Stephen A. Smith’s political ambitions are bolstering. The analyst recently grabbed headlines as he suggested that he might seriously consider running for president in 2028. If he does, who should be his running mate? Shaquille O’Neal has some ideas.
Advertisement
Smith’s political ambitions are not just a whim. “If you’re the Democrats, that’s why Stephen A. Smith is in the news because y’all don’t have anybody,” Smith had ranted on his podcast, expressing the frustration with the Democratic Party that many across the political spectrum have been feeling. And he’s already being backed by voters, emerging as what David Smith called “an unlikely force in the Democratic party.”
Hypothetical polls present him as the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. With the political conversation around Smith getting more serious by the day, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal weighed in. When asked if he himself would be interested in joining politics and running for office, he emphatically said, “I would never run for president.” But why?
He said, “This world we live in, there’s too many left and right.” Shaq doesn’t want to be labeled by a side. In addition to that, he understands it’s impossible to please all sides, no matter what a person in power does. But he’s all for Smith seeing through his political ambitions.
“He’d be fun [as president]. And you know who his vice president would be? Ochocinco [Chad Ochocinco Johnson]. They’ll be funny. They’ll probably win too,” he said on The Big Podcast.
Shaq is already president. Not politically, but for a multi-billion dollar corporation: Reebok. At his age, perhaps he’d prefer to stay away from the drama that goes hand-in-hand with politics. But that doesn’t mean he won’t support his fellow analyst and good friend Stephen A. Smith. And imagining Ocho recording Nightcap from in and around the Oval Office is indeed quite the hilarious premise.
Shaq’s lack of political ambition doesn’t indicate a complete disinterest in politics though as he’s talked about politics before and even publicly endorsed a Presidential candidate.
Shaquille O’Neal is not completely apolitical
Politics is a murky business. The nature of the job is such that no matter who you are and what you do, there’s always going to be a group of people who disagree with you or blatantly dislike you. So, it’s understandable why certain celebrities refrain from talking politics on public platforms. Shaq has been one such celebrity for a long time.
However, the big fella isn’t completely detached from politics and holds some strong political opinions. In 2020, he made it clear on his podcast that he is a fan of Donald Trump. Shaq said, “Donald Trump speaks to an eclectic type audience… I just think he says it wrong… Donald’s like a straight-up guy. He’s a straight-forward guy.”
The big fella also revealed that he had never voted in the presidential elections. However, this isn’t to say that if a Stephen A. Smith-Chad Johnson tandem were to show up that he wouldn’t dust off the ol’ voting ballots and cast his vote for the two entertainers.
