Faces Of The Big South: Winthrop’s Chase Claxton

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Basketball runs deep in the family for Chase Claxton.

On any given night you might catch Chase’s older brother Nic making eye popping plays with the Brooklyn Nets. Back in the Carolina’s Chase makes plays with Winthrop, which is no surprise given the fact that he’s played basketball ever since he can remember. The NBA bloodlines don’t end with Nic, Chase’s dad Charles also played in the NBA in 1995.

“I actually have no experience of my dad in the NBA,” said Chase Claxton. “He stopped playing before I was born, my brother has some experiences, but not any he can remember. He was only 1, and I wasn’t born yet. He started to wind down towards the end because he just wanted to take care of the family. I was on the way, he already had my brother, so it was a lot to be moving around.”

Despite growing up in a house with a dad who played in the NBA Chase credits his brother Nic with passing on key basketball knowledge.

“Well he didn’t really give me the blueprint, he gave my brother the blueprint,” Claxton recalled. “I didn’t get too serious about basketball until I saw it from my brother. So I really got a lot of my, not inspiration, but just learned how to handle myself from my brother, and he got it from my dad.”

So with three hoopers living under one roof they’re bound to be similar right?

“Offensively we don’t play alike at all, but where the similarities come, we all play extremely hard,” said Claxton. “My brother and I are both more similar because we have a slighter frame, so we have to make up for the lack of strength with aggression.so that’s what we both do.”

As the Eagles prepare for a shot at winning their third straight Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championship they know they’ll get everyone’s best shot.

“Nothing is given, we’re going to get every team’s best shot,” said Claxton. “Of course we were defending champions last year and we got every team’s best shot, but the third year it’s just different. It’s a lot different and harder, you might get bored with the details and we have to make sure we don’t do that. Just attack each day like it’s our first year, like we haven’t won it yet.”