Steph Curry baby stories, Kentucky-to-NBA path? Hornets' first draft pick tells all

Rex Chapman still remembers the moment he was drafted to the NBA, but his lingering memory from that experience?

"One of the best memories I have of that day," Chapman said, "is some of the first people I met and remember from Charlotte were a guy and a girl - Dell and Sonya Curry - standing off to the side with a brand new baby, and that was Stephen."

Chapman, the first draft pick in Charlotte Hornets franchise history, was chosen No. 8 overall in the 1988 NBA draft. That year's draft was held June 28... or about three months after Curry, now a two-time league MVP with the Golden State Warriors, was born.

Chapman, 50, met with reporters Thursday afternoon, hours before the 2018 NBA draft, to talk all things Hornets, including NBA prospects, the evolution of Charlotte over the past 30 years, and more (as part of the team's 30th anniversary celebration, it is making a point to bring back former stars and reacquaint them with the fan base). But one topic he kept to was Stephen, the son of Chapman's then-teammate, Dell.

"Sonya and Dell used to bring Stephen over once a week to sit with me and watch a movie," Chapman said. "He was literally in a bassinet when I first started, and I would pray that I wouldn't need to change his diaper. I would pray he'd be alive when they got here to pick him up.

"Just fun times, fun memories."

Even after Chapman retired in 2000, his relationship with Dell Curry remained strong. And although the two only played together from 1988 to 1991 — Chapman was traded to the then-Washington Bullets midway through the 1991 season, and went on to Miami and Phoenix, too — that also meant Chapman maintained a relationship with Steph.

"It's really surreal (seeing him now)," Chapman said. "The early 2000's, I came here to scout a college game, and I called Dell to see what he had going on in the afternoon. He said, 'Stephen has a game, a JV game. I don't know if he'll play or not. Wanna go?' He was like a sophomore.

"This was a JV game — he got in the last couple of minutes — and Dell was like, 'Yeah, you know, he's just so small,' and I said, 'Yeah, but he's gonna grow. Look at his feet, look at his hands.' And all that ... I remember looking up a couple of years later, and he's the second-leading scorer in all of college basketball, behind Kevin Durant? So you go, this is weird.

"But I told Stephen, if it had to happen to any of our kids, he's the guy. He's just such a good kid. He still looks like a baby to me."

A Kentucky connection

When the Hornets selected Chapman out of Kentucky, they knew they were drafting a 6-foot-5 sharpshooting guard with a propensity for scoring.

And since that inaugural draft, the Hornets' connection to Kentucky has only grown stronger — Charlotte currently boasts two former Wildcats in Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Malik Monk. And on Thursday night, it appeared that trend might continue.

Throughout the pre-draft process, Charlotte was linked repeatedly to two Kentucky stars: 6-6 point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 6-9 forward Kevin Knox. Gilgeous-Alexander's defensive versatility would have likely make him a nice complement next to the undersized Monk, who specializes more in perimeter shooting and is still developing as a defender. Knox, one of the youngest players in the draft as an 18-year-old, still has room to grow as an all-around wing, but could have provided perimeter scoring immediately that the team lacks with Kidd-Gilchrist.

And Chapman, a radio and television analyst with the Kentucky basketball team, has seen both players with regularity in team practices. His thoughts?

"Both terrific young men," he said. "I enjoy watching them in practice every day, I enjoy watching them get chewed out, and I enjoy seeing how they respond to that. And either kid, you'd have no problem from a standpoint of whether they're going to take coaching or criticism or tough love, whatever you want to call it."

The Hornets originally selected Gilgeous-Alexander with the No. 11 overall pick on Thursday, but immediately traded his rights to the Clippers for the No. 12 overall pick and two future second-rounders. Knox was chosen No. 9 by the New York Knicks.

"Just personally, I think Shai is a little more game-ready" Chapman said. "You could put him in a game right now and get by for a handful of possessions. You know, these are young guys. Kevin might be a little bit further away, but his ceiling might be a little higher, though. He's still 18.

"I think both these kids, barring injury, are career 10, 12, 15-year guys. They have good substance and they're very good young men."

'This is an NBA city now'

Chapman will forever be known as the first pick in Hornets team history, but the team — and the city of Charlotte, for that matter — has changed drastically since 1988, he said.

"It was a weird time, because there were a lot of eyes on me and I wasn't our best player," Chapman said. "So I was trying to be, and there were nights I was, but I definitely wasn't all the time. And none of us really were — we lost three out of four games."

That inaugural season, the Hornets went 20-62, with Kelly Tripucka leading the team in scoring at 22.6 points per game. But right after Tripucka on the pecking order? Chapman and his 16.9 average.

Even some individual success couldn't sweeten the constant stench of losing, though. And considering how young and accustomed to winning Chapman was at Kentucky, the losses hit him even harder.

"I know the fans had a great time. We had a great time playing," Chapman said. "The fans probably had a great time after every game, and we were going home with those L's, and it was really hard. It was really difficult to know we had a packed house — a frenzied atmosphere, a college atmosphere — but more times than not we were just going to take a loss.

"Those were hard things for a young professional."

Chapman continued producing for Charlotte, averaging 16.2 points in his three and a half seasons with the team, before he was traded to Washington. He played there until 1995, when he spent one season in Miami, and then signed with Phoenix, with whom he eventually retired. Post-retirement, Chapman remained with the Suns and eventually became their Director of Basketball Operations.

Then in 2014, Chapman was arrested for shoplifting from an Apple Store in Phoenix, at which point he also revealed he had a prescription painkiller addiction. He would enter a substance-abuse rehabilitation facility, and now works with the state of Kentucky to combat the rising youth opioid crisis.

Chapman has seen and done much in his life, both on and off the basketball court. But now, 30 years later, he has the unique perspective of hindsight — of knowing how far Charlotte has come as a city and an NBA hotspot.

"The arena was way out, there was nothing downtown — sorry, uptown — at that time," Chapman said. "Just driving in here last night from the airport and seeing everything, it's a different city.

"At the time, 1988, I'm not sure that many of us players felt like it was an NBA sort of city. It shut down at 10 o'clock at night, 11 o'clock at night, and we were a brand new franchise. This is an NBA city now."

This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Steph Curry baby stories, Kentucky-to-NBA path? Hornets' first draft pick tells all."