Recently interviewed Rex Chapman spoke on a number of topics relevant to his basketball career, including being recruited by Michael Jordan to play college basketball at the University of North Carolina, not being recruited by his father, who was the head coach of Kentucky Wesleyan College when Chapman was in high school.
Chapman drops truth bomb on how much money he was making in college compared to NBA
Chapman admitted during the interview that he was making more money with the Wildcats than in his inaugural NBA season.
"Well, first, I was making money in college. They were giving I was being paid in college under the table, so I had some money. That's part of how I got to UK, so yeah. As much as I needed. Yeah, as much as I ever needed I could go I knew where to go to get it. Many times it was just given to me, but. Yeah, boosters boosters, yeah. And before I left before I left I was offered $700,000 to stay another year at Kentucky. This is in the '80s. Right, in the '80s," Chapman said.
He said that Kentucky's decision to offer him a large amount of money made his choice to forgo another year of college basketball for the NBA Draft "easy."
"And I remember at the time when that happened that's in the book also I remember in that moment, 'cause my parents weren't in the room, it was just really weird. And I just remember thinking, they're trying to get me to stay, and this is definitely making me want to leave because what are you telling me? You could've been doing this the whole time? And now I'm threatening to leave, and now you wanna come out of pocket with some money, like real money? And so that kinda made my decision to leave easy. Now, the next year, I did I signed my contract, and it was for $675,000. So I took a pay cut to leave school," Chapman added.
Chapman drops truth bomb on how much money he was making in college compared to NBA
Chapman admitted during the interview that he was making more money with the Wildcats than in his inaugural NBA season.
"Well, first, I was making money in college. They were giving I was being paid in college under the table, so I had some money. That's part of how I got to UK, so yeah. As much as I needed. Yeah, as much as I ever needed I could go I knew where to go to get it. Many times it was just given to me, but. Yeah, boosters boosters, yeah. And before I left before I left I was offered $700,000 to stay another year at Kentucky. This is in the '80s. Right, in the '80s," Chapman said.
He said that Kentucky's decision to offer him a large amount of money made his choice to forgo another year of college basketball for the NBA Draft "easy."
"And I remember at the time when that happened that's in the book also I remember in that moment, 'cause my parents weren't in the room, it was just really weird. And I just remember thinking, they're trying to get me to stay, and this is definitely making me want to leave because what are you telling me? You could've been doing this the whole time? And now I'm threatening to leave, and now you wanna come out of pocket with some money, like real money? And so that kinda made my decision to leave easy. Now, the next year, I did I signed my contract, and it was for $675,000. So I took a pay cut to leave school," Chapman added.
