It seems like Rick Fox has been around forever.
The effortlessly cool and maddeningly good-looking celebrity appears on practically every sitcom
and game show.
And the tabloids love him, thanks to his many high-profile romances with other celebrities.
Of course, before all that, he was an NBA star, winning three straight titles with the
Y2K-era Los Angeles Lakers.
So forget second acts, Rick Fox is already onto his third and fourth.
Let's take a look at where he started, where he is now, and how he got there.
Citizen of the world
Fox lived in a few different places growing up, and both nature and nurture helped nudge
him into becoming a world-class athlete.
He was born in Toronto to Dianne Gerace, an Olympic track and field athlete from Canada.
While Rick was still a baby, his father moved the family to the Bahamas, where he started
a company supplying ice to hotels and restaurants.
But Fox didn't want to go into the family business.
He was obsessed with basketball from a young age, and he begged his parents to send him
to the U.S. so that he could play high school ball.
And so, in 1984, he moved to Indiana, where he became a standout at Warsaw High School.
Having a ball
Fox played college hoops at the University of North Carolina under the guidance of legendary
coach Dean Smith, who at one point was the winningest coach in men's college basketball
history.
Fox wound up at UNC thanks to a happy accident.
Smith was attending an Indiana basketball camp in 1986 to scout someone else, but Fox
caught Smith's attention after he blocked a shot by upcoming superstar Lloyd Daniels.
The relatively obscure Fox was a good get.
He was a dutiful benchwarmer in his first two seasons, but by his junior and senior
years, he was leading the squad in points per game.
Then in the absolutely stacked 1991 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics snagged Fox with the #24
pick.
Put three rings on it
Fox played 13 seasons in the NBA for two teams: the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers,
two of the league's most historic teams.
He was one of Boston's best players in the mid-'90s, but the Celtics released him in
1997, allowing the Lakers to sign him for the following season.
While he was never an All-Star, he was still a key member of the squad, helping them win
three straight championships from 2000 to 2002.
Hampered by foot and thumb injuries, Fox played only 38 regular season games in the 2003-04
season.
In 2004, he had a chance to finish out his career where he started, as the Lakers traded
him back to Boston, but the writing was on the wall, and he decided to retire.
Acting out
While he was still hitting the boards, Fox began a second career moonlighting as an actor,
fulfilling an ambition he had nurtured while pursuing his degree in radio, television,
and motion pictures at UNC.
At first he mostly booked basketball player roles, in films like Blue Chips, Eddie, and
He Got Game.
He hit a turning point when he landed a recurring gig on the acclaimed HBO series Oz.
He played another basketball player, but one who was imprisoned on a charge of assault
who later became a drug addict.
Nice work if you can get it, right?
Upon retiring from the NBA, Fox was able to devote his full attention to acting.
While he's continued to appear in an occasional film, he's also found his place in television.
In addition to long stints on the OWN soap opera Greenleaf and the syndicated sitcom
Mr. Box Office, he's enjoyed recurring gigs on Dirt, House of Payne, Single Ladies, and
Love, Inc.
His guest appearances are too numerous to list, but notable examples include Ugly Betty
and The Big Bang Theory.
"Oh no, he was one of my professors in college."
"Oh, well that's a relief."
"Then we went out for a year."
Given how busy he is with acting, you wouldn't think Fox would have time for much else, but
he's somehow also a near-constant presence on reality TV.
In 2010, he competed on Dancing with the Stars, finishing in sixth place.
He also appeared on a celebrity edition of Chopped and served as a guest judge on RuPaul's
Drag Race.
His game show résumé includes Match Game, Celebrity Name Game, Are You Smarter Than
a Fifth Grader?, and Celebrity Family Feud.
And in addition to all that, he's guest hosted The View and Larry King Now, and he pulled
a fast one on a pizza delivery guy on an episode of Chris Webber's Full Court Pranks.
Lots of love
Fox's fan base grew beyond the sports crowd when he married actress and singer Vanessa
Williams.
The two met in 1998 and married a year later.
She's six years older than him, but as she told The New York Times in 2001,
"He was mature for his age, and he wanted me from the beginning."
The two had a daughter together but it unfortunately didn't work out.
In August 2004, Fox filed for divorce, having apparently lived apart from Williams for more
than a year.
Afterwards, Fox didn't waste any time getting back out there.
In 2007, he was spotted around L.A. with Mariah Carey, although reps for both denied the two
were officially an item.
He then dated Eliza Dushku for five years.
But they broke up in 2014 because he wanted to stay in L.A., while she moved back to her
native Boston.
Shortly thereafter, he became one of several basketball players to win a date with Khloe
Kardashian.
E-sports prophet
Recently Fox's career path has taken a surprise turn, as he devotes his energy and passion
to professional video gaming.
In 2015, he bought and began sponsoring Echo Fox, a professional League of Legends team.
Fox got into gaming by bonding with his son Kyle over World of Warcraft, which eventually
led to a shared love of League of Legends.
After becoming interested in the business side of video gaming, Echo Fox was born.
As he sees it, this is just the start of a growing synergy between traditional sports
and professional video gaming.
"Uh esports is now giving individuals opportunities to get scholarships to colleges, they're having
careers being professional athletes in esports, making a living for themselves."
If anyone knows sports, it's Rick Fox.