Former NBA star and current Twitter sensation Rex Chapman is expanding his media footprint to CNN’s new streaming service.
On Tuesday, CNN+ announced that Chapman will host a weekly show. He joins a growing roster of talent that includes former Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, NPR host Audie Cornish, and MSNBC reporter Kasie Hunt, along with several CNN personalities like Anderson Cooper and Kate Bolduan.
In its official announcement, CNN described Chapman’s upcoming program as “intimate conversations with athletes, entertainers and everyday heroes as Chapman looks for the silver lining beyond today’s toughest headlines.”
Chapman has a compelling personal story to share, as well, one that could inform this new show. Various injuries sustained during his NBA career led to an opioid addiction that required several visits to drug rehab and an eventual arrest for shoplifting.
Yet he’s reinvented himself as a major Twitter presence with an account that has more than one million followers and regularly shares humorous videos, historical information, stories of people making a difference in culture and, of course, some basketball content.
Following a 12-year NBA career with the Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards (then the Bullets), Miami Heat, and Phoenix Suns, Chapman got into broadcasting as an analyst for University of Kentucky basketball, NBA TV, and TNT.
More recently, Chapman has hosted a basketball podcast with actor Josh Hopkins and an interview podcast talking with athletes about their encounters with the law. He’s also hosted a show on Adult Swim titled Block or Charge, based on his popular series of tweets with video clips of various collisions, accidents, and mishaps.
According to CNN+, Chapman’s show will be part of the service’s catalog at launch. An exact premiere date for CNN+ hasn’t yet been announced, though plans are for the service to debut “in the first quarter of 2022.” So, sometime between now and April, presumably.