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Rick Fox is now an actor and businessguy and eSports executive(?) and a senator in the Bahamas (!?). Before that, he was the reliable utility guy on the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. Before that ... well, that's what we're here to talk about. It's fascinating.
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00:00You probably know this face. If you're an NBA fan over a certain age, you're saying,
00:06yeah, that's Rick Fox, the guy from the Lakers. If you're more of a TV and movies person,
00:11you're saying, yeah, that's Rick Fox, the guy from TV and movies. Indeed, Rick Fox spent the
00:17late 90s and early 2000s as an important role player besides Shaq and Kobe. Strong defense,
00:24sharp shooting, multiple rings. And indeed, Rick Fox parlayed his proximity to Hollywood into a
00:32legit acting career. He was in Oz and Ugly Betty and a million other things. Fox parlayed all of
00:40the above into being one of those people who's just broadly famous. He's rich and handsome and
00:47talented and involved in stuff. So much stuff. So if not basketball or TV or movies, then maybe
00:55you know Rick Fox from his celebrity relationships or e-sports or alternative construction materials
01:03or Bahamian politics. For real, Rick Fox became a senator in the Bahamas. This guy is everywhere
01:10as a public figure. But the original entry point to all of that was basketball. And each chapter
01:16of Rick Fox's basketball career, even well before the Lakers, is unique and fascinating.
01:22Let's meet those versions of Rick Fox in the prison.
01:28Ulrich Fox was born in Canada, but he spent most of his childhood in the Bahamas, his father's native
01:34country. So the Bahamian Senate thing isn't totally random. Rick was an athletic kid. His mom is an
01:40Olympian, but basketball was not readily available to him as a high school student in Nassau. Then in
01:471984, folks from a Christian college in Indiana visited the Bahamas to spread the good word and run
01:54some basketball clinics. Rick got to participate and he took a liking to the sport, which up to that
01:59point he had mostly just seen on TV. And the way Rick puts it, basketball coaches from Indiana certainly
02:06took a liking to a kid with his attributes, regardless of his inexperience.
02:10And what they took away was, what they took away was, wow, this kid is 14, he's 6'4", he's
02:17175 pounds,
02:19he's athletic. His mom is an Olympic athlete. Yeah. And it was one thing I could do. I could run
02:25fast and I
02:25could jump high. So that is how Rick Fox ended up traveling to Indiana, moving in with a host family,
02:32and then joining the basketball team at Warsaw Community High School. Warsaw had just won a
02:38historic state championship in boys basketball. Now they had a new sophomore who had barely played
02:44before, but was big and strong and learning very fast. Like very fast. I found a game from Fox's
02:51junior season in which he dropped a nice little line of 65 points and 40 rebounds. By then Fox was
02:58six foot seven and drawing attention from D1 colleges. But he didn't manage to help Warsaw
03:04grab another state title in 85 or 86. So 1987, Fox's senior year, would be his last chance to win
03:12a high
03:13school championship until it wasn't. See, when Fox first enrolled at Warsaw, he was 15. So he joined the
03:20sophomore class. But the Indiana High School Athletic Association began to question his eligibility because
03:26of how many semesters of school he had attended while still living in the Bahamas. And in 1985,
03:33the IHSAA said Rick's junior year should be his last one playing basketball. By the time that junior
03:40season ended, they had not changed their minds and it became a whole thing. The type and duration of
03:48Fox's schooling in the Bahamas became the subject of internal dialogue, then lawsuits, and court cases,
03:55and appeals and public debate in the local press. Big deal college coaches from all over the country
04:01parachuted into Indiana to support Rick, which, you know, was obviously a recruiting tactic. But in the
04:08end, even with that support, Fox would not be allowed to play any of his senior season. He found this
04:14out while he was dissecting a starfish in biology class. Even Rick's participation in the annual Kentucky
04:20vs Indiana High School All-Star event, an exhibition game, was a subject of some conflict. Although
04:26thankfully, Rick was allowed to play and finish his high school career on the court. And things turned
04:32out fine for Rick. One of Fox's original cultural touch points for basketball was the University of
04:39North Carolina, whom he had seen win the 1982 NCAA tournament thanks to James Worthy and Michael Jordan.
