April 3, 2024 • 39 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A Mental Wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay welcomes in Kentucky basketball legend, NBA veteran, and social media influencer Rex Chapman. In two years at the University of Kentucky, he led the Wildcats to a Sweet Sixteen appearance and was nicknamed “King Rex.” He spent twelve seasons in the NBA, but by the end of his career, Rex Chapman was harboring a destructive secret. A secret that cost him his family as well as most of the $40 million fortune he’d made in basketball, leaving him to live in his car and shoplift to support his addictions. His comeback is truly INCREDIBLE!!!
Follow, rate & review Unbreakable with Jay Glazer here!https://link.chtbl.com/unbreakablewithjayglazer
#fsr #dpshow
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
Build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental wealth podcast with Jay Glazier.
I'm Jay Glazer really excited for today's guests. He has
been through it, he's been successful, then he was through
it again. Then he's through it again, and there's so
much we can learn from him, and he's recreated himself
over and over and over. But before I get through,
if you're like many people, you may be surprised to
learn that one in five adults in this country experienced
(00:37):
mental illness last year, yet far too many failed to
receive the support they need. Carolyn, behavioral health is doing
something about it. They understand that behavioral health is a
key part of whole health, delivering compassionate.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs. In
tantem CAROLM. Behavioral health raising the quality of life through
empathy and action.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
All right, Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental wealth health podcast
with Jay Glazier. And what I try to do is
bring people on here who've been through some things, who've
been through some shit before. But when I get a
bald guy on here who kind of looks like me.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Bald is beautiful. Then I feel even more empowered.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
And with that, I want to welcome in Rex Chapman,
who played in the NBA, successful college career, then he
became a very successful Twitter influencer, which you probably never
thought that would happen in your life, and has just
come out with a book. It's hard for me to
live with me. So you know, Rex has done a
lot of the things that I've done. Also, he's done
it more I think the addiction world, but he's done
(01:33):
a lot of mental health stuff. I've done a lot
of mental health stuff, and I think we both can
agree that, Man, the more we could build our mental health,
it leads to mental wealth, and that's where this world
needs to go.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Man, Jay I first, thanks for having me, and I'm
I want to let you know, I think people have
to be inspired by what you're doing and the way
that you speak about openly about mental health. You know,
I kind of did it because everything just went to
hell in my life and you're doing it differently, and
(02:06):
I just uh. And you're on the NFL, and a
lot of people that watch the NFL watch sports religiously
need to have. We didn't have men that talked about
this when we were kids on TV. We just did
that was taboo, that wasn't macho. Blah blah blah. So
(02:28):
kudos to you and please keep up the good work.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I appreciate it. Where do you think that when you
say I do it differently.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
What I think that? It's part It's part of who
you are. Man like you you own it. You you
have owned it and you have made it. You're normalizing
it to where you know people men who watch football,
who watch sports, watch you and they go, they go, man,
I have those same thoughts. I have those same struggles.
(02:56):
It's good to know that other people do too, because
we normally we see people on TV and we think
those guys have it all money, bang, everything, everything is
great with them. That ain't the case.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah we had it all That means issues also, that's right.
But you're doing the same thing, Matt, because you've been
with a lot in your life. I mean, look, all
I try to do, you know, coming out talking about
mental health is just give it words, because we didn't
really have the words except when you sat in the
therapist's office.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
But that's not layman's terms.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's not everyday words, right, So I just wanted to
give words so we could start having that conversation, and yeah,
take the stigma away.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Like for me, my best mental health.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Sessions are in a cage with a Randy Couture or
Chuck Ledell where we're crying each other after right practice.
So I figured that and well, no one's questioned our
man for crying each other and we're got to show others.
But it made us so much closer together. But you
also made the jump and said, you're in a maso
sport and you're playing basketball, and you've had all these issues,
whether it's addiction to gambling or opioids whatever, and you
(03:56):
know you got to use your pain to help others
through theirs.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
What was your kind of aha moment that you.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Were able to do that, And you know what, I
want you to answer that, but I also need you
to go back and tell our listeners what you've been
through and your story.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah. So you know, I grew up playing basketball. From
the time I could remember, I played football and swam
and played little league and all played all the sports.
I was a really good athlete by the time I
got to high school or my last couple of years
in high school, I was probably the best player in
our state of Kentucky. I was top, you know, one,
(04:30):
two or three rated high school player in the country.
McDonald's All American Team, parade teams, all of that stuff.
I went to the University of Kentucky, was an All
American there for two years, and then I entered the
draft and was the eighth pick, the first pick of
the Charlotte Hornets franchise. Played there for three years, three
years in Washington with the Bullets, a year in Miami
(04:51):
with the Heat, and my last five years with the
Phoenix Suns. When I retired, I had had seven surgeries
my last three years of playing. And when I I
had a routine appendectomy in the year two thousand and
a doctor gave me prescription for a month for oxycon
and I took that OxyContin, and in two days I
(05:15):
knew I was in love. It was the greatest thing
I'd ever had. I'd always had social anxiety, I had
always suffered from depression. I just was too afraid to
go get medicated for it because I was still playing
ball and I didn't know how that would interact with
my reaction. You know all the crazy things that athletes think.
So I took that medicine and immediately I felt like
(05:39):
a different person. I felt funnier, smarter, better dad, better husband,
all of it, not realizing I'm the self self medicated. Yes,
and use.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Viking him for my anxiety all the time.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, it was like an instant and an instant headache reliever.
Viking In was my jam and person and that person
kind of has no fear.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
But the come down is, you're such an asshold of
people and you're and also I would drink and take
viking In.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
That's the only reason that I'm alive is because I
didn't drink during that time day. And you know what,
I realized too very quickly. I remember when I first
started taking the OxyContin and I'm just not again. Social
awkwardness and social anxiety my whole life. If I know you,
no problem. If I don't know you and you come
(06:31):
up to me. Also, I don't want to ruin your
interaction with me, because you know, when I took that medicine.
Come on, I'm the nicest guy in the world. I'm
not even watching what I was there to watch me
and you were talking now I felt like that's what
normal people do. And it made me like I felt
(06:52):
normal what I thought was normal. And before I knew it,
eighteen months had passed. Danny Ainge is telling me, Rex,
you got to look at yourself. You are, You're a mess.
You've got to go to rehab. I was taken about
fifty pills a day, forty forty Vike in oxygen.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Oh my god, no I know.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And see that's why I say, if I'd been drinking,
I would be dead, you know, And I just chewed
them up.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
The drink of the Viking in. You're right, it got
me for a while.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
The alcohol. The alcohol sets off the vicat it. I
mean in a weird way.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well I was good for a while, so you come up,
and you're right, I get real bad social anxiety.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And people didn't know.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
And I'm supposed to be the glaze, this character rights
that I created on TV to hide it. So I'd
be good on the way up, but on the way
down I'll get real short, real step and I said
I wasn't good. Keep my hands and myself. I would
fucking grab dudes by the front. I would snatch cats,
and somebody pissed me off and you know, next thing,
you know, man, I'm I'm wrestling. I'm like, it wasn't
(07:54):
good and my friends would have to keep me out
of it. And even that, you know, I thought, was, well,
it's part of my brand, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I'm I'm hosting the UFC in.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
The Pride Fighting Championships and training all these football players.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And no, that's not who I wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Good for you man, I mean, because that's just I
get it. And I have to do it to myself
at times because I am from Kentucky and I've got
I still have this much amount of redneck in me.
And if I right, like in the wrong, if I
put myself in the wrong spot, I will I'll react,
I'll say something to somebody, and I don't want to
(08:28):
be that person, you.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Know, no doubt, no doubt. Go ahead. So then you
got hooked on.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I got yeah. I got hooked on yeah, And a
lot before I knew it, I was in rehab. I
was out of rehab, but I was back taking Vico
in back into rehab a couple of years later. Then
when I got out, I was on suboxone and I
was on box owne for about ten years, and you
shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
People who don't know what that is, right to prevent
you from taking the drugs that he's talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Right. And when I got into rehab the last time,
I realized that there were people in there who were shoesoxone.
They were melting the strips and injecting them. So it's
a whole. So when I went to rehab that last time,
I was arrested. I was arrested for shoplifting. And when
I say that, I don't want to just skim by it.
(09:16):
I had, you know, made thirty eight forty million dollars
playing basketball. Long time thoroughbred horse racing gambler since I
was a child. He used to go with my dad
to the track and I could read a racing form
before I could read a newspaper. So I played horses
from the time I got to college until I got arrested.
