[Old General Record] Chapman: Crazy Shooter in Phoenix!

When you mention the NBA shooter, who will you think of, is it Curry or Ray Allen; and if we narrow the range to the Suns, how many more people can you think of?

Open the list of players in the Suns' history. Under this standard, the first person to catch his eye is called Rex Chapman.

The reason why this crazy shooter thinks of him is mainly the last embarrassing moment when he saw the name, he was arrested for stealing goods from an Apple store. Previously, experts reported that 60% of the league's players will face economic crisis within five years of retirement, and we have seen too many examples of bankruptcy after retirement.

For fans, their biggest reluctance is probably that their idols have no news after retirement, but in the end they recalled them in this situation.

Rex Chapman, a crazy shooter who redefines the word "crazy", perhaps most people don't have much impression of this name except Suns fans.

In the 1988 draft, Chapman was selected by the Hornets with the eighth pick in the first round, which was the Hornets' first season in the establishment of the team, and Chapman also became the first signing player in the Hornets' history.

From the perspective of personal performance, although Chapman performed well during the Hornets, their fate for the expanded team is that their results in the previous few seasons were basically a mess. In more than three years in Charlotte, the Hornets had the best record in the first three seasons, but only had 26 wins.

Although he had a poor record in leading the team, for Chapman, he still left his dunk scenery with the Hornets. Although she looks quiet, she is also a talented monster who flies and escapes from the sky. She has participated in the dunk competition for two consecutive years, but her best result is only third. After the Hornets, Chapman was traded to the Washington Bullet at the time. Due to his injuries, his performance was not outstanding. After staying for three seasons, he was traded to the Heat. Although he only stayed at the Heat for only one short season, Chapman still made many Heat fans remember his name.

On February 23, 1996, in the away match between the Bulls and the Heat, Chapman scored 39 points in a single three-pointer against Jordan and Pippen, helping the Heat defeat the Bulls 113-104. To mention in particular, when the season happened to be the Bulls' 72-win season, they only lost 10 games in the whole season, and one of them came from Chapman.

Time comes in the summer of 1996, and Chapman signed with the Suns to officially start his crazy shooter career.

The 1996-97 season was a turbulent time for the Suns. They picked a young man named Steve Nash at the 15th pick in the first round of the draft, but the team also lost Barkley, the Hall of Fame superstar. As a result, the team suffered a 13-game losing streak at the beginning of the season. Robert Holly and Sam Cassel, who were exchanged for Barkley's trade, not only did not help the team, but also caused conflicts in the locker room because Horry threw a towel on coach Danny Angie's face, and was immediately cleared out by the team.

Recalling the fact that Robert Horry later hit Nash in the 2007 playoffs, indirectly causing the Suns' chances to win the championship to be wasted. It is estimated that it is difficult for Suns fans to have a good impression of Robert Horry.

Compared with this, Kassel still made some contributions to the Suns, at least he became a bargaining chip in exchange for Jason Kidd, who scored 11 consecutive victories at the last moment of the season to enter the playoffs.

Back to Chapman's storyline, in the 1997 playoffs, the seventh-seeded Suns met the Supersonics led by Sean Kemp and Gary Payton in the first round. Chapman scored 9 three-pointers in the first game and scored 42 points, setting a record of three-pointers in the playoffs at that time, helping the Suns to break the Supersonics home court in the first game and win two wins in the first three games.

Considering that the first round of the playoffs was still a five-game three-win system, that is, the fourth game that will be played at the Suns at home, a great chance is to end the series.

In the fourth game, the Supersonics, which had no retreat, had a full counterattack, and led by three points at 107-104 in the regular time countdown. In the end, it seemed that the Suns had no other choice. Kidd, who was executing the sideline ball, hung an incredible high-angle lob under the Supersonic defense and passed it to the other side of the court.

Then Chapman turned around and ran away, and received the ball with one hand the moment before the basketball was about to go out of bounds. He turned around and threw the ball out. He held his breath all over the court, and the ball drew a beautiful arc in the air, and finally entered the net hollow, and the Suns tied the score strongly and entered overtime.

"At the moment when basketball broke the net, I thought God was going to abandon us."

At that time, Supersonics coach George Carl still had lingering fears when he mentioned this ball in a post-match interview, and this ball became a classic moment for Chapman. But unfortunately, the only drawback is that the Suns finally lost in overtime in the game. After returning to Seattle in the fifth game, they were defeated directly and missed the second round.

Although the team was eliminated, it was at least a tragic hero for Chapman.

In his career, Chapman has been playing for the Suns. After this goal, Chapman can occasionally bring some surprises to fans:

Facing the Trail Blazers' four-overtime battle on November 14, 1997, the Suns were still three-pointers behind in the second overtime countdown, and at that time, the Suns were still Jason Kidd, who sent the ball to the sideline. After running a lap, Chapman went around from the bottom line to the top of the arc to receive the ball, forcing a three-step move from the three-point line to force the ball, and the basketball was hollowed into the net again, and the Suns were able to bring the game into the third overtime.

Fortunately, the result of this game was not regrettable. The Suns finally defeated the Trail Blazers 140-139 after four overtimes..

But for Chapman, his height and size are still slightly thin by the shooting guard standards, which has led to his unhealthy career, missing more than a dozen games almost every season, and the consequences of this problem were eventually completely detonated in the 1999 playoffs.

The Suns' opponent in the first round of the playoffs was the Trail Blazers who built the team around violent forwards. Isaiah Ryder, Bonds Wells and others were nominally the same shooting guard, but their physical fitness was not at the same level as Chapman.

Chapman was constantly knocked to the ground during the game, and other teammates were exhausted just by making up for defense. At the last moment, the Suns did not dare to leave him on the court. In the second game of the series, they played as a starter for only 7 minutes. They only got another chance until the third game was basically confirmed that the game was over. In the end, the Suns were defeated by the Trail Blazers one-sidedly, and Chapman only scored 17 points in total during the entire series, which basically shows his problem.

In the offseason in 1999, the Suns welcomed Penny Hardaway, and Chapman naturally undoubtedly retreated to the bench. In addition to the significant reduction in playing time, averaging 6.6 points per game was the first time in his career to fall below double digits; but even with such a low frequency of use, Chapman still suffered injuries at the end of the 1999-00 season.

Perhaps it was this accident that Chapman began to realize that his true level was already difficult to meet the NBA level. After the season, Chapman chose to hang up his jersey and left the NBA arena.

After retiring, Chapman still did not leave the Suns, and at the beginning he stayed with the Suns as a scout; after that, he worked in the Timberwolves and the Nuggets, and was often invited to broadcast stations to work in broadcasting. Judging from these positions, his financial conditions should be pretty good, but who knew it would end up like this...

On September 10, 2015, according to AZ Center reporter Bram, Chapman was arrested for stealing more than $14,000 in an Apple store, and this was the last time he saw Chapman.