Retired NBA player Rex Chapman has become an unlikely star on Twitter. He has amassed one million followers to his account, which has evolved from “block or charge” jokes tied to home blooper videos into a nonstop feed of positive vibes. Chapman clearly enjoys sharing amusing moments, and he brought that energy IRL to the Runnin' Plays podcast in the form of anecdotes about a young Stephen Curry.
Chapman was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets in 1988, the same year Steph was born and the expansion franchise acquired Stephen's father, Dell Curry. Chapman and Curry lived as neighbors and became close friends. Naturally, Chapman spent a lot of time around Baby Steph, and shared some delightful stories from Charlotte:
“Sonya and Dell used to bring Stephen over to my place, leave him with me for a couple hours while they'd go to a movie,” Chapman recalled. “I was 19 and was just hoping he wouldn't poop in his pants so I had to change a diaper.”
Apparently, Stephen Curry's elite basketball work ethic came after his infancy:
“I remember when Stephen was just learning to talk, and I went to go pick up Dell for practice one day, and Stephen just came out of the house just crying and crying, and Dell said ‘I got to go to practice Stephen,' and [Steph] said, ‘You got to go to practice again, daddy?', like ‘How much with this practice stuff?',” Chapman said.
“We all thought we were pretty good, and the baby was better than us the whole time,” Chapman said about Baby Steph's basketball future. “Little did we know. We thought we were hot stuff, and he was just chilling in the backseat biding his time.”
Chapman noted that Stephen Curry's mother, Sonya, became a key figure in his life when he was a young professional learning the ropes of adulthood:
“Sonya was basically raising me and Steph at the same time,” Chapman explained. “I didn't know how to do laundry and I'm a rookie, and she came over to my place … And Dell apparently told Sonya to come down to my apartment and just look inside. So she came in … and I didn't know how to do laundry, so on the road I just bought like 60 new pairs of underwear, and I was just wearing underwear brand new … She had to wash like 50 pairs of underwear.”
Once again, folks within NBA circles report that the Currys are an extremely decent and impressive family.
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