Foto af Flickr-bruger Fernando Medina/Cubahora
Shaquille O'Neal has had one hell of a career. Sure, he's played professionally for six NBA teams, won the finals four times, and become a big-name sportscasting personality. But he's also starred as a rhyming genie in Kazaam, rapped in Aaron Carter's smash hit "How I Beat Shaq," conducted the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall, earned the nickname "Diesel" at a mixed-martial arts gym, gone platinum with a debut album in 1993, and served as the global spokesman for Krispy Kreme.The man has done a lot, and now he wants to run for public office—not as MayorMcShaq, but as a sheriff, NBC affiliate WXIA reports. He told the station he hopes to run in 2020, though—as a resident of counties in both Georgia and Florida—he hasn't quite decided where."This is something I always wanted to do," he told the station. "It's about bringing people closer together. You know, when I was coming up, people loved and respected the police, the deputies. And I want to be the one to bring that back, especially in the community I serve."Shaq has a history of working with the force, serving as a reserve officer in Los Angeles, Tempe, Arizona, and Miami Beach, Florida. In 2016, he was sworn in as a sheriff's deputy in Clayton County, Georgia, and nabbed the record for the tallest person to ever hold the position—which is apparently a real, documented thing. But now Shaq's ready to rise up in the ranks and potentially become the tallest sheriff in whatever county he chooses to serve."I know how to run a team," he told WXIA. "My style is going to be to surround myself with guys who have been doing it way longer than I've been doing it. Surround myself with smarter people."The basketball legend added that he can get along with everybody he meets—able to "put on a suit and have a conversation with Bill Gates" just as well as he can "go in the hood and talk to the homies, and talk to the children." It's not clear if he'll tout his skills as a "master of surveillance" or his ability to operate a "laptop computer" in his campaign the way he did on his application to become a Miami cop, but he already has a damn good slogan."Shaq for sheriff," he told WXIA. "Back to the old school."Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.
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