Rex Chapman
Many Kentuckians remember Rex Chapman as a young basketball phenom at Owensboro’s Apollo High School, or the University of Kentucky guard who scored more than 1,000 points in his two years as a Wildcat, or his 12-year professional basketball career. And plenty know about his struggles with addiction and his fall from grace following a shoplifting charge.
Some may even know about his meteoric rebound as a social media superstar — the new “King of Twitter," as he says, followed by more than 1 million people (including the likes of Laura Dern, Jake Tapper and Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of AARP).
Now, Chapman has another position to add to his career — podcaster. Since March, Chapman has released two podcasts: “The Rex Chapman Show with Josh Hopkins” and “Charges with Rex Chapman."
On Charges, Chapman talks to star athletes about their run-ins with the law. Drawing from his own history, Chapman lets guests tell their side of the story. In the first episode, which debuted May 4, Chapman talked with guest host Mike Rappaport about his career at UK, his time in the NBA, and what led up to his opioid addiction and 2015 shoplifting arrest.
In the Rex Chapman Show, Chapman and Hopkins talk about all things basketball with stars on and off the court. So far, guests have included Andy Richter, Shaquille O’Neal, Jane Lynch and Stephen Curry, to name a few.
Stephen Curry and Rex Chapman
Each episode of the Rex Chapman Show is like listening in on a chat between you and Josh, with guests. Do you have any favorite guests so far?
It’s really hard to say. I love the basketball ones, and we’ve had on Shaq and Stephen Curry. What I really enjoyed was when we had K.D. Lang on. I’m just amazed at her talent but her brain... You know, Josh and I could have talked to her for three hours, and she would have been down for it because she loves basketball. We learned so much about her. You gain more respect for everybody that you talk to. It’s hard to say who’s a favorite so far. I’m just thrilled that we’re having on such great people. We’ve got Candace Parker coming on next week, and she’ll be our first lady basketball player, arguably, the best player ever, so I’m excited about that.
Anyone particular on your guest wish list?
Oh man. You know, the crazy part is we haven’t had anybody that we’ve asked to come on yet to turn us down. They’ve all just been like ‘yeah we’ll work it out. Let’s schedule it.’ It’s just been fantastic.
Let’s talk “Charges." Did that come about the same way, or was that something that you wanted to do since you started The Rex Chapman Show?
My buddy, Steve Nash called me up ... and he said, ‘Hey, would you want to do this?’ When he explained it, I didn’t really grasp what he was talking about at first. But once I figured out what it was, I thought, ‘Oh man that’s really cool.’ And for whatever reason — maybe it has more to do with my sports career or my own trouble with the law — people have been very willing to come on and talk. So far, the episodes are pretty powerful and really interesting. We’ll have Metta World Peace, now Metta Sandiford-Artest, Lamar Odom, Ryan Leaf and Michael Vick. It’s just very intriguing — great stories about a terrible moment in their life that’s lived out publicly.
Is it hard for you to be out in public talking about the addiction and arrest all over again?
Yeah, it is. Over the last few weeks, I knew it was going to come out, and it hasn’t been on the forefront of people’s minds in a while, and I knew it was going to make me feel like s**t again... But I think the hard part about that is that it’s just always going to be there. No matter what, it’s never going to go away. My buddy David Helmers and I raised like $300,000 over the last year and gave it away to COVID relief and first responders. I put out a Tweet about it and somebody sent back ‘Yeah, you ***ing junkie. Who cares?’ There’s always going to be people that are never going to let you forget what you did.
Do you think it’s cathartic to be able to get their side of the story out there?
I think part of it helps... This is more storytelling, going back through the person’s childhood and letting these elite athletes tell their stories. Other than 10 or 15 minutes in the middle, it’s a lovefest. I really try to love up these people who are willing to come on and talk about the lowest point in their lives. Because I’m a fan, too. I remember when I was young, there was a guy who played football at Ohio State — Art Schlichter — he had the world by the tail, first round draft pick, everything. And he got swept up in a gambling thing and had a huge gambling addiction. He just flamed out, went to prison for a while. I remember as a kid being, like, ‘What? Why did he do that? Why didn’t he just stop gambling?’ I wish I would have had something like this to listen to back then.