It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me: A Memoir

Former NBA player Chapman recounts his struggles with addiction in this warts-and-all memoir cowritten with sports journalist Davis (Getting to Us). Chapman came to love basketball through his father, who coached Chapman’s high school team in Kentucky. In 1988, after an impressive run at the University of Kentucky, Chapman was a first-round draft pick for the newly established Charlotte Hornets. He played for three other teams before retiring in 2000. Despite his athletic achievements, however, Chapman struggled, becoming addicted to both opioids and gambling during the height of his career. The addictions intensified following his NBA retirement, and in 2014, he was arrested outside his home after security footage caught him shoplifting from an Apple Store for drug money. The incident finally led him to enter rehab. Chapman’s frank assessment of the toll his addictions took on his loved ones lends his account appealing humility, as when he acknowledges that his ex-wife was right to pursue his assets in their divorce (“Between my addiction to Suboxone, my gambling habits, and all the other stupid shit I spend money on, our dough is never gonna last if she doesn’t grab all she can”). It’s the off-court sections that lend this sports memoir its power. Agents: (for Chapman) Mel Berger, WME; (for Davis) David Black, David Black Agency. (Feb.)