Rick Fox was appointed Monday as a senator for the Bahamas' main opposition party, days after he failed to win a seat in last week's general election. The former NBA player was named as one of the Free National Movement Party's four allotted senators.

Fox ran as a Free National Movement candidate last Tuesday but did not gather enough votes to win a legislative seat. The move gives him a place in the upper chamber even after voters backed Prime Minister Philip Davis and his Progressive Liberal Party to a second consecutive term, the first time a party has won two straight general elections in the Bahamas since 1997.

The appointment also underscores how Bahamian politics works: voters choose members of the House of Assembly, while senators are appointed. Both the government and the opposition can name whomever they want, including candidates who lost at the polls. Fox was eligible to run in the Caribbean country where he grew up because he was born in Canada to a Canadian mother and Bahamian father.

Fox is best known for a 13-season NBA career after becoming a first-round draft pick. He played for the Boston Celtics and later the Los Angeles Lakers, helping Los Angeles win three national championships before retiring in 2004. He has also built a career as an actor, with appearances in several movies and television shows.

After the election loss and the appointment, Fox framed setbacks as a chance to regroup, saying they can give people the opportunity to reflect, grow, sharpen themselves and come back wiser, stronger and more prepared for what's next. For the opposition, his addition adds a recognizable figure to the Senate; for Fox, it turns defeat at the ballot box into a new path inside Bahamian politics.