chapman, let's go charges seven no run Nians
with the law charges sut Lee, send the tennis and
(54:32):
balls and charges the celebrity gank thorms charge we came
along with from Living Law. That's charges seven no run
Nians with the law charges set Lee, send the tennis
and balls and charges the celebrity Gank Forlorums. Charge we
came along with from Living Lawless Judge. Charges is created
by Portlay and Control Media is produced by DV Podcasts
(54:56):
in association with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for
my heart video, visit I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. M m hm
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