(09:37):
And by the time I got arrested, I was pretty
messed up with the saboxone and I had been stealing
to to support my drug and gambling habit.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Wow, and.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Was shoplifting in an Apple store? Yeah, in an Apple store.
And when I have to articulate it out loud, it's
still just punching the gut because I have to reconcile
that it was me that did it anyway. So I
went to you got to be pride of your cars.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
This is your experiences. Yeah, if you didn't have these experiences, yeah,
you couldn't help others with theirs. So right, be proud
that you went through this show.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Thanks man. So at that point, you know, my ex
wife and I and she's amazing. We were married for
twenty years. We had four children thirty one to twenty two,
a boy who works for the Phoenix Suns. He's on
Frank Vogel staff with the sons, and three girls all
in education. My ex wife's a teacher, but they were
at the time, we're twenty to ten, and you know,
(10:37):
I had been a real drug addict for all of
the little girls' lives. So I went to rehab. My
sister scooped me up, put me in rehab in Louisville, Kentucky,
and I remember getting there and i'd been in rehab before,
and you know, I felt toxic. I felt you know,
it's very public, and I just remember getting in my
(11:00):
room there and taking a big sigh of relief and
having a thought of Okay, this is where I need
to be, and for whatever reason, that stint, you know,
propelled me to Once I got out of detox seven
days of just hell, I started trying to dig into,
(11:20):
you know, what had landed me there, and you know,
kind of why I did the things that I've done
my whole life. So that's when I think the real
work started.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So I'm going to ask you a deeper question here,
because again I like to really give everything words so
we hear it so others don't feel so alone. I've
never been through detox because I didn't have that level.
What does detox feel like?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Ooof man? So the first time I got to detox,
I was taking OxyContin and I remember, and again this
is right when OxyContin came out, and I was in
the detox area of rehab, which is more like a
hospital wing, and they were doing a shift change and
one of the nurses was talking to the other nurse
(12:05):
and one of them said, Okay, what's he in for
talking about me? And she said he's in for oxy
contin and she went the other one went ooh boy,
and she said, yeah, just like heroin seven days a hell. Well,
I just remember going heroin. Wait what and not realizing yeah,
(12:27):
this is synthetic heroin, this is you know, uh. And
I've not come off of heroin before, but I've come
off oxycont and I've come off viking in massive amounts
of vikinging. And it's no damn jokes. It's throwing up.
It's throwing up. It's hot and cold most of the time.
(12:50):
I just I remember being in my underwear and being
hot cold, back and forth from the bed to the
bathroom and nurses coming in what sea seems like every
two minutes, but it's probably every hour or so. It's
just hellish. And I remember getting all being done with
detox that last time. And I talk about this in
(13:12):
the book. I had had friends coming to visit because
I was in Louisville, Kentucky, and I hadn't been able
to like show any emotion or anything. I was just
so numb from all the pain medicine and then out
of detox, I was still kind of numb. And Rick Patino,
who I'm sure you know, famous basketball coach. He was
coaching at Louisville at the time, and somebody told me
(13:33):
I had a visitor. And Rick and a friend of mine.
Vinny Tatum, who worked with Rick, were there to see me,
and I saw them and I just started bawling, balling,
crying and saying I'm toxic, and I you know, and Rick,
I've known him for so long. He just looked at
me and said, Rex, listen, you're gonna eat a lot
of shit for a while. You just are. And he said,
(13:55):
and at first, it's going to feel like a big
beach ball size ball of shit. And he said, if
you do the next right thing, I promise you that
beach ball's going to turn into the size of a basketball.
And then do the next right thing, and then a softball,
and then a baseball, and then a ping pong ball,
and finally it'll be a pebble at some point if
you just keep doing it. And for whatever reason, through
(14:17):
all the tears and the and the feeling sorry for
myself and all of that, it resonated. And Rick's been
through some stuff, you know, so I knew it was
coming from a place of honesty. He didn't have to
be there. He just showed up. He just showed up
at rehab. It meant something to me. And then when
people start doing that, they're putting faith in you and
(14:38):
you don't want to let them down. And I had
so many people that really, you know, believed enough in
me to hang in there with me.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I think this is a real important thing for people
to hear.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
First of all, thank you for vulnerability and sharing all that,
because I think the more people hear it from someone
that we've put in words in they don't feel as alone.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Right, So I'll go, Okay, that's what he's like.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Okay, now I have you're giving people a little roadmap.
This is what it's going to be like, this is
what you could expect. So that's fantastic. But I think
what I really want people to get from this and
you got for it when we struggle and even in
our darkest moments. And I just talked to a friend
of mine about this, just going through something and he
feels so ashamed for what he did, and I feel
(15:20):
a lot of shame. But instead of feeling shame, like
people want the best for us, no matter how much
we fucked people over, we did this that they just
want the best for us. They want to see us succeed,
They want to see a comeback story.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Right, Nobody's like, no one's cut me off. Forever. Yeah,
well you did this the right everybody wants to forgive
and go. Yes, I'm rooting for you right now everybody.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yep, I couldn't agree more. I really couldn't so many,
you know, and I had so many trust issues from
being a kid and being known and knowing that other
people are going through stuff is you know. And I
was so proud too. I wouldn't you know, somebody asked
me how I was doing. I could be doing horribly
and be like, I'm doing great, how are you? You know,
(16:07):
just deflect and turn it around on someone else.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Tell me how after this? So now, look, obviously I'm
knew from basketball more than anything. But then all of
a sudden, I see fucking Rex Chatman with those feel
good videos and ship on Twitter, which, by the way,
I'm always telling people get the fuck off social media, yeah,
because that's crushing us. But you that turned it around
in a sudden, all these feel good moments then and
then you kind of got dragging the political end of
(16:31):
it and all this shit. But tell me, ay how
that just came about be the best part of it.
But see, like with me, I have a hard time,
Like I don't break minute I've been breaking news anymore
because I don't like looking at my fucking Twitter every
two seconds and tell me how fat my head looks,
or how I'm full of shit with this or that, whatever,
(16:52):
you know, the span that just to hate people's few
I'm feelings hurt too much.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I'm not up for this, right right right?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Uh yeah. I don't know how it really came about.
I was watching a video one day on Twitter and
I saw a dolphin jump up out of the water
and hit a guy on a paddle board in the chest.
And I said to myself, that's a fucking charge, and
so I tweeted it out there. I figured only basketball
people would know what the hell I was talking about,
(17:20):
and it kind of took off and people started sending
me videos. And I'm not the feel good video kind
of guy. I'm trying to I'm not a feel good
kind of guy anyway, So I'm trying to trick myself
like everyone else, into getting through the day. And people
started sending me heartwarming videos and dog videos, and I'd
put those out and pretty soon people started going to
(17:42):
my stupid channel for videos. So that's how that happened.
I don't it's pretty weird because now I run into
as many people who know me from social media than
I do from basketball.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
So do you read your mentions or you just.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, I don't really, I think I've put enough modifications
on the thing that I don't see a lot. Okay,
I don't. I don't want to do that because it
can't know. It really can drag you down into a hole.
I don't know how professional athletes do it in this climate.
We used to just if you didn't read the newspaper,
that takes a big end. If you didn't listen to
(18:21):
sports radio, which was hard to do even as you know,
even if you didn't want to, because those ship these
people are talking about me. I need to know. And
most a lot of the time it was you know,
that was new when we were growing up, sports radio,
talk radio, we could avoid it. You can't. These players
cannot avoid the hatred that is spewed at them daily.
(18:41):
And every player has it. You know, there's Lebron, people
hate Lebron James. There are people that you know, hate Johannis,
they hate Wimby, they hate you know.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
If you sure cancer, they'll.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Go, yeah, well yeah, thanks, big deal.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah yeah, hey you should have done this few years
ago before.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
N Yeah, right, And I'm like, look I tell people
when I tell the players, because players they do like
especially today, finish practice, finish game, boom, right over to
the locker, and I'm like, and everyone's voice on Twitter,
it carries the same weight. It could be some fucking
nine year old kid in his mom's basement, but you
think it's this thirty four year old executive who has
a line your bosses and they don't, right. And look,
(19:23):
when I grew up with the Jersey Shore, you got
your ass kicking. Jersey Shore growing up fucking sucked for
a month. But now we get our ass kicked every
second on this. So we've got to be able to
somehow be able to separate the two.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But man, we don't. And that's interesting too.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
And again I have the social anxiety already, and I
already have an itchy trigger finger fist finger.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
If you will, and you do too.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I started viewing people as those who tweet at you
in a hateful manner.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
And I don't want to do that because I do
want to love people like people.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
But what I did realize recently, you know, in all
the years I've gotten it, Listen, when you host the
UFC like I did, those fans they will yeah, I've
had a couple of fights and they're like, well, does
this fat fucker know about fighting? And sure, I did
it before everybody for anybody in the NFL ever did it.
