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Title details for It's Hard for Me to Live with Me by Rex Chapman - Available

It's Hard for Me to Live with Me

A Memoir

by Rex Chapman
Seth Davis
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A powerful memoir from the University of Kentucky basketball legend, NBA veteran, and social media influencer about his recovery from addiction.
He is considered by many the greatest basketball player ever produced by the hoops-crazy state of Kentucky. In two years at the University of Kentucky, he scored over 1,000 points, led the Wildcats to a Sweet Sixteen appearance, and was nicknamed "King Rex." The first player ever drafted by the Charlotte Hornets, he spent twelve seasons in the NBA, dazzling in dunk contests and sinking one of the most memorable buzzer-beaters in league history. But by the end of his career, Rex Chapman was harboring a destructive secret.

Years before America's opioid crisis would become national news, Chapman developed a dependency on Vicodin and Oxycontin, ultimately ingesting fifty painkillers a day. In addition, he developed a severe gambling addiction, once nearly losing $400,000 at a Las Vegas blackjack table. All this would 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. Only when he was arrested—and his mugshot made national news—did he finally commit to getting clean.

In It's Hard for Me to Live With Me, Chapman—who has amassed millions of social media followers for his relatable and uplifting posts—tells the story of his addiction and recovery in unflinching detail. With equal frankness, he describes his history with depression; the racism he witnessed growing up and how that shaped his outspokenness on matters of social justice; and his complex and volatile relationship with his father, also a former professional basketball player. Cowritten with New York Times bestselling author Seth Davis, Chapman's memoir is an equally devastating and inspiring story about the human struggle for self-acceptance.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 27, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797176642
      • File size: 177242 KB
      • Duration: 06:09:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 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.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      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

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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