NBA champion, Hollywood actor, and Bahamian political candidate Rick Fox claims that his and his campaign manager's lives were threatened during a confrontation with political rivals, which was captured in a viral video. Born in Toronto and raised in the Bahamas, the 56-year-old Fox launched his campaign for a legislative seat last November as a member of the Free National Movement (FNM) party. However, at an event on Thursday, Fox and his FNM supporters found themselves face-to-face with Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) members in a turf war over campaign tents.
"Sir, this tent is not gonna be here," a man, believed to be from the PLP party, told Fox and his staff. "We told them before they walked down there and moved these tents and bring them down here… This is a marker…. We put our vehicles here as a marker." He added, "I told them... these are our vehicles and we have reserved this spot," insisting that Fox's campaign had taken the spot where his party's tent was supposed to be placed. When Fox calmly asked about campaign rules, he was met with a furious response from the PLP staffer. "I don't give a f*** about no rules!" the rival campaigner shouted.
Tempers erupted between the two rival campaigns, and Fox needed to be restrained by staff. Ultimately, Fox turned directly towards the camera and flexed while challenging his rivals. "Right here for y'all all day long," the enraged Fox told the camera. At no point did Fox dissuade onlookers from recording; instead, the former University of North Carolina star encouraged them to do so. "I want the Bahamian people to know," he said. "Record!"
Fox later issued a statement to TMZ Sports. "The opposition party that is in power are notorious for victimizing and bullying Bahamians," Fox told TMZ. "But I've been standing up to them, and in this video, my campaign manager's life was threatened and so was mine by someone on their party as we are Advance Poll voting [Thursday]. I stood up to the bully no different than my basketball career when I was the enforcer. Someone threatens a teammate's life or threatens my life, I will defend to the death if necessary."
Fox famously won three NBA titles alongside Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles. He previously played for the Boston Celtics after being taken in the first round of the 1991 NBA Draft. He married actress Vanessa Williams in 1999, but they later divorced, and he wed actress Eliza Dushku a decade later before they split in 2014. Fox has also appeared in a number of movies, including Spike Lee's He Got Game and, more recently, Highest 2 Lowest.
