Shane Battier - US Senate Candidate?

[duke79]

Huffington Post is reporting that Shane Battier has said he was approached to run for the US Senate seat in Michigan being vacated by Carl Levin. Apparently, the Democratic party in Michigan is denying that they had approached Shane about running. But the writer of the article had this snide comment about Duke:

"Battier was born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, and often finds his name on lists of athletes who could conceivably have a future in politics. But his appeal to Michiganders could be limited by the fact that he spurned the state's major colleges to play hoops for Duke. Who, really, could forgive such a sin?

Regardless, Battier clearly isn't running for office, so there is no way to know how big an electoral liability his time in Durham would have been."

[Dukehky]

North Carolina will take him!!!!

[moonpie23]

i see no reason why shane couldn't be on the miami bench as Spo's assistant…..

[weezie]

This is funny:
"Battier is a rare NBA player who spent four years in college, graduating from Duke in 2001 with a degree in Comparative Religion. He was the Academic All-American of the year and was voted the 7th smartest professional athlete by The Sporting News in 2010."

I'm sure Shane is extremely proud of that accolade. Good lord.

[wsb3]

I don't think it will surprise any of us if Shane's post basketball career exceeds his playing days. I have expected that to be the case for a long time.

[MCFinARL]

This is funny:
"Battier is a rare NBA player who spent four years in college, graduating from Duke in 2001 with a degree in Comparative Religion. He was the Academic All-American of the year and was voted the 7th smartest professional athlete by The Sporting News in 2010."

I'm sure Shane is extremely proud of that accolade. Good lord.

So of course I had to find out who the 6 "smarter" professional athletes were. The list, updated in 2013, shows a certain Ivy League bias, as all but one of the top 6 graduated from Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Number 1, Oakland A's relief pitcher Craig Breslow, probably does deserve some serious props, as he graduated from Yale with a 3.5 GPA majoring in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and was accepted to medical school at NYU. Number 2, the only non-Ivy athlete in the top 6, is former Florida State football player Myron Rolle, who graduated from college in 2.5 years and studied at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. Rolle, as it happens, is no longer a professional athlete but is in medical school at Florida State.

[Reisen]

I've posted about this before, but I had a couple of classes with Shane, and like to consider myself a pretty intelligent person. I'd put him up there with anyone on the list, including a Rhodes scholar. He really is almost a little "too" perfect. Great athlete, extremely smart guy, hard worker...

[MCFinARL]

I've posted about this before, but I had a couple of classes with Shane, and like to consider myself a pretty intelligent person. I'd put him up there with anyone on the list, including a Rhodes scholar. He really is almost a little "too" perfect. Great athlete, extremely smart guy, hard worker...

Yes, just based on what I have seen of him in public and print, supplemented by reports like yours, I have no doubt Shane Battier could hold his own against just about any "smart" (quotations marks meant to represent the difficulty of establishing clear, objective criteria for smartness) people who weren't nuclear physicists, and maybe against some of those too.

[Henderson]

If Shane were a U.S. Senator and the first head coach of the Duke men's basketball team to become an astronaut, would he still have time to perform his duties as pope?

[ricks68]

I think that the real proof of how smart Shane is, is the fact that he does not want to enter politics. Also note that maybe the poll is confusing "smart" with "intelligent". Shane and the two other examples MCfinARL posted, I would consider as very "intelligent". A case in point, as an example, might be Jimmy Carter. He was very intelligent (in his field, at least), but was (and still is) not so smart politically. Too bad for us, regarding Shane, as I think he is both intelligent and smart.

ricks

[Deslok]

Now now, lets not get ahead of ourselves here. I mean, everyone knows that the Democratic Party of Michigan approached Roy Williams first about filling the senate seat, but aww shucks, Carolina just means too much to him.

[Jim3k]

I think that the real proof of how smart Shane is, is the fact that he does not want to enter politics. Also note that maybe the poll is confusing "smart" with "intelligent". Shane and the two other examples MCfinARL posted, I would consider as very "intelligent". A case in point, as an example, might be Jimmy Carter. He was very intelligent (in his field, at least), but was (and still is) not so smart politically. Too bad for us, regarding Shane, as I think he is both intelligent and smart.

ricks

I was unaware of former president Carter's prowess as a college basketball player. :D

OTOH, Bill Bradley and Tom McMillen had superb college and pro careers and both became well-known politicians. No reason why Shane couldn't do the same thing if he wanted to. He knows how to schmooze and read tea leaves.

(BTW, for those who don't know, Bradley was almost a Blue Devil.)

[-jk]

...
(BTW, for those who don't know, Bradley was almost a Blue Devil.)

And it's still a sore spot amongst some Devils!

-jk

[ricks68]

I was unaware of former president Carter's prowess as a college basketball player. :D

OTOH, Bill Bradley and Tom McMillen had superb college and pro careers and both became well-known politicians. No reason why Shane couldn't do the same thing if he wanted to. He knows how to schmooze and read tea leaves.

(BTW, for those who don't know, Bradley was almost a Blue Devil.)

You're right. I stand corrected. Carter didn't know peanuts about college basketball. :D

ricks

[gep]

Well... I also was surprised when Kevin Johnson became mayor of Sacramento. :cool:

[MCFinARL]

You're right. I stand corrected. Carter didn't know peanuts about college basketball. :D

ricks

But Gerald Ford knew his way around a gridiron. Maybe it's a Michigan thing.