Apparently, the Maricopa County Police Department can do without Shaq. Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants Shaquille O’Neal to return his special deputy sheriff’s badges to the Arizona county because of profanity and a racially derogatory word the Phoenix Suns center used while mocking Kobe Bryant in a freestyle rap video that surfaced Monday on the Internet.
“I do believe in free speech, but I don’t believe that in law enforcement to use this type of language is proper,” Arpaio said. “We set an example, a moral, ethical example and I would like to think that basketball players and all athletes should be setting a positive attitude for our young people.”
The two-minute video, originally posted on TMZ.com, features O’Neal saying, among other things, that “Kobe couldn’t do without me,” referring to Bryant and the Lakers’ recent loss to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, some six years after the Lakers ended a run of three straight titles with O’Neal on the team. O’Neal also posed a profane question to Bryant multiple times, and used a racial slur.
