By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

FORMER National Basketball Association three-time champion Ulrich ‘Rick’ Fox and world champion Tonique Williams got a chance to paint a clear picture of what it’s like to come out of their humble beginnings from the Bahamas to international stardom.

The duo - an Ambassador at Large of The Bahamas and a recipient of a major highway named in her honour - spoke at the 31st Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2024) and the 3rd AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum that was held at the Baha Mar Convention Arts & Entertainment Centre on Friday.

They addressed the audience from a panel that included Amadou Gailo Fall, the president of the Basketball Africa League and Clare Akamanzi, the Chief Executive Officer of the NBA Africa. The quartet all spoke under the theme” The Transformative Power of Sports: Lessons from Legends” with Akamanzi and Fall providing a brief history of how their lives and so many others in Africa have been positively affected through sports.

Fox, a former basketball player for the Kingsway Academy Saints, who left the Bahamas to complete his high school in Warsaw, Indiana before enrolling at the University of North Carolina where he flourished with the Tar Heels men’s basketball team.

Drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1991 in the first round with the 24th pick, Fox started as a rookie and played until 1997 when he was released. He then signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. He played until 2004 helping the Lakers to a three-peat run from 2000-2003.

Fox. who went on to become a budding actor in movies such as Blue Chips, Eddie, He Got Game, is now the Chief Executive Officer of the company called Partanna Global, the world’s first carbon negative and climate resilient solution for cement.

Fox said he was thrilled to see Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis embracing climate change and through his company, he hope that he can instill further awareness by creating some job opportunities for Bahamians to excel and embrace the climate changes around the world.

As the Ambassador for sports, Fox said was honored to follow in the footsteps of Mychal ‘Sweet Bells’ Thompson, who set the pace as a two-time champion with the Lakers in 1987 and 1988.

Thompson had just spent a half a season with the San Antonio

Spurs in 1987 when he was acquired by Los Angeles and went on to help capture the first of their two back-to-back titles. Prior that, he spent eight seasons with Portland.

“Mychal Thompson was a neighbor of mine, who became the first Bahamian drafted into the NBA with the number pick in 1978 (by the Portland Trailblazers). He went on to have a storied career, winning two NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers,” Fox said.

“So the partner of sports began with the mentorship. It was his journey that inspired my belief that I too could go onto this part and become an NBA player and a three-time champion.”

As a strong believer in God, Fox said he grew up in a village that helped his parents, especially his father, Ulrick Fox Sr, who started a ice making company on a tropical hot island to make a living for his family.

“I did not for one second believed that black men could not rise to power of influence,” he said. “That made stepping on the basketball court become so easy and stepping into a boardroom became so much easier.”

Fox said whenever he got the opportunity to play basketball, sit in a boardroom with the movers and shakers of companies or get set to display his acting skills in a movie, it was because of what was instilled in him through some people around him. 

Partanna Global, according to Fox, was why he decided to come home two years ago after Hurricane Dorian to ensure that he could service his community in a more meaningful way than he could ever imagine.

Similar to what his father did with his ice company, he hope to make an impact through his cement company here in the Bahamas, providing job opportunities for Bahamians to excel in another field of the environment. 

Williams, a graduate of St John’s College and a former CARIFTA standout, went on to the University of South Carolina before she ventured into the professional ranks with her breakout year in 2004.

She started the year winning the bronze medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary and followed that with her victory at the IAAF Golden League. beating and breaking Mexican world champion Ana Guevara’s 23-race winning streak in the women’s 400m. 

That was followed by Williams’ triumph as the first Bahamian to win an individual Olympic 400m gold medal in Athens. Greece as she once again defeated Guevara.

She went on to close out the year as the co-overall Golden League jackpot winner, sharing the $1 million cash prize with Christian Olsson, the Swedish Olympic triple jump gold medalist.

Williams came back in 2006 and was defeated by Great Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. Injuries plagued her over the next two years, forcing her to eventually retire.

In 2009, she was inducted into the University of South Carolina’s Hall of Fame and the Bahamas Government renamed the Harrold Road to the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway.

She was married at the time to Dennis Darling, a former male 400m runner and the nephew of the legendary Frank Rutherford, who was the first Bahamian to win an individual Olympic track and field gold medal in the men’s triple jump in Barcelona, Spain in 1992.

Williams, who served in various capacities in athletics and was a coach, said she was inspired by Rutherford, but motivated by her coaches, the late Keith Carey at John’s, Sidney Cartwright, who mentored the start of her pre-pro career and American Steve Riddick, who completed her journey.

“That moment with Frank Rutherford was what really peaked my interest in track and field,” Williams said. “He wasn’t an men tor at that time, but he was a Bahamian that I could identify with, who was doing some phenomenal in the international stage.”

Williams said having their photographs, along with so many other talented Bahamian athletes on the wall of fame as one enter the Lynden Pindling International Airport speaks volumes for the success the country has achieved over the years.

“Track and field gave me the opportunity to get a higher education. As someone who came from a single parent home,” Williams said. “I had some financial challenges, so college wasn’t on the radar, but track and field opened up the doors of opportunities.

“For a long time, we did not see sports as an avenue for financial gain and what it really means in terms of being another industry,. But that helped to change the way that I saw athletics, making it a career. Since then, I was able to mentor so many others in so many ways.”

Williams said in turn was able to open the doors for so many other Bahamian athletes to venture into college track and field, including having one of her athletes making it on the women’s 4 x 400m relay, as well as another one to before the first female to venture into world wrestling.

“Just being able to use what I’ve learnt through my journey as an athlete and with my mentors were able to instill in me, I was able to pass that on and I’m sure that my athletes would be able to do the same thing,” Williams summed up.

The four panelists indicated that they all hope to see more interaction between the Bahamas and the African nations, not just through sports, but in the trade industry as well in the future.