I did it, you know, and just murdering me. And
then football fans if you say son, oh yeah, breaking
(20:16):
news story about their team, they don't like they They
act like I'm the one who's trying to.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Get to do with me right crazy. I've never ever,
I've had one time somebody come over me. That's just once.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
But my point is, for the most part, no one
ever walks over you insist to you.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
The way they tweet things at you, and that's trike
me a while to get reckoning with.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, I feel the same. I get people that say
stuff all the time. And not long ago in Kentucky,
a guy came up, this older man came up to me.
I was at a gas station and he said to me,
you know, if you thought the way I think this
was more politically kind of motivated. He said, you know,
if you thought more like the rest of us, your
(20:56):
life would have been a whole lot easier. I wanted
to say something think, but I didn't. He walks away
and he turns around and says to me, were gonna
beat Bama this weekend. And so you know, he's just
he's a fan. You know, I could have been, I
guess I I probably would have been justified insane. But
(21:18):
he just really wanted an interaction and it was okay.
But those types of things happen, and they you know,
they happen because they see us on TV and.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
On Twitter and they learn my one interaction like that.
So I'm saying one out of millions is some guy
comes over me in Arizona a couple of years ago.
This guy my friend's party is a place called Bottle
Blonde downtown. IM my friend Charlie Brooks and hang with him.
And I told Charlie, I said, hey, man, just kind
of keep me out of the crowd and probably not
too great with a bunch of drunk cats, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Good for you.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
One guy gets through and he says, hey, Jay Glazer,
UFC fucking sucks. I said, okay, okay, but then I
said okay, and I turned around. He goes, hey, yuh,
when do you think Colin McGregor's coming back to fight
and I said, what do you care? You just said
you have fucking sucks and he goes, well, I just
wanted to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I didn't know how else to start the conversation. How
much did you start with that?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And that's the problem, Like people learned from Twitter how
to talk to people view us as your friend or
your your brother, or your mom or your.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Dad and or you know, your boy.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, you in a respectful manner of view us in
a way of like, man, this dude needs some love
right now.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
That that's it. Don't come to us or something like that,
right right. Tell me about your book.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
You know how you got your your process? Did you
do it to be cathartic, for you to do it
to be of service? And loved about it?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
I think all of it, and I'm not sure I
loved any of it. It was really hard. Seth Davis
who did most of the great guy. That's a great guy.
And I've known Seth for years and had he not
asked me to do it, probably probably wouldn't have done it.
He started around the beginning of the pandemic, and about
a year into it, Seth hit me one day and said, hey, listen,
(23:03):
I've got kind of a time sensitive book that I
could really dig in on for like six months. Can
we push your thing back? I said, fucking right. I
hate talking about this shit. And I said, what do
you got going on? And he said, well, you know
it's it's a book with Sister Jean and who you know.
Sister Jean is a basketball fan who's one hundred and
(23:23):
four years old, a nun who's one hundred and four
years old. And I said to Seth, Oh, Seth, that's
really sweet that you think I'm going to outlive Sister Jean.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Oh okay. So when I was a high schooler fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen years old, my first girlfriend, first love, a girl
named Sean Higgs and her brother Mark Higgs played in
the NFL. He played at University of Kentucky, played for
the Dolphins, you know, with Dan Marino and those guys.
He was a running back. Shawn's black, I'm white. It
(23:55):
was our first love, you know. Sewan also went to
the University of Kentucky. People in Kentucky did not like
us dating. We kind of hid it from people in
high school and then but she went to Kentucky and
I went to Kentucky. Were the same grade, and we
just assumed we would be able to be boyfriend and
girlfriend publicly there. Well, that was not something that the
(24:16):
higher ups at the university were going to allow, and
they they repeatedly, you know, let me know that if
I'm going to see her, then I need to do
it at nighttime. Meanwhile, me and her brother are and
every kid every.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Year say this ain't that long ago, like ge, No.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
It's not. I was told, you know, if I'm going
to see her, see her at night, don't be public. Well,
you know, I'm eighteen, nineteen years old. Well, I sat
there and took it, and I knew I was going
to have to tell her. I told her, and I
remember just feeling like the biggest piece of shit in
the world, and she's heartbroken. I'm heartbroken. And the next morning,
(24:53):
by the way.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Real quick, you're only eighteen or nineteen, like, yeah, your
brain isn't to handle things like that, even though you're
a college player on TV, people think you're.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
An adult and you're not.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
And everything is going fine for me basketball wise, I'm
that's not an issue. But I woke up the next
morning and I couldn't move I My heart was racing.
I was having tough, tough time breathing, and I could
not move my arms off of my chest. I had
him wrapped around me as tight as I could, and
I yelled out to my roommate, Reggie Hansen, go get
(25:26):
Dwayne Dwayne Casey, who's one of our assistants. I said,
I need to go to the hospital. I don't know
what's wrong. Reggie popped up and came back. I told
them I needed to go to the hospital. I could
hear them talking, like, what's wrong with him? If we
take him the hospital, what's the media going to say?
Why are we going to say he's there? Their answer
was to go get my girlfriend across the street, the
(25:47):
one who I'm being discouraged from seeing. And they took
us to a booster's house who I loved, Don and
Linda Johnson, and who knew about Sean and I older
white couple. They didn't give a shit. I stayed with
them for two days. With Sean, I got over it.
It was for sure a panic attack. I thought it
(26:08):
was like I'd never attack. I felt like I'd only
heard of something like well, she had a nervous breakdown.
That's what I felt like I was having, and there
was no terminology for it, but I felt like I
was crazy, like I was going crazy. And I got
over it in two days and I forgot about it
my whole life. I forgot about it. Coach has never
(26:29):
brought it up again. Writing this book, I remembered it,
and about six months ago finishing the book, I had
another panic attack, never had one in my life since
before or after. And fortunately my girlfriend, Whitney Lawson was there,
took great care of me for two three days and
(26:49):
I started rebounding from it. You know, there's just, I
guess a lot of things that you can push away
and things that are hurtful that you just don't. You know,
I was, I was very young, and I was very
angry and sad, and I was already starting to, you know,
show signs of clinical depression at that point. But nobody
(27:12):
really talked about that stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
The one thing you not know was that for people
to hear when you have a panic attack like that,
you're safe.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
That's the first thing I talked. So I've never heard that.
I've never heard that.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah safe.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So just so you know, My first panic attack was
on air on Fox. I was in an empty Raider stadium.
There was nobody but me and a cameraman, nothing else.
I was doing a live hit from an empty Raider stadium,
and all of a sudden, my heart started racing, my
eye started shaking, I started sweating, my hands start shaking
like crazy, and the wall.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Star came in.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I'm like, holy fuck, I'm having a heart attack on
the air, and now I call it wrestling with my abuser.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I talke to it. I try and comment down as
I'm going well.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Unfortunately for me, it became habitual every time I I've
ever done something on air, even scripted, when.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I did Ballers, when I know they can go cut it,
still it's.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
The first thing I do. And one thing I had
to learn is I'm sick. So I've had it for
two thousand and five on never passed out, never died,
Nothing's happened, And I learned those little things I could
deal with. The can get a laugh out, it goes away,
but immediately tell yourself I am safe. But also rex
you have that equity. You know the first time you're safe,
nothing happened. The second time, nothing happening. So you have
(28:28):
to remind yourself and say fuck you to that abuser. No,
I'm safe, I'm good. And it was I was getting
my heart checked out for twelve years for a heart.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Attack, twelve years wow.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Until I heard Terry Bradshaw talk about it one day
with us, and I'm like, I'll be that's what that's
what I have. That's it. Thank god I work with
Terry and he's been suffering it for years.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
And that and that that guy, that guy was everything
to us. Yes, everything, Corecked. He's somebody like him be
vulnerable and it does almost makes me want to cry.
That's that's a big time human being right there.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
So I want you to know the same thing.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And you know, so the crazy shit for me is
I wrote the book and where I used to have
them every week. Now I think the book my book Unbreakable.
