Former NBA Champion Rick Fox Launches Bid For Parliament

Rick Fox, the previous NBA star finest recognized for serving to the Los Angeles Lakers safe three championships, is moving into Bahamian politics. Fox introduced this week that he intends to run for a parliamentary seat within the Bahamas throughout subsequent yr’s basic election, as reported by ESPN.

His announcement comes at a turbulent second for the island nation. Officers are grappling with a sequence of corruption controversies involving public figures, rising considerations about irregular migration, and continued rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Dorian — the catastrophic Class 5 storm that ravaged the archipelago in 2019.

Fox revealed his plans in a press release posted to Fb on Nov. 24, saying he hopes to deal with frustrations he has heard echoed throughout the nation. “You’ve shared that you really want extra transparency, a contemporary economic system that prioritizes affordability and safety,” he wrote, including that Bahamians deserve “a rustic the place alternative is our actuality, not only a promise.”

Though broadly recognized for his basketball accomplishments, Fox’s background stretches past sports activities. Earlier than retiring from the NBA, he started creating pursuits in leisure and later turned a outstanding determine in esports. In 2015, he co-founded the gaming group Echo Fox and secured a crew slot within the North America League of Legends Championship Sequence, one of many world’s best esports leagues. He has since moved on from the group however stays one of many earliest mainstream sports activities figures to publicly put money into the gaming trade.

Fox’s ties to the Bahamas run deep. He was born in Toronto to a Canadian mom and a Bahamian father however spent a lot of his childhood on the islands, the place he says he shaped his sense of id and neighborhood. These connections, he defined, are a part of what motivated him to enter public service at a frightening second for the nation.

Drafted by the Boston Celtics with their twenty fourth choose within the 1991 NBA Draft, Fox performed six seasons in Boston earlier than becoming a member of the Lakers, the place he turned a dependable presence throughout their dominant early-2000s championship run. Now, as an alternative of the hardwood, he’s aiming for a seat within the legislature as he pitches himself as a frontrunner targeted on reform and alternative.
Fox’s candidacy provides a high-profile title to what’s anticipated to be a fiercely contested election cycle. Whether or not voters will embrace the previous athlete’s transfer into politics stays to be seen, however his entry has already drawn vital nationwide and worldwide consideration.

RELATED CONTENT: Rick Fox Combatting Local weather Change With Inexperienced Concrete