Former college and pro basketball player Rex Chapman is now a social media influencer and popular podcaster, but in between those accomplishments, he developed a drug and gambling addiction and was arrested for shoplifting.
“Sports and addiction kind of go hand-in-hand because most people that do anything just really great in this lifetime, no matter what it is … Most of those people have sacrificed a little bit of sanity to get there,” the 56-year-old Chapman told CNN in a recent interview.
The former Charlotte Hornet and Phoenix Suns player’s new autobiography, “It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me,” co-written with CBS Sports’ Seth Davis, covers all of Chapman’s highs and lows.
Some of the stories in Chapman’s book will be familiar to his more than one million social media followers; he writes about debilitating bouts with anxiety and depression and his struggle with an opioid and gambling addiction.
Many revelations though are new. Chapman shares tender passages such as holding teammate Dell Curry’s baby, future NBA superstar Steph Curry and knowing that he wanted to be a father to a brutally sobering memory of waking up after crashing his car into a ditch during a drug-induced blackout on the way to rehab.
“One day, the pills start telling you when to take it instead of the other way around,” said Chapman. “All of a sudden, you’re not looking at the watch and going, ‘Oh, I should take this again.’ It’s telling you [that] you need it. And now, you’re screwed.
Chapman traces the start of his problems back to an early struggle with crippling anxiety.
In the book, he details how he once vomited on the court in front of his father Wayne – a former ABA player – and how that one moment led to a career-long habit of throwing up before every game for the rest of his career.