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Rex Chapman’s rise to Twitter sensation led to ESPN’s “E:60” featuring former UK star Friday night

ESPN’s Ryan McGee lives in Charlotte and about five weeks ago took his 15-year-old daughter, a high school freshman, and her friends to see the Charlotte Hornets play.

During the game, highlights of former Kentucky star Rex Chapman — Charlotte’s first-ever draft pick in 1988 — flashed on the big screen. McGee asked his daughter if they knew who that was. They didn’t — or last not until he told her it was Chapman.

“Then all of their eyes lit up. They knew him from Twitter but had no idea he played basketball,” McGee said.

That’s because in the last year Chapman has become a Twitter sensation with close to 600,000 followers.