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One of the strongest and nicest guys I have ever known hadn’t been seen in a while, and I wondered what was up with my friend.

He was never the kind of guy to get in trouble. He was always helping other people, giving more of himself than anyone I have ever known.

So, his disappearance was puzzling, to say the least.

As it turns out, the guy, whose name I will not mention, was out of town for a while because he was getting help for his opioid addiction. After a long stay at a rehabilitation center, he came back and hasn’t touched an opioid since.

It was hard to believe. This is a guy who has an occasional beer, but I have never seen him drunk. His addiction made no sense.

What happened was he had some pain from a botched surgery from years earlier. He was prescribed pain pills by his doctor — strong pain pills that are highly addictive.

Eventually, he needed help to get off them.

This is a story that we hear all too often. Only it usually doesn’t end in a success like it did with my friend, who had a strong network of friends and family. Plus, he was courageous.

We have seen doctors, police officers and judges fall under the spell of opioids that are pushed on us by big pharmacy and some doctors. These high-powered pills are worse than anything you can get on the street, and they ruin lives. Good people end up dead or in prison.

Opioids came dangerously close to ruining Rex Chapman’s life, too, showing that even professional athletes who make millions of dollars and have access to the best healthcare are vulnerable to opioids.

Luckily, Rex survived to tell his story, and oh what a story it was.

Chapman’s name was one that I hadn’t heard in a long time when I stumbled upon one of his tweets of a video a few years ago. In the video, a dolphin came flying out of the water to knock a guy off a surfboard. Rex asked if it was a block or a charge.

It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen on Twitter, and I immediately started to follow Rex.

Years later, Chapman is still one of my favorite Twitter follows because he posts videos about dogs as well as his block vs. charge videos. He also disdains the same racist jerks that I disdain, and he isn’t afraid to expose them for what they are.

I remembered the high-flying Chapman playing basketball for Kentucky in the 1980s, and he was awesome. I wanted the Celtics to draft him so badly. Instead, he was a lottery pick by the Hornets before playing for the Wizards, Heat and Suns.

He scored nearly 10,000 points in 12 years in the NBA.

It wasn’t until I saw him tweet an interview he did with Charles Barkley and Gayle King, though, that I really looked into Chapman the person. That is when I learned about his memoir titled “It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me.”

I had no idea that Chapman was arrested for stealing from an Apple Store to pay for his opioid addiction. I had no clue he ever had an opioid addiction in the first place.

Seeing Chapman talk about being arrested and letting his family down sent me directly to Audible.com to buy his audiobook. I listened to it as I walked the dogs who I think of every time I see one of Rex’s cute dog videos, and Rex is the narrator for his own book.

Rex is no Hemmingway, but the book is incredible. It chronicles his days as a basketball player at a young age, his “King Rex” days at Kentucky and his days in the NBA.

It talks about his sad retirement days — days he says he was not prepared for.

More importantly, Rex talks about his opioid addiction, his gambling problem and his battle with depression.

Talking about such things is so important. Not only does it help the person talking about it, it is so beneficial to the people listening to it.

Rex’s book shows that addicts are not just people who panhandle on the street. Even NBA stars are susceptible to living in their cars and stealing from Apple Stores. The opioid epidemic is a threat to all of us.

Like the judge who almost went to prison for “doctor shopping” to fill his opioid needs, Chapman didn’t go out looking for drugs. He started taking shots so he could play basketball through injuries.

Then, he got prescribed opioids for appendicitis. He kept taking them because he figured that they were just “medicine” given to him by a doctor. He found out that doctors had no problem continuing to give him that bad medicine for years and years.

Eventually, Rex spun out of control. That spin led to a very public arrest. It was rock bottom times a million.

Thankfully, Rex had a strong network of family and friends to support him. He lived to tell the story, and we should all be thankful that he did.

Hearing Rex’s story will undoubtedly help other people by raising awareness of a problem too many people write off as just people being weak. More people will see that it could happen to them, too.

His book will help family members and friends help an addict identify and deal with the problem before it is too late. We can’t count on our government to help with the opioid epidemic, so we have to help ourselves.

This book is a useful tool.

Chapman’s book will also help people see that it is OK to seek out help for problems. It will help some athletes and tough guys see that depression isn’t a form of weakness.

“We’ve got to change that,” Rex wrote. “If you’re a diabetic, you take insulin. Right? If you tear your ACL, you get surgery. Why should it be different for depression?”

Today, Chapman is doing great. He has had a TV show on CNN+ as well as a few podcasts. He makes millions of people think and laugh on Twitter every day.

Speaking the truth, he said, is easier after bottoming out.

“I can go back and live in my car again,” Chapman wrote. “I’m going to be honest about this stuff. And if fewer opportunities come my way because of speaking out for things I know are just, then so be it. After all those years of holding my lounge, I’m finally starting to find my voice.”

He is speaking out on the racial problems that he said he was too afraid of doing when he was younger. He is also making days just a little bit brighter.

“I like knowing that I’m giving people a brief chuckle during what otherwise might be a real stressful day,” Rex wrote. “I’m a former professional athlete and a social media influencer, whatever that means.”

It means a lot, actually. His book means a lot. Hopefully you will check it out, either in book or audiobook form.

You should read the book if you are a person who never took a drug in your life. You should read it if you are an addict trying to get help. You should read it if you are a star athlete who thinks you can do whatever you want without consequence.

His book will help so many people. 

By writing it, Chapman will leave a legacy that is even greater than the one he left on the basketball court.

— Bill Foley, who still wishes the Celtics somehow drafted Rex Chapman, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.