04:45Rick once told his high school coach that he planned to follow in their footsteps,
04:49to which the coach was like, sure kid, totally. Well, Rick pulled it off. Dean Smith came calling,
04:56and Rick chose UNC over several other blue chip programs. That meant rejecting Bobby Knight,
05:03which, you know, was a very big deal in Indiana. Although things turned out fine for the Hoosiers in 1987.
05:09As for Rick Fox and UNC, well, once again, Rick showed up right after a school program's glory days.
05:17For most of his early college career, Fox was an underclassmen bench guy on a Tar Heel team packed
05:23with future NBA players. In Rick's junior season, he took over as the first option on a team still
05:30laden with pro prospects. Unfortunately, the 1990 Heels posted one of the worst regular season records of the
05:37Dean Smith era fell squarely in the middle of their conference and entered the NCAA tournament as just
05:43an eight seed. That meant an unusually early battle with a one seed, the mighty Oklahoma Sooners, in the
05:50second round. UNC's streak of nine consecutive Sweet Sixteens was very likely about to end.
05:57Against Oklahoma, the Tar Heels squandered a big early lead, but this three, Fox's fifth of the game,
06:03put them up by two late. After the Sooners tied it, UNC missed their best chance to break the tie
06:09with this free throw, but loosened up the rebound enough to get possession and a timeout to draw up
06:14a new play. This play usually resulted in a Fox three, but Coach Smith reminded his star that UNC
06:20didn't need three points, and Rick kept that in mind, attacking the closeout to hit this legendary shot
06:27off glass. Hell yeah. Excellent moment for Rick Fox, and then UNC got smacked in the Sweet Sixteen,
06:33but it was still cool. Fox's final year at UNC, 1991, represented his best chance at winning it all.
06:41This time, Rick and the Tar Heels dominated their conference and entered March Madness a one seed.
06:46They plowed through their first three opponents, survived a challenge from Temple in the Elite Eight,
06:51and headed back to the Final Four for the first time since the days of Michael Jordan. Their opponent?
06:56Kansas. Tough. But this was the really tough part. Rick would play the biggest game of his career
07:02in Indianapolis. Back near where his basketball career began, and back where a lot of fans still
07:08resented him for his out-of-state college choice. The fans let him hear it. While Fox claimed he wasn't
07:15nervous, perhaps not nervous enough, he played one of the worst games of his career. That 5 of 22
07:21shooting line included 0 for 7 from downtown and a foul out in 29 minutes. Just a total stinker in
07:29a
07:29close game. UNC fell to the Jayhawks, missed out on a final matchup with Duke, and so ended Rick Fox's
07:36college career. No title. Two years later, another kid from Indiana, Eric Montross, brought a national title
07:43to Chapel Hill. So this time, Fox missed a championship golden era in both directions. Still, just like
07:50high school, Fox majorly improved his individual standing while at North Carolina. Enough that a kid who
07:57had only recently learned to play basketball became a first-round pick in the 1991 NBA draft. And, once again,
08:05Rick missed out on a team's glory years. When legendary Boston Celtics GM Red Auerbach announced he was
08:12picking Fox to a room of season ticket holders, they shrugged or groaned. Media were pretty perplexed, too.
08:19Celtics officials said, eh, these fans don't really follow college basketball. And that made sense.
08:24Boston had won three titles in the prior decade, but it had been a minute. Fox joined a team that
08:31did
08:31still employ Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish, but all were in their mid-30s and slowing down big
08:38time. This team was so beat up at this point that Fox actually got a starting nod in his first
08:44ever
08:44NBA game. The last Celtic to do that was Larry Bird himself. Fox played great, too. Any suggestion that
08:52Fox would one day replace Bird was fanciful, if not an outright joke, but a rookie Fox got minutes and
08:59he
08:59impressed people. The groans turned to cheers. Fans loved his effort, his passing, his defense,
09:06his transition prowess, and the media loved his personality and his thoughtful comments.
