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Come Fan with UsSunday, June 21, 2026

Prince threw away Eddie Murphy’s music after the infamous basketball game

Super Bowl XLI: Pepsi Halftime Show
Super Bowl XLI: Pepsi Halftime Show
Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

The late, great Prince was a competitive athlete, and we know this mainly because of that famous Chappelle’s Show sketch. You know, the one where Charlie Murphy recounts how he and his friends got their asses kicked in a pickup basketball game. For old time’s sake, here’s the sketch:

Since then, we’ve seen and heard further proof of Prince’s athleticism, from the unearthing of his junior high basketball photo to Jimmy Fallon’s ping-pong story. However, according to this feature from GQ Magazine’s Chris Heath, there’s more to Charlie Murphy’s basketball story than what was depicted on Chappelle’s Show.

In the middle of Prince’s friends confirming the accuracy of Murphy’s story, his friend Gilbert Davison revealed how Prince responded to Eddie Murphy wanting to listen to his music:

Davison: The backstory to that was—and this is the part Charlie doesn’t tell—Eddie had wanted to play Prince his new album. So during that basketball game, Eddie’s music was playing, via boom box, on a cassette. After that game, Prince goes over and he tosses the cassette out of the boom box, and he says, “Let me ask you a question: Do you see me stop my show to do comedy?”

I can probably see why Charlie Murphy left that part out; he probably wanted to save his brother from embarrassment, and no one really played Eddie Murphy’s part in the sketch, anyway. But it would have been hilarious to see a re-enactment of Prince taking Eddie’s cassette out, throwing it away, and dropping that savage quote.

You can read more remembrances of Prince over at GQ, which includes even more stories about him kicking people’s asses at ping pong.

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