I think it was my way of journaling, and after
a journaling I haven't had them wow nearly as often.
I do want to get in. I went last year
with Jimmy Johnson and our producer Bill Richards to Cowboys
(29:28):
Chargers game where Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones kind of
made peace and that's what legend Jimmy's Hall of Fame.
And my producer doesn't know knows this. Jimmy didn't say
anything too. But the moment we walked on the field, boom.
I had one more panic attacks ever had. But I
don't remember much of being on.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Manage.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, I to manage it. I went there, but it
lasted for forty.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Fucking Oh my god. That's had to seem like a
a whole day.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Don't remember saying certain things. Search so I asked people after, Hey,
was I did. I seem okay, Like, yeah, you seem fine.
So I'm like, so at least I know, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, so I just want you to know that, man,
you're safe.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And you know, for me, I realized writing the book
ended up being cathartic in that way where for the
most part, I don't have them. That was the first
one I had. I didn't have any on TV last season.
I don't know when they come. Mind, usually come in
the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I wake up and I'm terrifying bran my heart like,
oh my god, yeah, it's terrifying anxiety to anxiety.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Well that's what caused it.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, Yeah, And then you try and figure out what
it is and like, what's causing.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
This, what's the root? And I guess that's where the
journaling comes in.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So the sports stuff is kind of crazy too, and
I talk about this in the book. I've never thought
this was weird my whole life until I started writing
the book. So when I was in the third grade,
my dad coached basketball. He was a he was a
professional basketball player, but then he coached basketball, and so
I've grown up around it my whole life. Third grade
(31:02):
championship game at our middle school. I go out, We
walk into the gym. The gym's packed, it's you know,
two hundred people there maybe, And I look in the
stands and my dad has brought his team of high
school kids who are my idols. They're like pro players
to me. And I go out for the jump ball
and threw up right at half court. Embarrassed, embarrassed kids
(31:27):
all around everything. They cleaned it up. I felt like
fucking Superman and went at it. We win, going out. Okay,
So my dad, who coaches, when I would be in
the locker room all the time, halftime, before the games,
all that stuff. You know, he's a legendary cusser. He's
Bobby Nightlight. But after he'd give his pregame talk, he'd
(31:50):
go straight into the stall, stick his finger down his
throat and throw up. Most of the time's dry heave
hadn't eaten for day or hours and whatnot. After I
threw up in the third grade, every game I played
after that, from third grade through my second year in
the NBA, I stuck my fingers down my throat to
(32:12):
throw up before the game. And once I did, I
felt great. And I did it, you know, twenty minutes
before the game, and if I didn't, if I didn't,
just do it naturally. So it became a thing I
throw up. I would throw up before and I would
try to get over that because we're playing eighty two
games in the NBA. It's hard, and I'm trying not
(32:33):
to eat too much and I'm run down, and so
every now and then I would not do it. And
I can remember Dell Curry, Muggsy Bogues, my early teammates,
two of my best friends, looking over to me during
a game, you know, in the first quarter, and I've
missed my first four and they're like, did you go
fucking throw up? Please? Go throw up so you know again.
(32:56):
And I realized just recently that I do this. My
friends have always joked with me about when I brush
my teeth, I gag. I'll brush my teeth, I'll brush
my tongue, but I make myself gag like I'm throwing up.
And I realized not long ago that I do that
(33:17):
before I go out in public. I do it. It's
just a it's a tool for you, it's a tool
for me. But is that okay? Fuck?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yes, it's okay, Okay, it works. That's what I'm saying. Listen,
here's why it's not like just okay, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
All you're doing is making yourself gag to be able
to go out there and.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Be human, right where in the past you would take
oxy cotton and viking it right.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
If that ain't a fucking win, I don't know what
it is. And that's what we're here to do.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
We're here to give people ideas and take shame away
and tell them no, this is finally, this is great.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
By the way, patitude and planets for fighters.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Right, you're sitting back, Oh, athletes are weird, man, But
I'm saying fighters, yea.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
There and you're like, here's the toughest cond world.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I can't tell you how many guys are back there
shipping their pants off, squirting fu can Like.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
It's okay to be scared, it's okay to be afraid,
it's okay to have fear.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Right, it's you know. And whatever you could do to
make it not cripple you, that's your superpower. So use
what you have right there. Man, I picked up a
fucking great tool where it don't have to use drugs.
I think that's incredible. And for that, you got to
love yourself, all right. We don't love ourselves up and
up and we find things like that.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, I'm trying.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I found laughter like I'm having if I'm having a
real bad one.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
On the show, So I can't stop on live TV
and go wait, guys, oh shit, I'm going through it.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So as I'm on TV having a panic attack, I'm
literally talking to the voices in my head saying no,
not today, I'm safe. Calm down, and I'll push out
a joke as fast as I can, good or bad. Yeah,
So when I start laughing that everything regulates from that
for me?
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Is that for me? Is that that that gag reflects you.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Yeah out, yeah good, that's good.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Before I let you go again, tell people the name
of the book.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
The name of the book is it's hard for me
to live with me, and I.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Want you to start making sure that you learn to
love to deliver yourself.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Now, thanks, that's it, right, because the more you'll be
able to do that, bro, the more you'll be able
to help people. I literally one day, I'm sitting there
and I'm meditating, and I'm in Thailand. I went on
this mind body spur thing and I always felt I'm
a big god guy and I know God loves me,
but I felt all these things in the universe were
against me. And I've never had love. I'm finally getting married.
(35:34):
I've been married once before it wasn't great, but I
met the love of my life. I'm fifty four. So
it's like, man, and if I didn't have this little
talk with God in the universe, it's almost like I'm
in this meditation for like three days and working with
these monks. It's like I'm sitting there and it's like
God in the universe said, hey, no one's against you,
like we all love you, but we needed you to
feel this pain.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
So you can help others through theirs.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
And at the same time we need you to see
we made all your other dream come true to keep
you afloat. Ye, same for you.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Right, So you've been in this paint, so now it's
time to like, Man, I'm gonna love myself up for
my scars. I'm gonna love myself up that I've been
through this and all the people that you help and
all the people I help that's been on any three
pointer you could hit, it's been on any scoop I
could deliver, right, But we got to start learning to
give ourselves a gratitude.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, right, because then we'll help a lot more people.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Agree, I agreed, all right.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
My last question for you ask every guest this, give
me the one moment you might have said already, so
you could say, tell me what we said, the one
moment that should have broken you and could have broken you,
but didn't, and as a result, you came to the
other side of that tunnel stronger for it and breakable forever.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
I think it had to be the last time in
rehab that we just spoke about you know, looking back,
I guess and from the outside looking in, you could
maybe see where somebody might give up. I was so
fortunate and that I had so much love when I
screwed up so many people that I felt I had
(37:08):
let down my kids, starting with my kids, my ex wife,
my friends, my friend's kids who looked up to me,
and I felt a responsibility to try to make them
proud of me again. And I understand that some people don't,
you know, make that effort, or you don't even get
(37:30):
the chance to make that effort. I had the chance.
I was still alive, and I was felt like I
was at rock bottom. And I have to say it's
for different reasons that I'm proud of it, but as
much as anything, I was able to start speaking to
groups and whatnot. And one day I was in my head,
and I think I did talk about this in the book.
(37:52):
One day I was in my head and I just
wanted to get to my workout. I didn't want to
talk to anyone. It was not in that mood. I
wasn't in that head. I've learned that I can't go
out like that, like I have to understand people are
going to come up and I have to, you know,
cope with that. But I went got to the gym
and this kid was at the front desk, eighteen nineteen
(38:14):
years old and he said, hey, Rex Chapman. I said yep,
and I kind of just kept walking and I started swimming.
I was finishing my swim, and I started thinking about it.
What a what a dick I was for just blowing
this kid off. And I came back out and he
was getting my attention again. He said, mister Chapman, and
I said, yeah, yeah, how are you? And he said, listen,
(38:38):
I just wanted to tell you. You spoke at a thing
about six months ago and my dad was there and
he hasn't had a drink in six months. And I
just can't thank you. And I started tearing up. Felt
like the biggest asshole in the world. This kid just
wanted to share something that was really really important to him.
(38:59):
And you know, in that moment, I you know, I
think I kind of realized, all right, well, this can
help other people, you know, it can help other.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
People, good man, And that's why you got to love
yourself up. So yeah, you could feel these more.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
And that's our equity, man. Yeah, that's it, right, Gus.
We're able to do this. We can make a change.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Man.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I'm proud of you, dude.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
I appreciate your brother, Rex Chapman. Man, you definitely are unbreakable.