09:11Teammates filled his bed with blue cheese dressing, which is how basketball players show affection.
09:16Rick Fox was a Celtic favorite. During Fox's early Boston career, the Celtics fully transitioned eras.
09:22The old guard mostly retired, and the new guard, well, it's complicated and it's actually quite sad.
09:30Boston had already seen the tragic death of Len Bias in 1986. By the time Fox arrived, Reggie Lewis
09:38had become Boston's rising star. Lewis was well on his way to greatness until the spring of 93,
09:44when he collapsed on the court because of a heart condition. Two months later, Lewis suffered a cardiac
09:50arrest and died at just 27 years old. Over the next few seasons, the Celtics kind of flailed for an
09:57identity, turning to a series of youngsters and veteran acquisitions as first options. Hey, there's
10:03Eric Montross. This was also the weird era of Dominique Wilkins as a Celtic. But anyway, Fox remained
10:09a solid bench contributor on what was now, understandably, a pretty bad and directionless team.
10:15But by the mid-90s, and especially after Dino Raja hurt himself, the Celtics increasingly turned to
10:22Fox and said, hey, you want to be the guy? Fox spent a couple seasons as an everyday starter and
10:29the team's
10:29premier two-way player, a primary scorer who also got some votes for Defensive Player of the Year.
10:35In the spring of 97, Rick Pitino became the new Celtics boss and immediately reached a verbal agreement
10:41with Fox on what would be a six-year, $33 million contract to be a key part of Boston's rebuild.
10:49The new Boston core would be Rick, Antoine Walker, David Wesley, and then whomever Boston got in the 97
10:56draft lottery. Pitino's plan was to just win that lottery and get Tim Duncan. Great plan. But then
11:03Boston missed out on Duncan because it turns out you can't just plan to win a lottery. It's not how
11:08lotteries work.
11:09So Pitino still needed a big guy and made a hasty, huge offer to Lakers backup center Travis Knight.
11:16I don't quite understand what manner of salary cap shenanigan Pitino was trying to pull. I don't think
11:22he did either. But either way, the Celtics could not legally fit both Knight and Fox under the salary
11:28cap. There just wasn't room without some serious shenanigans, and David Stern made sure that Pitino
11:33did not do anything under the table. So instead of signing a huge new contract with the team that
11:39developed him, Fox was surprised to find himself unemployed well into free agency when only a handful
11:45of teams still had cap space. Fox's only substantial offer came from the Cleveland Cavaliers, who stunk.
11:52To play anywhere else, he would have to accept a fraction of his market value in just a one-year
11:58deal.
11:59But Rick had other things brewing. In the preceding years, he had done some TV and movie work,
12:05mostly just playing himself or a version of himself. But by 97, he was going out for more
12:10serious acting roles and had landed a part in the HBO series Oz. Fox strongly considered New York,
12:18but ultimately picked Hollywood, signing a contract with the Lakers for just over a million dollars.
12:23That was a huge pay cut in his absolute prime. But things worked out in LA. After years of just
12:30missing title opportunities, Rick marched directly into the rotation of a soon-to-be back-to-back-to-back
12:38NBA champion. Fox became a beloved 3 and D complement to Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. And then he
12:46became all this other stuff. The point is, LA was perfect for Rick Fox, who more than made up for
12:53the pay cut and achieved everything he could have hoped for as a kid emigrating to the United States
12:59in the middle of high school. But to me, the really interesting part is all the basketball
13:05that came before. Whatever you think of him, whatever you know him from, we can agree that
13:10no one has ever had a career, which is to say a basketball slash acting slash business slash
13:15political career, quite like Rick Fox.
13:27You see all those names? Those are people who subscribed to Secret Base on Patreon and who got
13:32to see an exclusive video about the making of the movie Eddie, which starred Rick Fox and almost 50 other
13:39NBA players.
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