There’s no shame in asking for help when your opponent is Michael Jordan. That applies off the court too. As much as MJ is a gambling man, he’s also known for collecting his debts. Rex Chapman got a painful lesson in that. While on VladTV, he narrated a hilarious episode he had to be bailed out by a college buddy after playing against His Airness.
Chapman recalled that his and Jordan’s circle of friends played everything from golf to cards but Chapman would not keep track of how much money they were playing for. He admitted he didn’t have much money in the bank either while gambling with Jordan. On one instance “He [Jordan] said, ‘All right you owe so and so 10 grand.”
Not admitting he’s short on funds, Rex Chapman said he wrote a check for $10,000 and handed it over. Then he had to make a quick phone call to ensure that the check goes through. “And then I had to call up a booster friend in Kentucky to get him to wire me some money to cover the gambling debt and get me to my first paycheck in the fall.”
Chapman didn’t specify when he had been on the downside of gambling against Jordan. Before he began his NBA career in 1988 with the Charlotte Hornets, he had been in touch with Jordan.
The time Rex Champon snubbed His Airness
Chapman stood out on the court since he was a teen. He was eye-catching enough that UNC alum and NBA rookie, Michael Jordan himself called him to recruit him for his school. Chapman however, turned down Jordan and UNC to play for his dream school, the University of Kentucky.
He was the star of the Kentucky Wildcats, making SEC Freshman of the Year and making the freshman scoring record. After he led the Wildcats to the `987 NCAA Tournament, the school was reluctant to let him go. He confessed on VladTV that boosters paid him a lot of money, “under the table,” to play at Kentucky.
When he decided to go to the NBA, the boosters offered him as high as $700,000. The more money they offered, the more he wanted to go to the NBA. He decided to forego a year and entered the NBA draft. His rookie contract was worth $675,000, taking a paycut to leave the school. Despite how difficult it made gambling against Jordan, he has no regrets about his decision.
