Baller-in-Chief

By Claude Johnson

President Barack Obama met with the President of China earlier this week at the United Nations. As is his style, the Baller-in-Chief used hoops as a way to connect, once again showing that people love to focus on what they have in common:

We welcome your delegation to New York. I’m sorry that I didn’t have a chance to see you in L’Aquila, but your Councilor Dai did an excellent job representing your country.

I also have to say that I enjoyed seeing Vice Premier Wang as well as Councilor Dai at the SED meeting. And Vice President Biden and I both had excellent meetings with Chairman Wu two weeks ago in the White House. I should also mention that Vice Premier Wang showed me his jump shot, which is excellent. (Laughter.) How do you say “basketball shot” in Chinese? (Laughter.)

As you know, I’m committed to pursuing a genuinely cooperative and comprehensive relationship with China. We need to make our relationship more dynamic and effective, given the growing number of common global and regional challenges that our countries face.

One notices how many times President Obama used the word “excellent,” which also seems to be no accident.

(From Eamonn Brennan for Yahoo Sports)

If you’re a hoops fan, you have at least one reason to enjoy our current president: Basketball is Obama’s favorite sport, and he approaches it with the reverence of someone who both plays and spectates, someone who appreciates the game from all angles. But you knew all this before Barack Obama became president.

What you also probably knew, or maybe you haven’t noticed, is that for whatever reason, former Duke guard and Obama personal staffer Reggie Love can’t convince Barack to wear a pair of shorts on the court. I don’t get it. Here’s yet more photographic evidence of Obama’s absolute allergy to shorts:

That’s Obama and Love, and as you’ll see, Love looks ready for some pickup. He’s got his swag right. Even if those Nike runners look like they’d be really bad for ankle on the basketball court, still, he’s ready to go.

Obama at least appears athletic, but he also looks like he’s getting ready to go for a brisk morning walk with his dog. If he walked on to the basketball court looking like that, the people I play with would laugh. (This scenario assumes it’s not Barack Obama we’re laughing at; I don’t think the DePaul student center crowd would really go for ridicule, given the hypothetical. But you know what I mean.)

Maybe dude’s legs are just really skinny. Who knows?

(From The Huffington Post)

On Monday, President Obama and personal aide Reggie Love (who is also HuffPost readers’ pick for White House Hottest) left their Manhattan hotel to play basketball at St. Bartholomew’s Church. During the campaign, the two men played b-ball on primary days for good luck.

The president spoke at the Hudson Valley Community College in upstate New York on Monday morning. He then traveled to NYC for three days of UN meetings in the lead-up to the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

See photos of the athletes below.

Leaving their hotel:

Returning to their hotel, water bottles in hand (Fiji for Love, Aquafina for Obama), after the game:

A gratuitous Reggie Love photo. Here the personal aide walks across the South Lawn of the White House to Marine One on September 12 en route to Minneapolis with the president. His reading material? The New Republic.

(From NBC New York Online)

AP

President Obama exercised his political power Monday evening by shooting some hoops in a Manhattan church — less than 24 hours before he makes his U.N. General Assembly debut that’ll include a meeting Tuesday with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders about stalled Mideast peace negotiations.

President Obama, who is staying at a swanky midtown hotel this week, set out around 5:45 p.m. dressed in a black warmup pants and a fleece.  His on-foot destination — the indoor basketball court at Saint Bartholomew’s Church on 50th Street.

Obama was dressed for the occasion in black track pants, a black fleece and a black White Sox hat. He was accompanied by his bodyguard buddy, Reggie, who was, apparently, also his opponent.

When asked “Who’s gonna win?” the president replied, “Ask Reggie how he did last time!”

Tuesday is a big day for President Obama, who is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Mr. Obama will also deliver his first address as president to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday — and he is due to chair a special session of the U.N. Security Council about nuclear non-proliferation Thursday.

The president might have had another reason for the workout: He came face to face with embattled New York Gov. David Paterson on Monday — just days after it was leaked that he wants Paterson to stand down during the 2010 election.

Tom Farrey mentions our namesake while making a good point in his “Health care and Chicago’s bid” piece for ESPN.com:

… a Chicago Olympics could do as much to reform health care in this country as anything he’s arguing over with Republicans at the moment.

That legislation his rivals on Capitol Hill are furiously trying to kill, or at least amend to the liking of their lobbyists? That’s about sick care, who has to pay for what when folks need to see a doctor. Health care is about preventing illness so you don’t have to see a doctor nearly as much. It’s about keeping bodies from breaking down so they don’t become a drag on the system, the economy — as well as the individual himself or herself.

And there’s no better way to do that than getting children to fall in love with sports, as participants, so that lifetime patterns of fitness are established. Heart disease treatment costs more than $4,000 a year. A gym membership costs $400 a year. ‘Nuf said.

The baller-in-chief seems to get the connection. He also seems to get the role the federal government can play in helping create the conditions that will get kids off the couch, especially in urban cities where sports options are limited and the obesity crisis is real.