Thank you for joining the Unbreakable Mental Wealth podcast, My dude,
and keep keep inspiring man.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Everybody get his book.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Thanks Jay, you do the same. Keep rolling. Let's get
together in Phoenix.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Absolutely, God bless your brother.
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
Build you from the inside out.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental wealth podcast with Jay Glazier.
I'm Jay Glazer really excited for today's guests. He has
been through it, he's been successful, then he was through
it again. Then he's through it again, and there's so
much we can learn from him, and he's recreated himself
over and over and over. But before I get through,
if you're like many people, you may be surprised to
learn that one in five adults in this country experienced
(00:37):
mental illness last year, yet far too many failed to
receive the support they need. Carolyn, behavioral health is doing
something about it. They understand that behavioral health is a
key part of whole health, delivering compassionate.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs. In
tantem CAROLM. Behavioral health raising the quality of life through
empathy and action.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
All right, Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental wealth health podcast
with Jay Glazier. And what I try to do is
bring people on here who've been through some things, who've
been through some shit before. But when I get a
bald guy on here who kind of looks like me.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Bald is beautiful. Then I feel even more empowered.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
And with that, I want to welcome in Rex Chapman,
who played in the NBA, successful college career, then he
became a very successful Twitter influencer, which you probably never
thought that would happen in your life, and has just
come out with a book. It's hard for me to
live with me. So you know, Rex has done a
lot of the things that I've done. Also, he's done
it more I think the addiction world, but he's done
(01:33):
a lot of mental health stuff. I've done a lot
of mental health stuff, and I think we both can
agree that, Man, the more we could build our mental health,
it leads to mental wealth, and that's where this world
needs to go.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Man, Jay I first, thanks for having me, and I'm
I want to let you know, I think people have
to be inspired by what you're doing and the way
that you speak about openly about mental health. You know,
I kind of did it because everything just went to
hell in my life and you're doing it differently, and
(02:06):
I just uh. And you're on the NFL, and a
lot of people that watch the NFL watch sports religiously
need to have. We didn't have men that talked about
this when we were kids on TV. We just did
that was taboo, that wasn't macho. Blah blah blah. So
(02:28):
kudos to you and please keep up the good work.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I appreciate it. Where do you think that when you
say I do it differently.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
What I think that? It's part It's part of who
you are. Man like you you own it. You you
have owned it and you have made it. You're normalizing
it to where you know people men who watch football,
who watch sports, watch you and they go, they go, man,
I have those same thoughts. I have those same struggles.
(02:56):
It's good to know that other people do too, because
we normally we see people on TV and we think
those guys have it all money, bang, everything, everything is
great with them. That ain't the case.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah we had it all That means issues also, that's right.
But you're doing the same thing, Matt, because you've been
with a lot in your life. I mean, look, all
I try to do, you know, coming out talking about
mental health is just give it words, because we didn't
really have the words except when you sat in the
therapist's office.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
But that's not layman's terms.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's not everyday words, right, So I just wanted to
give words so we could start having that conversation, and yeah,
take the stigma away.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Like for me, my best mental health.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Sessions are in a cage with a Randy Couture or
Chuck Ledell where we're crying each other after right practice.
So I figured that and well, no one's questioned our
man for crying each other and we're got to show others.
But it made us so much closer together. But you
also made the jump and said, you're in a maso
sport and you're playing basketball, and you've had all these issues,
whether it's addiction to gambling or opioids whatever, and you
(03:56):
know you got to use your pain to help others
through theirs.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
What was your kind of aha moment that you.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Were able to do that, And you know what, I
want you to answer that, but I also need you
to go back and tell our listeners what you've been
through and your story.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah. So you know, I grew up playing basketball. From
the time I could remember, I played football and swam
and played little league and all played all the sports.
I was a really good athlete by the time I
got to high school or my last couple of years
in high school, I was probably the best player in
our state of Kentucky. I was top, you know, one,
(04:30):
two or three rated high school player in the country.
McDonald's All American Team, parade teams, all of that stuff.
I went to the University of Kentucky, was an All
American there for two years, and then I entered the
draft and was the eighth pick, the first pick of
the Charlotte Hornets franchise. Played there for three years, three
years in Washington with the Bullets, a year in Miami
(04:51):
with the Heat, and my last five years with the
Phoenix Suns. When I retired, I had had seven surgeries
my last three years of playing. And when I I
had a routine appendectomy in the year two thousand and
a doctor gave me prescription for a month for oxycon
and I took that OxyContin, and in two days I
(05:15):
knew I was in love. It was the greatest thing
I'd ever had. I'd always had social anxiety, I had
always suffered from depression. I just was too afraid to
go get medicated for it because I was still playing
ball and I didn't know how that would interact with
my reaction. You know all the crazy things that athletes think.
So I took that medicine and immediately I felt like
(05:39):
a different person. I felt funnier, smarter, better dad, better husband,
all of it, not realizing I'm the self self medicated. Yes,
and use.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Viking him for my anxiety all the time.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, it was like an instant and an instant headache reliever.
Viking In was my jam and person and that person
kind of has no fear.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
But the come down is, you're such an asshold of
people and you're and also I would drink and take
viking In.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
That's the only reason that I'm alive is because I
didn't drink during that time day. And you know what,
I realized too very quickly. I remember when I first
started taking the OxyContin and I'm just not again. Social
awkwardness and social anxiety my whole life. If I know you,
no problem. If I don't know you and you come
(06:31):
up to me. Also, I don't want to ruin your
interaction with me, because you know, when I took that medicine.
Come on, I'm the nicest guy in the world. I'm
not even watching what I was there to watch me
and you were talking now I felt like that's what
normal people do. And it made me like I felt
(06:52):
normal what I thought was normal. And before I knew it,
eighteen months had passed. Danny Ainge is telling me, Rex,
you got to look at yourself. You are, You're a mess.
You've got to go to rehab. I was taken about
fifty pills a day, forty forty Vike in oxygen.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Oh my god, no I know.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And see that's why I say, if I'd been drinking,
I would be dead, you know, And I just chewed
them up.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
The drink of the Viking in. You're right, it got
me for a while.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
The alcohol. The alcohol sets off the vicat it. I
mean in a weird way.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well I was good for a while, so you come up,
and you're right, I get real bad social anxiety.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And people didn't know.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
And I'm supposed to be the glaze, this character rights
that I created on TV to hide it. So I'd
be good on the way up, but on the way
down I'll get real short, real step and I said
I wasn't good. Keep my hands and myself. I would
fucking grab dudes by the front. I would snatch cats,
and somebody pissed me off and you know, next thing,
you know, man, I'm I'm wrestling. I'm like, it wasn't
(07:54):
good and my friends would have to keep me out
of it. And even that, you know, I thought, was, well,
it's part of my brand, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I'm I'm hosting the UFC in.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
The Pride Fighting Championships and training all these football players.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And no, that's not who I wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Good for you man, I mean, because that's just I
get it. And I have to do it to myself
at times because I am from Kentucky and I've got
I still have this much amount of redneck in me.
And if I right, like in the wrong, if I
put myself in the wrong spot, I will I'll react,
I'll say something to somebody, and I don't want to
(08:28):
be that person, you.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Know, no doubt, no doubt. Go ahead. So then you
got hooked on.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I got yeah. I got hooked on yeah, And a
lot before I knew it, I was in rehab. I
was out of rehab, but I was back taking Vico
in back into rehab a couple of years later. Then
when I got out, I was on suboxone and I
was on box owne for about ten years, and you
shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
People who don't know what that is, right to prevent
you from taking the drugs that he's talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Right. And when I got into rehab the last time,
I realized that there were people in there who were shoesoxone.
They were melting the strips and injecting them. So it's
a whole. So when I went to rehab that last time,
I was arrested. I was arrested for shoplifting. And when
I say that, I don't want to just skim by it.
(09:16):
I had, you know, made thirty eight forty million dollars
playing basketball. Long time thoroughbred horse racing gambler since I
was a child. He used to go with my dad
to the track and I could read a racing form
before I could read a newspaper. So I played horses
from the time I got to college until I got arrested.
(09:37):
And by the time I got arrested, I was pretty
messed up with the saboxone and I had been stealing
to to support my drug and gambling habit.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Wow, and.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Was shoplifting in an Apple store? Yeah, in an Apple store.
