Shaquille O’Neal’s Politics Have Always Been Confusing, but Now He Sounds Like a Giant Mouthpiece for the NRA

Shaquille O’Neal is a great big black man. He was a phenomenal basketball player and a horrible rapper. He likes to bill himself as a big ol’ cuddly teddy bear, but Shaquille O’Neal’s politics are dangerous.

He’s a great big black man with a podium and a microphone and a whole lot of “pull your pants up” rhetoric. He’s a great big black man who wades in the hip-hop waters but doesn’t protect those whom the music supports or those who make the music.

It’s almost as if Shaquille O’Neal forgets the days when he used to be Shaq-Fu. He’s so pro-police that during his off time, he was sworn in as a deputy. The only thing I’ve found as weird as a black NBA player being sworn in as deputy was when I learned that Karl Malone purchased an 18-wheeler just so he could drive around in an 18-wheeler.

Probably shocking to no one is that Shaq supports the National Rifle Association’s efforts to leave gun laws—more specifically, the legal age of gun purchase—alone, and his answer to stopping gun violence in school? You guessed it: more police.

“The government should give law enforcement more money,” he said on WABC Radio’s Curtis and Cosby show. “Give more money, you recruit more people, and the guys that are not ready to go on the streets, you put them in front of the schools. You put ’em in front of the schools, you put ’em behind the schools, you put ’em inside the schools, and we need to pass information. ... I would like to see police officers in schools, inner cities, private schools.”

To truly understand O’Neal, just know that this great big black man lives in Florida by choice. He noted during the radio show that he doesn’t live far from the Parkland high school where 17 children and school staff were shot and killed.

“You know it was a very, very sad incident,” he said. “Close to my heart. I actually live in Fort Lauderdale; I actually knew the sheriff, called him and told him he did a wonderful job.”

O’Neal not only voluntarily went through the police-academy program but also announced in November that he plans to run for sheriff in Georgia in 2020. That news would be great if O’Neal actually remembered his Shaq-Fu days and was willing to use his celebrity to reach the kids he would be expected to arrest. The problem is that O’Neal’s politics seem like more of the same.

In 2013, O’Neal not only supported but endorsed Chris Christie for governor of New Jersey.

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