Review by Booklist Review
Imagine earning $40 million in salary over a dozen years and blowing it all. Chapman, a University of Kentucky basketball phenom, who then played in the NBA, gambled, bought too many cars, womanized, and became addicted to opioids. His reminiscences include babysitting Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, having, early in his career, befriended his dad, Dell, a fellow NBA player who lived in the same complex. The game takes a toll on Chapman's body, which contributes to his abuse of all-too-easily prescribed drugs. After he retires from the NBA and finds himself penniless, Chapman even steals from an Apple store and winds up in handcuffs. This tale of struggle, cowritten with Davis, contains some hope. Chapman gets off opioids, now imbibing marijuana and "Coors Light with ice," and feels loved by his four kids. Divorced after the stress of his infidelities and addictions, he does date but says that he'll never marry again. Readers will appreciate Chapman's candor and hard-won perspective as he shares his up-and-down story as a cautionary tale.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