And when I have to articulate it out loud, it's
still just punching the gut because I have to reconcile
that it was me that did it anyway. So I
went to you got to be pride of your cars.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
This is your experiences. Yeah, if you didn't have these experiences, yeah,
you couldn't help others with theirs. So right, be proud
that you went through this show.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Thanks man. So at that point, you know, my ex
wife and I and she's amazing. We were married for
twenty years. We had four children thirty one to twenty two,
a boy who works for the Phoenix Suns. He's on
Frank Vogel staff with the sons, and three girls all
in education. My ex wife's a teacher, but they were
at the time, we're twenty to ten, and you know,
(10:37):
I had been a real drug addict for all of
the little girls' lives. So I went to rehab. My
sister scooped me up, put me in rehab in Louisville, Kentucky,
and I remember getting there and i'd been in rehab before,
and you know, I felt toxic. I felt you know,
it's very public, and I just remember getting in my
(11:00):
room there and taking a big sigh of relief and
having a thought of Okay, this is where I need
to be, and for whatever reason, that stint, you know,
propelled me to Once I got out of detox seven
days of just hell, I started trying to dig into,
(11:20):
you know, what had landed me there, and you know,
kind of why I did the things that I've done
my whole life. So that's when I think the real
work started.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So I'm going to ask you a deeper question here,
because again I like to really give everything words so
we hear it so others don't feel so alone. I've
never been through detox because I didn't have that level.
What does detox feel like?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Ooof man? So the first time I got to detox,
I was taking OxyContin and I remember, and again this
is right when OxyContin came out, and I was in
the detox area of rehab, which is more like a
hospital wing, and they were doing a shift change and
one of the nurses was talking to the other nurse
(12:05):
and one of them said, Okay, what's he in for
talking about me? And she said he's in for oxy
contin and she went the other one went ooh boy,
and she said, yeah, just like heroin seven days a hell. Well,
I just remember going heroin. Wait what and not realizing yeah,
(12:27):
this is synthetic heroin, this is you know, uh. And
I've not come off of heroin before, but I've come
off oxycont and I've come off viking in massive amounts
of vikinging. And it's no damn jokes. It's throwing up.
It's throwing up. It's hot and cold most of the time.
(12:50):
I just I remember being in my underwear and being
hot cold, back and forth from the bed to the
bathroom and nurses coming in what sea seems like every
two minutes, but it's probably every hour or so. It's
just hellish. And I remember getting all being done with
detox that last time. And I talk about this in
(13:12):
the book. I had had friends coming to visit because
I was in Louisville, Kentucky, and I hadn't been able
to like show any emotion or anything. I was just
so numb from all the pain medicine and then out
of detox, I was still kind of numb. And Rick Patino,
who I'm sure you know, famous basketball coach. He was
coaching at Louisville at the time, and somebody told me
(13:33):
I had a visitor. And Rick and a friend of mine.
Vinny Tatum, who worked with Rick, were there to see me,
and I saw them and I just started bawling, balling,
crying and saying I'm toxic, and I you know, and Rick,
I've known him for so long. He just looked at
me and said, Rex, listen, you're gonna eat a lot
of shit for a while. You just are. And he said,
(13:55):
and at first, it's going to feel like a big
beach ball size ball of shit. And he said, if
you do the next right thing, I promise you that
beach ball's going to turn into the size of a basketball.
And then do the next right thing, and then a softball,
and then a baseball, and then a ping pong ball,
and finally it'll be a pebble at some point if
you just keep doing it. And for whatever reason, through
(14:17):
all the tears and the and the feeling sorry for
myself and all of that, it resonated. And Rick's been
through some stuff, you know, so I knew it was
coming from a place of honesty. He didn't have to
be there. He just showed up. He just showed up
at rehab. It meant something to me. And then when
people start doing that, they're putting faith in you and
(14:38):
you don't want to let them down. And I had
so many people that really, you know, believed enough in
me to hang in there with me.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I think this is a real important thing for people
to hear.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
First of all, thank you for vulnerability and sharing all that,
because I think the more people hear it from someone
that we've put in words in they don't feel as alone.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Right, So I'll go, Okay, that's what he's like.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Okay, now I have you're giving people a little roadmap.
This is what it's going to be like, this is
what you could expect. So that's fantastic. But I think
what I really want people to get from this and
you got for it when we struggle and even in
our darkest moments. And I just talked to a friend
of mine about this, just going through something and he
feels so ashamed for what he did, and I feel
(15:20):
a lot of shame. But instead of feeling shame, like
people want the best for us, no matter how much
we fucked people over, we did this that they just
want the best for us. They want to see us succeed,
They want to see a comeback story.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Right, Nobody's like, no one's cut me off. Forever. Yeah,
well you did this the right everybody wants to forgive
and go. Yes, I'm rooting for you right now everybody.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yep, I couldn't agree more. I really couldn't so many,
you know, and I had so many trust issues from
being a kid and being known and knowing that other
people are going through stuff is you know. And I
was so proud too. I wouldn't you know, somebody asked
me how I was doing. I could be doing horribly
and be like, I'm doing great, how are you? You know,
(16:07):
just deflect and turn it around on someone else.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Tell me how after this? So now, look, obviously I'm
knew from basketball more than anything. But then all of
a sudden, I see fucking Rex Chatman with those feel
good videos and ship on Twitter, which, by the way,
I'm always telling people get the fuck off social media, yeah,
because that's crushing us. But you that turned it around
in a sudden, all these feel good moments then and
then you kind of got dragging the political end of
(16:31):
it and all this shit. But tell me, ay how
that just came about be the best part of it.
But see, like with me, I have a hard time,
Like I don't break minute I've been breaking news anymore
because I don't like looking at my fucking Twitter every
two seconds and tell me how fat my head looks,
or how I'm full of shit with this or that, whatever,
(16:52):
you know, the span that just to hate people's few
I'm feelings hurt too much.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I'm not up for this, right right right?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Uh yeah. I don't know how it really came about.
I was watching a video one day on Twitter and
I saw a dolphin jump up out of the water
and hit a guy on a paddle board in the chest.
And I said to myself, that's a fucking charge, and
so I tweeted it out there. I figured only basketball
people would know what the hell I was talking about,
(17:20):
and it kind of took off and people started sending
me videos. And I'm not the feel good video kind
of guy. I'm trying to I'm not a feel good
kind of guy anyway, So I'm trying to trick myself
like everyone else, into getting through the day. And people
started sending me heartwarming videos and dog videos, and I'd
put those out and pretty soon people started going to
(17:42):
my stupid channel for videos. So that's how that happened.
I don't it's pretty weird because now I run into
as many people who know me from social media than
I do from basketball.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
So do you read your mentions or you just.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, I don't really, I think I've put enough modifications
on the thing that I don't see a lot. Okay,
I don't. I don't want to do that because it
can't know. It really can drag you down into a hole.
I don't know how professional athletes do it in this climate.
We used to just if you didn't read the newspaper,
that takes a big end. If you didn't listen to
(18:21):
sports radio, which was hard to do even as you know,
even if you didn't want to, because those ship these
people are talking about me. I need to know. And
most a lot of the time it was you know,
that was new when we were growing up, sports radio,
talk radio, we could avoid it. You can't. These players
cannot avoid the hatred that is spewed at them daily.
(18:41):
And every player has it. You know, there's Lebron, people
hate Lebron James. There are people that you know, hate Johannis,
they hate Wimby, they hate you know.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
If you sure cancer, they'll.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Go, yeah, well yeah, thanks, big deal.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah yeah, hey you should have done this few years
ago before.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
N Yeah, right, And I'm like, look I tell people
when I tell the players, because players they do like
especially today, finish practice, finish game, boom, right over to
the locker, and I'm like, and everyone's voice on Twitter,
it carries the same weight. It could be some fucking
nine year old kid in his mom's basement, but you
think it's this thirty four year old executive who has
a line your bosses and they don't, right. And look,
(19:23):
when I grew up with the Jersey Shore, you got
your ass kicking. Jersey Shore growing up fucking sucked for
a month. But now we get our ass kicked every
second on this. So we've got to be able to
somehow be able to separate the two.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But man, we don't. And that's interesting too.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
And again I have the social anxiety already, and I
already have an itchy trigger finger fist finger.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
If you will, and you do too.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I started viewing people as those who tweet at you
in a hateful manner.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
And I don't want to do that because I do
want to love people like people.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
But what I did realize recently, you know, in all
the years I've gotten it, Listen, when you host the
UFC like I did, those fans they will yeah, I've
had a couple of fights and they're like, well, does
this fat fucker know about fighting? And sure, I did
it before everybody for anybody in the NFL ever did it.
