The hilarious 2004 “Chappelle’s Show” sketch featuring musician Prince and basketball was based as much on fact as fiction.

In the comedy sketch, the impromptu pickup game matched Prince, played by comedian Dave Chappelle, and musical Revolution stand-ins against Charlie Murphy, the brother of Eddie Murphy, and several buddies.

Murphy dubbed it “Shirts and Blouses” because “Prince” was wearing a signature, ruffled purple shirt in the skit.

As you might surmise, “Prince,” — the baller — schooled Murphy & Co. in all aspects of hoops. He polished his flustered foes off with a soaring two-hand slam with the help of trick photography.

Victory achieved, “Prince” proclaimed “Game, Blouses!” while hanging from the rim.

The skit ended with “Prince” serving pancakes to his defeated houseguests.

Imagining the real 5-foot-2 Prince, whose real name is Prince Rogers Nelson, excelling at basketball isn’t as far-fetched as some may believe.

Before the late musical genius was known for “Purple Rain,” he was raining jump shots at Bryant Junior High and Central High schools in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minn.

“Prince was an excellent player, a good ball handler and shooter, but very small. I’d say he was our sixth or seventh man,” Bryant Junior High School Coach Richard Robinson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“With a different group, he would have been a starter. But as it turns out, he was with about the best group to ever come through here.”

Wearing a huge Afro, Prince played at Bryant Junior High and then as a freshman and sophomore on Central High’s junior varsity team.

“He could handle the ball, penetrate to the basket and dish,” Central High Coach Al Nuness told the Aurora (Colo.) Sentinel.

“I really believe basketball was his first love. I remember Prince, Duane and their close friend, Paul Mitchell, always sneaking into the gym when school was closed.”

A prominent player at Bryant and Central was Prince’s half brother, 6-foot-2 Duane Nelson, who went on to compete at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a NCAA Division I team, from 1977 to 1981.

Central went 25-1 in 1976-77, the season following Prince’s graduation from Central, which closed in 1982.

Duane Nelson, who died in 2013, was at one time head of security at Prince’s Paisley Park studio.

While music was his calling, Prince continued to shoot hoops recreationally as an adult — sometimes wearing heels.

The “Chappelle’s Show” comedy was based on real life. Following a 1985 party at Prince’s digs in Los Angeles, the rock star challenged his guests, including Charlie and Eddie Murphy, to some hoops. And, yes, as host, he did serve pancakes at a postgame party.

“People always ask me if it was a joke. It’s not,” Charlie Murphy told Huffington Post.com of the sketch. “The cat could ball, man.”

Prince had other associations with the sports world. Among them:

• Many insist his performance at the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami, in the rain, was the most entertaining halftime show in Super Bowl annals.

• In 2010, Prince composed “Purple and Gold” as a tribute to the Minnesota Vikings’ run to the NFC final.

• Last summer, following the Minnesota Lynx’s WNBA championship, Prince hosted and performed at a celebration bash at Paisley Park. The party lasted until 4 a.m.

• On March 3, Prince attended the NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder and received a standing ovation from the crowd.

• At one point, Prince rented the Beverly Hills home of NBA standout Carlos Boozer. Prince dramatically re-decorated the house — then handed Boozer a check for $1 million to cover “damages.”

• Prince’s hobbies included roller skating — on clear skates that lit up in purple.

• At Minnesota Twins baseball games, the sound system plays Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” following Twins home runs.

• The Twins have made “Little Red Corvette” the standard tune during the seventh-inning stretch.

• Prince often attended Minnesota Timberwolves NBA games and was chummy with many of the players.

Following Prince’s death, the Timberwolves posted to social media this touching tribute: “When Doves cry, Wolves cry.”

So who knows? Had Prince been a few inches taller, and had he attended a school more in need of his basketball skills, would Prince, the pop icon, ever have emerged?

As it turns out, basketball’s loss was the world’s gain.