As a professional athlete, life after the end of your career can be a tough reality to stomach. To some degree, you're still relatively famous, but if you didn't properly set yourself up for the years following your playing days, then things can go bad pretty quickly. Finances dry up, you're low on marketable skills, etc.
Unfortunately, former Kentucky basketball star and Phoenix Suns player Rex Chapman may be facing this reality. The one-time baller has been arrested and charged with 14 counts of felony after police examined videotapes from a Scottsdale, AZ Apple Store that appeared to show Chapman stealing merchandise from the store over a period of four months.
A video compiled by the Scottsdale police, which you can watch above, shows Chapman milling about the Apple Store, checking out merchandise, and then picking up items. According to the police, Chapman would walk into the store with an old Apple sales bag, fill the bag with merchandise, and then pretend to buy the goods using a self-checkout app available to Apple customers.
After nabbing the merch, police said that Chapman sold it all back to a Scottsdale pawn shop. The total worth of all the items Chapman allegedly took was roughly $14K.
Last Saturday, Chapman posted bail for the same amount, and was released from custody. He will appear in court on Friday.
Chapman played in the NBA for 13 seasons, and was a first round pick in the 1988 NBA Draft, selected eighth overall. He retired following the 2000 NBA season, and has worked as a sportscaster for CBS Sports and TNT since then.
[via Deadspin, AZ Central]