I did it, you know, and just murdering me. And
then football fans if you say son, oh yeah, breaking
(20:16):
news story about their team, they don't like they They
act like I'm the one who's trying to.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Get to do with me right crazy. I've never ever,
I've had one time somebody come over me. That's just once.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
But my point is, for the most part, no one
ever walks over you insist to you.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
The way they tweet things at you, and that's trike
me a while to get reckoning with.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, I feel the same. I get people that say
stuff all the time. And not long ago in Kentucky,
a guy came up, this older man came up to me.
I was at a gas station and he said to me,
you know, if you thought the way I think this
was more politically kind of motivated. He said, you know,
if you thought more like the rest of us, your
(20:56):
life would have been a whole lot easier. I wanted
to say something think, but I didn't. He walks away
and he turns around and says to me, were gonna
beat Bama this weekend. And so you know, he's just
he's a fan. You know, I could have been, I
guess I I probably would have been justified insane. But
(21:18):
he just really wanted an interaction and it was okay.
But those types of things happen, and they you know,
they happen because they see us on TV and.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
On Twitter and they learn my one interaction like that.
So I'm saying one out of millions is some guy
comes over me in Arizona a couple of years ago.
This guy my friend's party is a place called Bottle
Blonde downtown. IM my friend Charlie Brooks and hang with him.
And I told Charlie, I said, hey, man, just kind
of keep me out of the crowd and probably not
too great with a bunch of drunk cats, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Good for you.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
One guy gets through and he says, hey, Jay Glazer,
UFC fucking sucks. I said, okay, okay, but then I
said okay, and I turned around. He goes, hey, yuh,
when do you think Colin McGregor's coming back to fight
and I said, what do you care? You just said
you have fucking sucks and he goes, well, I just
wanted to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I didn't know how else to start the conversation. How
much did you start with that?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And that's the problem, Like people learned from Twitter how
to talk to people view us as your friend or
your your brother, or your mom or your.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Dad and or you know, your boy.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, you in a respectful manner of view us in
a way of like, man, this dude needs some love
right now.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
That that's it. Don't come to us or something like that,
right right. Tell me about your book.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
You know how you got your your process? Did you
do it to be cathartic, for you to do it
to be of service? And loved about it?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
I think all of it, and I'm not sure I
loved any of it. It was really hard. Seth Davis
who did most of the great guy. That's a great guy.
And I've known Seth for years and had he not
asked me to do it, probably probably wouldn't have done it.
He started around the beginning of the pandemic, and about
a year into it, Seth hit me one day and said, hey, listen,
(23:03):
I've got kind of a time sensitive book that I
could really dig in on for like six months. Can
we push your thing back? I said, fucking right. I
hate talking about this shit. And I said, what do
you got going on? And he said, well, you know
it's it's a book with Sister Jean and who you know.
Sister Jean is a basketball fan who's one hundred and
(23:23):
four years old, a nun who's one hundred and four
years old. And I said to Seth, Oh, Seth, that's
really sweet that you think I'm going to outlive Sister Jean.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Oh okay. So when I was a high schooler fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen years old, my first girlfriend, first love, a girl
named Sean Higgs and her brother Mark Higgs played in
the NFL. He played at University of Kentucky, played for
the Dolphins, you know, with Dan Marino and those guys.
He was a running back. Shawn's black, I'm white. It
(23:55):
was our first love, you know. Sewan also went to
the University of Kentucky. People in Kentucky did not like
us dating. We kind of hid it from people in
high school and then but she went to Kentucky and
I went to Kentucky. Were the same grade, and we
just assumed we would be able to be boyfriend and
girlfriend publicly there. Well, that was not something that the
(24:16):
higher ups at the university were going to allow, and
they they repeatedly, you know, let me know that if
I'm going to see her, then I need to do
it at nighttime. Meanwhile, me and her brother are and
every kid every.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Year say this ain't that long ago, like ge, No.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
It's not. I was told, you know, if I'm going
to see her, see her at night, don't be public. Well,
you know, I'm eighteen, nineteen years old. Well, I sat
there and took it, and I knew I was going
to have to tell her. I told her, and I
remember just feeling like the biggest piece of shit in
the world, and she's heartbroken. I'm heartbroken. And the next morning,
(24:53):
by the way.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Real quick, you're only eighteen or nineteen, like, yeah, your
brain isn't to handle things like that, even though you're
a college player on TV, people think you're.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
An adult and you're not.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
And everything is going fine for me basketball wise, I'm
that's not an issue. But I woke up the next
morning and I couldn't move I My heart was racing.
I was having tough, tough time breathing, and I could
not move my arms off of my chest. I had
him wrapped around me as tight as I could, and
I yelled out to my roommate, Reggie Hansen, go get
(25:26):
Dwayne Dwayne Casey, who's one of our assistants. I said,
I need to go to the hospital. I don't know
what's wrong. Reggie popped up and came back. I told
them I needed to go to the hospital. I could
hear them talking, like, what's wrong with him? If we
take him the hospital, what's the media going to say?
Why are we going to say he's there? Their answer
was to go get my girlfriend across the street, the
(25:47):
one who I'm being discouraged from seeing. And they took
us to a booster's house who I loved, Don and
Linda Johnson, and who knew about Sean and I older
white couple. They didn't give a shit. I stayed with
them for two days. With Sean, I got over it.
It was for sure a panic attack. I thought it
(26:08):
was like I'd never attack. I felt like I'd only
heard of something like well, she had a nervous breakdown.
That's what I felt like I was having, and there
was no terminology for it, but I felt like I
was crazy, like I was going crazy. And I got
over it in two days and I forgot about it
my whole life. I forgot about it. Coach has never
(26:29):
brought it up again. Writing this book, I remembered it,
and about six months ago finishing the book, I had
another panic attack, never had one in my life since
before or after. And fortunately my girlfriend, Whitney Lawson was there,
took great care of me for two three days and
(26:49):
I started rebounding from it. You know, there's just, I
guess a lot of things that you can push away
and things that are hurtful that you just don't. You know,
I was, I was very young, and I was very
angry and sad, and I was already starting to, you know,
show signs of clinical depression at that point. But nobody
(27:12):
really talked about that stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
The one thing you not know was that for people
to hear when you have a panic attack like that,
you're safe.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
That's the first thing I talked. So I've never heard that.
I've never heard that.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah safe.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So just so you know, My first panic attack was
on air on Fox. I was in an empty Raider stadium.
There was nobody but me and a cameraman, nothing else.
I was doing a live hit from an empty Raider stadium,
and all of a sudden, my heart started racing, my
eye started shaking, I started sweating, my hands start shaking
like crazy, and the wall.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Star came in.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I'm like, holy fuck, I'm having a heart attack on
the air, and now I call it wrestling with my abuser.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I talke to it. I try and comment down as
I'm going well.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Unfortunately for me, it became habitual every time I I've
ever done something on air, even scripted, when.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I did Ballers, when I know they can go cut it,
still it's.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
The first thing I do. And one thing I had
to learn is I'm sick. So I've had it for
two thousand and five on never passed out, never died,
Nothing's happened, And I learned those little things I could
deal with. The can get a laugh out, it goes away,
but immediately tell yourself I am safe. But also rex
you have that equity. You know the first time you're safe,
nothing happened. The second time, nothing happening. So you have
(28:28):
to remind yourself and say fuck you to that abuser. No,
I'm safe, I'm good. And it was I was getting
my heart checked out for twelve years for a heart.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Attack, twelve years wow.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Until I heard Terry Bradshaw talk about it one day
with us, and I'm like, I'll be that's what that's
what I have. That's it. Thank god I work with
Terry and he's been suffering it for years.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
And that and that that guy, that guy was everything
to us. Yes, everything, Corecked. He's somebody like him be
vulnerable and it does almost makes me want to cry.
That's that's a big time human being right there.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
So I want you to know the same thing.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And you know, so the crazy shit for me is
I wrote the book and where I used to have
them every week. Now I think the book my book Unbreakable.
I think it was my way of journaling, and after
a journaling I haven't had them wow nearly as often.
I do want to get in. I went last year
with Jimmy Johnson and our producer Bill Richards to Cowboys
(29:28):
Chargers game where Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones kind of
made peace and that's what legend Jimmy's Hall of Fame.
And my producer doesn't know knows this. Jimmy didn't say
anything too. But the moment we walked on the field, boom.
