Photo Credit: ABC
In case you haven’t already heard by now, former Lakers veteran Rick Fox will look to add a new title to his resume this month as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Lakers fans should hardly be surprised by his participation as the forward has always had one foot on the basketball court and the other in Hollywood.
Fox is well-accustomed to performing alongside an all-star lineup as a key player during the Lakers’ three-peat run at the beginning of the decade. He’ll now compete alongside the likes of fellow athlete Kurt Warner, David Hasselhoff, The Situation, Bristol Palin, Brandy, Margaret Cho and more. Fox follows in the footsteps of former DWTS athletes Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin.
The North Carolina alum is approaching the competition the same way he would prepare for a grueling 82-plus game NBA season—only this time he has the help of his fitness guru girlfriend, Eliza Dushku.
“I’ve been doing exercises that I didn’t know existed—Pilates… [And we’ve been working on] creating flexibility at home,” said Fox.
Rick always understood his role and proper spots in the triangle offense when he helped the Lakers to three NBA titles. His excellent footwork and strong grasp of the game’s fundamentals also bode well for him in the contest. Check out the video below for a reminder:
Bodog.com currently has Fox as an 11-2 favorite to take home this season’s title. As long as he stays as far away as possible from the Mark Madsen School of Dancing, we say he has a pretty good shot.
milesaugust says
Great highlights, Fox was the coolest. Could do it all, but always took to his role instead. Nothing beats an open handed left to the grill of Doug Christie. That’s some shot at 2:20…
flyE says
“He’s a handsome man!” — Chick Hearn
Charles says
Good times. I think we had a Fox appreciation post not too long ago, but I’m always in favor of seeing Doug Christie get smacked in the face.
Good luck to Rick on dwts. Hopefully he actually pulls it off, though my gf reports none of the ex-athletes were particularly good at dancing (except for a figure skater apparently).
Also, <3 Mark Madsen. It takes true manliness to do that on TV.
Aaron says
Its funny how similar Fox’s and Artest’s games are. Fox is like a C plus version of RonRon. The guy could play. And much like RonRon… he never would back down. Its funny to say… but Pretty Boy Rick didn’t have the body of Artest. I guess Fox wasn’t as vain as he could have been.
Laker Girl says
I have always been a Rick Fox fan since he played w/ North Carolina.. He’s a good looking hunk of a man…I wish him luck in DWTS!!
flip says
couldn’t help but notice how in the first video cap fox makes a shot and kobe is screaming for the ball. kobe claps his hands in disgust just as fox takes the shot. something you don’t see that often now.