The Big Aristotle loves him some Israel.
Former Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neil has officially endorsed BSO Sheriff Scott Israel for 2016 as an honorary cochair for the sheriff's reelection. Israel, who beat out Al Lamberti in 2012 for the top-cop position at Broward Sheriff's Office, filed his reelection papers last month.
The filing went mostly unreported and relatively under the radar. But now Shaq has come out and announced he's backing Israel in a video shot from what appears to be O'Neal's news desk at TNT, where he's a basketball analyst.
With his famous baritone inflection, Shaq calls Israel his good friend. "Sheriff Israel has really brought crime rates down," the big fella says in the video. "And he's helping keep kids in school and out of jail."
Shaq has become heavily involved with law enforcement agencies since his later days in the NBA and after his retirement. He's become a reserve officer with the Los Angeles Port Police and was given an honorary U.S. deputy marshal title in 2005.
Shaq also became a Miami Beach reserve officer in 2005 and was even involved in the arrest of a Miami man accused of assault. Just this January, he was named as a reserve police officer in Doral.
"Listen to the big fella," Shaq says in the video. "I'm a sworn Florida law enforcement officer, and I care about safe streets."
Israel shared the video on his Facebook page.
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