I had one more panic attacks ever had. But I
don't remember much of being on.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Manage.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, I to manage it. I went there, but it
lasted for forty.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Fucking Oh my god. That's had to seem like a
a whole day.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, And I.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Don't remember saying certain things. Search so I asked people after, Hey,
was I did. I seem okay, Like, yeah, you seem fine.
So I'm like, so at least I know, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, so I just want you to know that, man,
you're safe.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And you know, for me, I realized writing the book
ended up being cathartic in that way where for the
most part, I don't have them. That was the first
one I had. I didn't have any on TV last season.
I don't know when they come. Mind, usually come in
the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I wake up and I'm terrifying bran my heart like,
oh my god, yeah, it's terrifying anxiety to anxiety.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Well that's what caused it.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, Yeah, And then you try and figure out what
it is and like, what's causing.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
This, what's the root? And I guess that's where the
journaling comes in.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
So the sports stuff is kind of crazy too, and
I talk about this in the book. I've never thought
this was weird my whole life until I started writing
the book. So when I was in the third grade,
my dad coached basketball. He was a he was a
professional basketball player, but then he coached basketball, and so
I've grown up around it my whole life. Third grade
(31:02):
championship game at our middle school. I go out, We
walk into the gym. The gym's packed, it's you know,
two hundred people there maybe, And I look in the
stands and my dad has brought his team of high
school kids who are my idols. They're like pro players
to me. And I go out for the jump ball
and threw up right at half court. Embarrassed, embarrassed kids
(31:27):
all around everything. They cleaned it up. I felt like
fucking Superman and went at it. We win, going out. Okay,
So my dad, who coaches, when I would be in
the locker room all the time, halftime, before the games,
all that stuff. You know, he's a legendary cusser. He's
Bobby Nightlight. But after he'd give his pregame talk, he'd
(31:50):
go straight into the stall, stick his finger down his
throat and throw up. Most of the time's dry heave
hadn't eaten for day or hours and whatnot. After I
threw up in the third grade, every game I played
after that, from third grade through my second year in
the NBA, I stuck my fingers down my throat to
(32:12):
throw up before the game. And once I did, I
felt great. And I did it, you know, twenty minutes
before the game, and if I didn't, if I didn't,
just do it naturally. So it became a thing I
throw up. I would throw up before and I would
try to get over that because we're playing eighty two
games in the NBA. It's hard, and I'm trying not
(32:33):
to eat too much and I'm run down, and so
every now and then I would not do it. And
I can remember Dell Curry, Muggsy Bogues, my early teammates,
two of my best friends, looking over to me during
a game, you know, in the first quarter, and I've
missed my first four and they're like, did you go
fucking throw up? Please? Go throw up so you know again.
(32:56):
And I realized just recently that I do this. My
friends have always joked with me about when I brush
my teeth, I gag. I'll brush my teeth, I'll brush
my tongue, but I make myself gag like I'm throwing up.
And I realized not long ago that I do that
(33:17):
before I go out in public. I do it. It's
just a it's a tool for you, it's a tool
for me. But is that okay? Fuck?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yes, it's okay, Okay, it works. That's what I'm saying. Listen,
here's why it's not like just okay, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
All you're doing is making yourself gag to be able
to go out there and.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Be human, right where in the past you would take
oxy cotton and viking it right.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
If that ain't a fucking win, I don't know what
it is. And that's what we're here to do.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
We're here to give people ideas and take shame away
and tell them no, this is finally, this is great.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
By the way, patitude and planets for fighters.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Right, you're sitting back, Oh, athletes are weird, man, But
I'm saying fighters, yea.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
There and you're like, here's the toughest cond world.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I can't tell you how many guys are back there
shipping their pants off, squirting fu can Like.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
It's okay to be scared, it's okay to be afraid,
it's okay to have fear.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Right, it's you know. And whatever you could do to
make it not cripple you, that's your superpower. So use
what you have right there. Man, I picked up a
fucking great tool where it don't have to use drugs.
I think that's incredible. And for that, you got to
love yourself, all right. We don't love ourselves up and
up and we find things like that.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Yeah, I'm trying.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I found laughter like I'm having if I'm having a
real bad one.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
On the show, So I can't stop on live TV
and go wait, guys, oh shit, I'm going through it.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So as I'm on TV having a panic attack, I'm
literally talking to the voices in my head saying no,
not today, I'm safe. Calm down, and I'll push out
a joke as fast as I can, good or bad. Yeah,
So when I start laughing that everything regulates from that
for me?
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Is that for me? Is that that that gag reflects you.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Yeah out, yeah good, that's good.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Before I let you go again, tell people the name
of the book.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
The name of the book is it's hard for me
to live with me, and I.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Want you to start making sure that you learn to
love to deliver yourself.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Now, thanks, that's it, right, because the more you'll be
able to do that, bro, the more you'll be able
to help people. I literally one day, I'm sitting there
and I'm meditating, and I'm in Thailand. I went on
this mind body spur thing and I always felt I'm
a big god guy and I know God loves me,
but I felt all these things in the universe were
against me. And I've never had love. I'm finally getting married.
(35:34):
I've been married once before it wasn't great, but I
met the love of my life. I'm fifty four. So
it's like, man, and if I didn't have this little
talk with God in the universe, it's almost like I'm
in this meditation for like three days and working with
these monks. It's like I'm sitting there and it's like
God in the universe said, hey, no one's against you,
like we all love you, but we needed you to
feel this pain.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
So you can help others through theirs.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
And at the same time we need you to see
we made all your other dream come true to keep
you afloat. Ye, same for you.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Right, So you've been in this paint, so now it's
time to like, Man, I'm gonna love myself up for
my scars. I'm gonna love myself up that I've been
through this and all the people that you help and
all the people I help that's been on any three
pointer you could hit, it's been on any scoop I
could deliver, right, But we got to start learning to
give ourselves a gratitude.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, right, because then we'll help a lot more people.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Agree, I agreed, all right.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
My last question for you ask every guest this, give
me the one moment you might have said already, so
you could say, tell me what we said, the one
moment that should have broken you and could have broken you,
but didn't, and as a result, you came to the
other side of that tunnel stronger for it and breakable forever.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
I think it had to be the last time in
rehab that we just spoke about you know, looking back,
I guess and from the outside looking in, you could
maybe see where somebody might give up. I was so
fortunate and that I had so much love when I
screwed up so many people that I felt I had
(37:08):
let down my kids, starting with my kids, my ex wife,
my friends, my friend's kids who looked up to me,
and I felt a responsibility to try to make them
proud of me again. And I understand that some people don't,
you know, make that effort, or you don't even get
(37:30):
the chance to make that effort. I had the chance.
I was still alive, and I was felt like I
was at rock bottom. And I have to say it's
for different reasons that I'm proud of it, but as
much as anything, I was able to start speaking to
groups and whatnot. And one day I was in my head,
and I think I did talk about this in the book.
(37:52):
One day I was in my head and I just
wanted to get to my workout. I didn't want to
talk to anyone. It was not in that mood. I
wasn't in that head. I've learned that I can't go
out like that, like I have to understand people are
going to come up and I have to, you know,
cope with that. But I went got to the gym
and this kid was at the front desk, eighteen nineteen
(38:14):
years old and he said, hey, Rex Chapman. I said yep,
and I kind of just kept walking and I started swimming.
I was finishing my swim, and I started thinking about it.
What a what a dick I was for just blowing
this kid off. And I came back out and he
was getting my attention again. He said, mister Chapman, and
I said, yeah, yeah, how are you? And he said, listen,
(38:38):
I just wanted to tell you. You spoke at a thing
about six months ago and my dad was there and
he hasn't had a drink in six months. And I
just can't thank you. And I started tearing up. Felt
like the biggest asshole in the world. This kid just
wanted to share something that was really really important to him.
(38:59):
And you know, in that moment, I you know, I
think I kind of realized, all right, well, this can
help other people, you know, it can help other.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
People, good man, And that's why you got to love
yourself up. So yeah, you could feel these more.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
And that's our equity, man. Yeah, that's it, right, Gus.
We're able to do this. We can make a change.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Man.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I'm proud of you, dude.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
I appreciate your brother, Rex Chapman. Man, you definitely are unbreakable.
Thank you for joining the Unbreakable Mental Wealth podcast, My dude,
and keep keep inspiring man.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Everybody get his book.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Thanks Jay, you do the same. Keep rolling. Let's get
together in Phoenix.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Absolutely, God bless your brother.
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.