Kind of a Birmingham, Detroit [[I guess, maybe not), Michigan sports/political story

[emu steve]

Apparently Shane Battier was approached to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Levin. Battier would have run as a Dem.

Battier was born and raised in Birmingham.

and the Detroit connection: He played against the Detroit-Auburn Hills Pistons on numerous occasions, sometimes in Auburn Hills.

Kind of a fascinating story for those who follow MI politics.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...p_ref=politics

[GUSHI]

Would vote for C Webb before him, he went to Duke.

[Bham1982]

Levin still lives in Lafayette Park, I believe. He's been there since he was a city councilman.

I had no idea Battier grew up in Birmingham. Frankly there are so few AA families, esp. back then.

[Lowell]

I don't think Battier could deal with the pay cut.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Shane Battier has been a crush of mine since his Mr. Basketball- Michigan days. I have nothing against him [[except that he went to Duke instead of Michigan State). I hope the story isn't true. I don't like it when celebrities dabble in politics. Most of them [[although probably not Mr. Battier, who played for Duke on an academic scholarship) are vapid. He lives out of state now anyways, and is, I would think, unlikely to do much of anything besides play ball while he still has the ability. With a few notable exceptions, political celebrities- left and right alike- are annoying and condescending. I suspect, too, that they hurt their causes more often than they help.

If Mr. Battier were to move back to Michigan after his career is over, then maybe he has a future in politics here. Since he is generally well-liked by everyone [[teammates, coaches, press, the fans, etc), one wonders if he would want to risk being disliked by half the public by jumping into politics. One wonders, too, if a private school supporting, hard-work endorsing 1%er who spent summers interning on Wall Street is the ideal candidate of the Democratic Party. But he is so damned handsome, anything that keeps his picture in the papers is fine by me.

[stinkytofu]

I went to Derby Middle School in Birmingham and I believe I recall one of my teachers saying that Battier went there as well. He also randomly ref'd some of my bball games when I was just a little dude when we played at Country Day. Have always respected the man - never got in any trouble and seems pretty down-to-earth.