Kevin Johnson was a pretty good player back in his younger days, earning a few All-Star nominations and putting up his share of gaudy stats. Nowadays, however, he is more well known in the eyes of the American public as the mayor of Sacramento, savior of the Kings franchise.
But he is not the only baller who threw his hat into the political ring. Join me as I look back on some other NBA players who trod (or attempted to trod) the same path.
Bill Bradley: this standout college player, Olympic gold-medalist and one-time All-Star played his entire pro career for the Knickerbockers of New York. Bradley parlayed his status as a popular sports figure into an 18-year tenure as a senator in New Jersey, troublingly proving that, while the voting public can’t be bought, they can be easily wooed by sports stars.
Loy Vaught: a bruising power forward who spent most of his career with the Clippers, Loy never received the recognition that he deserved as a semi-talented big who could sometimes score. Angered by this injustice, he attempted to run for a senate seat in his native Michigan. His ill-fated campaign is mostly remembered for giving us the iconic “Can You Dunk?” series of attack ads, which played on the fact that Vaught could dunk, and the opposing candidates could not. Despite this seeming advantage, he only secured 1% of the vote.
Dave Bing: known in tech circles as the inspiration for Microsoft’s “Bing” search engine, named for when a Microsoft employee found that he could not access satisfactory information on Bing’s Hall-of-Fame career while using Google. After Bing retired, he decided to continue giving back to the city of Detroit, where he played, and became its mayor, steering it promptly and directly into bankruptcy, the largest American city to do so in history.
Kevin Johnson: wait, you already know about this dude.