By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

RICK Fox has defended his record in The Bahamas, pushing back against questions about his role in developing the national basketball programme as he seeks election in Garden Hills.

Since announcing his candidacy for the Free National Movement, Mr Fox has faced scepticism over claims that he played a central role in the programme, with some suggesting his involvement has been overstated or is not widely recognised within the local sporting community.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Mr Fox dismissed the criticism as “propaganda” and said his contributions are well documented.

“The receipts were always here. The silence is what's new,” he wrote.

Mr Fox said that in the early 2000s, while captain of the Los Angeles Lakers, he returned home each summer to host camps and support the national basketball programme at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

“I was the captain of the Los Angeles Lakers,” he said, sharing photos of him during the summer camp. “We were winning multiple NBA Championships with Shaq and Kobe. And every summer when I came home, I wasn't on a yacht. I was on that court. Running camps. Running the National Programme. Coaching. Pouring into Bahamian young people at a time when no cameras were rolling, no social media was watching, and no political points were on the table.”

“I carried and funded the National Basketball Programme for three years. Then I passed the torch because that's what you do when you're building something bigger than yourself.”

Mr Fox also criticised Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg, whom he is challenging in the constituency, for not speaking publicly about his past involvement.

“The man who inherited that foundation is now a Cabinet minister and he is standing in silence while the very foundation he benefited from is being scrubbed from the record,” he said.

Despite Mr Fox’s claims, some critics online argue that if his role had been as significant as stated, it would be more widely documented and acknowledged nationally.

Mr Fox said his decision to enter politics is driven by concerns about youth development, housing, healthcare and public safety.

"I'm canvassing Garden Hills right now and I am meeting them again, face to face, and they remember. I didn't need social media to make an impact then and I don't need the Minister's permission to tell the truth now," he said.

"What concerns me isn't the propaganda. Lies have a short shelf life. What concerns me is the silence. Because a man who will stand by quietly while the nation's youth are fed misinformation about one of their own — someone who paved the way and poured into this country's young people long before he ever did — that same man will stay silent when it matters most. "