Thank You, Rex Chapman

Rex Chapman knows a great deal about success. But he also knows about struggles and all about hardships. Unfortunately, Rex has seen both up close and personal. He has been on top of the world, then saw that same world come crashing down. During his early playing days in high school and his college days at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, he earned the nickname "Rexington," for his ability to shoot the basketball with fantastic precision. Today, he makes people laugh and feel inspired, and he gives out hope during what seems like an otherwise hopeless time. But it wasn’t always like this.  

Chapman could have easily been cast as Jimmy Chitwood in the 1986 movie Hoosiers. A high-school superstar with an uncanny ability to shoot the ball from any place in the gym, electrifying bounce in his step, with God-given talent and the determination to take games over. Chapman was a perfectionist, some might say "obsessive-compulsive" for his willingness to stay in the gym and shoot free throws all-night-long or his desire to eat canned turkey for the entire year as his main meal. Chapman's talent and dedication allowed him to have a 12-year NBA career. But it came with a heavy price — 10 surgeries on his body. Those surgeries then forced him to do something he never wanted to do, take pain medications. According to an ESPN article, Chapman said: “I wanted to know how the injury felt because then I would also know when it was feeling better.”

As his career was ending, he had an emergency appendectomy. Doctors prescribed Chapman OxyContin, and that’s when his troubles began. Instantly, he became addicted, then the world around him came crashing down.

With the help of others, he went to rehab and today remains drug-free after five years. Chapman now inspires thousands every day by posting videos on his Twitter feed, @RexChapman. They tell compelling short stories of hope, of overcoming obstacles, and they often make us laugh — which we all need right now. Besides his entertaining videos, Rex Chapman, the person, not the social media influencer, is a beautiful tale of perseverance. Chapman worked hard to improve himself, to correct the errors of his past, one single day at a time. He was willing to confront his demons face to face, then instead of being bitter, he gave back to those who helped him. Chapman remains humble, grounded, and caring, as each day, his social popularity grows.   

He is a lesson for all of us to keep in mind during these tough days — As American author, Tom Bodett once said, “A person needs three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”

Rex Chapman gives us all three every day, thank you.

P.S. If you are in search of a book recommendation, our team at The Daily Coach highly recommends The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. When Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave —"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"—wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment. It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

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