A Chappelle Show skit called Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories set the world ablaze with rumors about Prince’s epic skills on the court.
As it turns out, Charlie Murphy was not just spinning a tale for laughs. This picture has surfaced of Prince looking down over a young Charlie Murphy with his arms raised in victory after, allegedly, breaking his ankles several times (at least in my mind) and possibly posterizing him in front of all his friends. What I can only assume came afterwards was an Allen Iverson stepping over Tyron Lue type moment (real ball fans know what I’m talking about).
Rare photo of Prince standing over Charlie Murphy after a game of bball. Chapelle show fans will understand.. pic.twitter.com/131JoJni2z
— DJ Akademiks (@IamAkademiks) April 26, 2016
Upon further digging, Prince was not new to this. In fact, before he decided that music was the career path for him, he played for his high school team because ball is life. Minneapolis newspaperman Libor Jany found these gems in the records of Prince’s hoop dream escapades as a young lad. (The images in these tweets were originally reported for the Star Tribune by Jon Bream.)
Another Prince-related clip from the Strib archives, looking back at his hooping days at Bryant Junior High. pic.twitter.com/LrIQZ3LhSg
— Libor Jany (@StribJany) March 3, 2015
From the Strib archives: Chappelle was right. pic.twitter.com/icXBFGWkij
— Libor Jany (@StribJany) March 3, 2015
Now that all of this information is available to us, it’s much more probable to believe Charlie Murphy’s story (although, I never doubted it for a second), and just another one of many reasons we will miss the legend that is Prince. It’s a shame that he never came out to play in the celebrity All-Star game. I’m almost sure he would hold the scoring record to this very day. But we can always enjoy the Charlie Murphy Chappelle Show version and imagine. (Also, I bet those pancakes were fire.)
What do you think about Prince’s less thank well known sports career? Let us know in the comments.
