Publishers Weekly
12/18/2023
Former NBA player Chapman recounts his struggles with addiction in this warts-and-all memoir cowritten with sports journalist Davis (Getting to Us). Chapman came to love basketball through his father, who coached Chapman’s high school team in Kentucky. In 1988, after an impressive run at the University of Kentucky, Chapman was a first-round draft pick for the newly established Charlotte Hornets. He played for three other teams before retiring in 2000. Despite his athletic achievements, however, Chapman struggled, becoming addicted to both opioids and gambling during the height of his career. The addictions intensified following his NBA retirement, and in 2014, he was arrested outside his home after security footage caught him shoplifting from an Apple Store for drug money. The incident finally led him to enter rehab. Chapman’s frank assessment of the toll his addictions took on his loved ones lends his account appealing humility, as when he acknowledges that his ex-wife was right to pursue his assets in their divorce (“Between my addiction to Suboxone, my gambling habits, and all the other stupid shit I spend money on, our dough is never gonna last if she doesn’t grab all she can”). It’s the off-court sections that lend this sports memoir its power. Agents: (for Chapman) Mel Berger, WME; (for Davis) David Black, David Black Agency. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
253 pages of sizzling self-examination, regret, hope, anger, cleansing and raw honesty...A chilling reminder of how little we truly know about the emotions and struggles churning inside the adolescents, teenagers and young adults who are awash in glory and idolized as sports heroes.” —Rick Bozich, WDRB.com (Louisville)
"Chapman’s frank assessment of the toll his addictions took on his loved ones lends his account appealing humility....It’s the off-court sections that lend this sports memoir its power." —Publishers Weekly
“Readers will appreciate Chapman's candor and hard-won perspective as he shares his up-and-down story as a cautionary tale." —Booklist
"A former basketball prodigy's blunt memoir about stardom, addiction, and American culture.....Throughout, the author is raw [and] consistently candid....the most compelling and focused aspect of the book is Chapman's frankness about the toll of his battle with painkillers and the hard work required on the long road to recovery." —Kirkus Reviews
MAY 2024 - AudioFile
Former University of Kentucky great, NBA player, and social influencer Rex Chapman narrates a brutally honest account of his fall from basketball stardom to opioid addiction. He narrates his own work in a deep voice as he guides listeners through his story. He covers his career and also opens up about aspects of his personal life, such as dealing with public comments about his dating Black women, his penchant for gambling, his descent into addiction, and his ongoing recovery. His story is never self-aggrandizing, and hearing his words in his own voice adds to the authenticity of this audiobook. M.B. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-12-27
A former basketball prodigy's blunt memoir about stardom, addiction, and American culture.
Chapman, a former NBA player who played 12 years in the league and current analyst and social media figure, chronicles his story with the assistance of sports journalist Davis, author of Wooden and Getting to Us. In this consistently candid text, Chapman lays bare the triumphs and tribulations of growing up as a white high school and college basketball superstar in hoops-mad but socially regressive Kentucky; a largely injury-riddled NBA career that left him addicted to painkillers; and his mental health and gambling problems, public arrest for organized retail theft, and attempts to redeem himself. Throughout, the author is raw and clearly in thrall of profanity. If the aim of the frenetic pace is to invite readers to experience being in Chapman's ceaselessly unquiet mind, it succeeds. As Chapman rapidly darts from the truly significant (the heartache of his relationship with his Black high school and college girlfriend) to the achingly mundane (pranks and hijinks performed by him and his teammates), readers may feel figuratively out of breath or just plain frustrated, as if they were trying to guard Chapman on the court at his peak. The most compelling and focused aspect of the book is Chapman's frankness about the toll of his battle with painkillers and the hard work required on the long road to recovery. In the hands of a more capable collaborator, this book could have been uniquely substantive among athlete autobiographies, exploring in more depth the exploitative vagaries of big-time college basketball, race, complex family dynamics, and the medical and pharmaceutical malpractice that aided and abetted Chapman's addiction. While the narrative is a cautionary tale from which many can benefit, much of the book feels like a hurried shot off the rim.
A basketball star’s dizzying account of his struggles and comeback.
