The age of the athlete-politician will be upon us soon, writes williamfleitch
LeBron 2020. Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer. Photos: Getty Images Remember when everyone wanted the Rock to run for president? The general consensus in the wake of 2016 was that if that idiot could win, anybody can — heck, maybe you even required a celebrity to beat him. Do not forget that Dwayne Johnson actually played some legitimate footsie with this idea as recently as January, noting that while he didn’t plan on running in 2020, a presidential run was something “he was not ruling out.
Sports figures have run for office before, of course, but it usually involves a minor-to-semi-minor sports figure leveraging their minor celebrity to help them transition to new career — the political equivalent of the retired athlete getting a used car dealership to slap his name on. Former Washington quarterback and U.S. Representative Heath Shuler is a good recent example of this, as is current Ohio congressman Anthony Gonzalez. It’s rare that sports superstars run for office.
It would seem time, though. There has never been a time when sports and politics have been so inextricably intertwined. From the NFL protests — which not only drew Trump’s ire but came this close to pushing Beto O’Rourke past Ted Cruz last year — to LeBron James and Stephen Curry fighting with the president on Twitter to the equal pay fight with the U.S.
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