Baller-in-Chief

(From Jason Gay for The Wall Street Journal Online)

Wow, that was a fabulous birthday basketball game President Obama threw himself the other day. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Magic Johnson and Bill Russell. Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul.

Scott Baio and Noam Chomsky. Sally Quinn and the Arcade Fire. Warner Wolf and Joan from “Mad Men.”

Or something like that. Did anyone get a confirm on the president’s final roster? The dreamy White House contest was a closely guarded secret. The media were barred, tickets weren’t sold and nobody watched—it felt just like a Memphis Grizzlies home game.

But as Gilbert Arenas could tell you, you can’t hide zesty basketball gossip in D.C. A few details of the game have emerged. Here’s a run-down:

• Mr. Obama finished with 12 points and five rebounds. But the game’s highlight was a backboard-rattling windmill dunk over an embarrassed LeBron by recently retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. The dunk was beautiful, but Justice Stevens yelling “Boo-ya”? Priceless.

• The Knicks agreed to let Amar’e Stoudemire play but only if the Treasury and the World Bank offered to pay the rest of Eddy Curry’s contract.

• Even at 76, Mr. Russell totally dominated young Mr. Anthony, scoring 14 points. No, we’re just making a little joke there. Mr. Russell scored 52.

• At halftime, Mr. Anthony was traded to Russia along with six former KGB spies.

• In what’s surely the first of many oversights, Messrs. James and Wade forgot to tell Chris Bosh about the game.

• Laker veteran Derek Fisher delighted his teammates with wild anecdotes from a similar contest in 1955 with President Eisenhower.

• Mark Cuban didn’t watch the game but was still fined $100,000 by David Stern for thinking about it.

• Impressively, a well-lubricated fan in a Phillies T-shirt managed to sneak in and rush the court, whereupon he was Tasered by the Secret Service and picked up on waivers by the Red Sox.

• When Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov saw the lineup for the game, he angrily asked, “What is President Obama doing with my 2016 Nets roster?” whispered something intensely into his cuff, and was picked up within 15 seconds by a helicopter piloted by Mr. Stern and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Esti Ginzburg.

• Brett Favre was invited, but at the last minute he texted the president and told him he’d retired. Then he called an hour later and said he wasn’t retired. Then he called and said he would wait until his ankle is healed. Now Mr. Favre is in a secret prison, facing a 10-year sentence for annoying Earth.

• The White House reported that Kobe Bryant was there but didn’t play. This is untrue. Mr. Bryant played 10 minutes when he was fouled hard by Mr. Wade. Angered that Mr. Wade didn’t apologize, Mr. Bryant grabbed a PA microphone and cursed out all of the players, grabbed a pair of beers, slid down an emergency inflatable sled and disappeared.

• It goes without saying, but the president’s game couldn’t have been pulled off without the magic recruiting touch of recently hired Knicks consultant Isiah Thomas.

(From Ileana Morales for The Huffington Post)

WASHINGTON — It took one shout of “Who Dat!” to get the celebration started in the White House on Monday as President Barack Obama saluted the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.

The band played “When the Saints Go Marching In” as team members came in smiling to cheers and shouts for quarterback Drew Brees. Team owner Tom Benson pumped his fist in the air, flashing a Super Bowl yellow-gold diamond ring.

Obama congratulated the team, owner and coaches in an East Room ceremony. He said the team lifted up “the hopes and the dreams of a shattered city” in the wake of the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.

The Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami.

Obama said the Saints’ Super Bowl win was huge for New Orleans and for the country. He noted that after Katrina, the Saints had to play an entire season on the road because their home stadium, the Superdome, was ruined in the storm.

“Back then people didn’t even know if the team was coming back. People didn’t even know if the city was coming back,” Obama said.

Now, the president said, the Saints proved their team and city are here to stay.

Brees presented the 44th president with a No. 44 Saints jersey. The Chicago Bears fan joked he couldn’t get away with wearing it in Chicago.

Coach Sean Payton is also from Chicago.

“You’ve got to be tough to be a Chicago guy. I make some tough decisions every day, but I never decided on an onside kick in the second half of the Super Bowl,” Obama said.

The Saints took a risk using an onside kick – called ambush – against the Colts to open the second half of the championship game.

“I’m glad that thing went alright,” Obama said. Players and members of Congress and Obama’s Cabinet laughed.

Brees, in a previous White House visit, filmed a public service announcement to encourage kids to exercise for 60 minutes each day. The team spent the morning in Washington playing football with kids from the Boys and Girls Club. Later, they visited wounded troops and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“These are big guys with big hearts, and shoulders big enough to carry the hopes and dreams of an entire city with them,” Obama said.

Obama also talked about the BP oil spill, the latest disaster to hit the Gulf. He was optimistic about the battle to stop the flow of oil now that the leak appears to be plugged. His administration, he said, remains committed to the Gulf’s recovery.

The president said seafood from the Gulf is now safe to eat, and the White House served some this week. Team members showed off some of New Orleans’ famous cuisine. They served some shrimp to the White House press corps and were sharing recipes with White House staff, including, according to Obama, a 30-foot po-boy that was to be served at lunch.

But before lunch, there were autographs, silent cameraphone clicks and more cheers. Players standing on bleachers in the East Room snapped pictures of the president as he made his way around to shake their hands.

Then the Saints left the same way the came in – to claps, chants of “Who dat!” and the band playing their song.

(More photos.)

(From Shane D’Aprile for The Hill Online)

President Obama hosted more than a dozen current and former basketball pros Sunday for an afternoon game at Fort McNair.

The group included LeBron James, Grant Hill, Dwyane Wade, Joakim Noah (left), and Derrick Rose (center, with Obama). Magic Johnson and Bill Russell served as the coaches. Kobe Bryant was also in attendance, but didn’t play in the pick-up game.

The group played before an audience of “wounded warriors” and participants in the White House mentoring program.

The event was part of the president’s birthday weekend at the White House. He played a round of golf Saturday at Andrews Air Force Base and a barbecue is scheduled on the south lawn of the White House for Sunday afternoon.

(From The Huffington Post)

WASHINGTON — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and other NBA all-stars joined President Barack Obama on Sunday to entertain wounded troops.

The basketball superstars were joined by some retired legends, including Bill Russell and Magic Johnson. College player Maya Moore of the Connecticut Huskies women’s team also played.

The game was played for a group of “wounded warriors” – troops injured in action – and participants in the White House’s mentoring program.

The action took place at a gym inside Washington’s Fort McNair, a short drive from the White House. The president was inside the gym for about two hours.

(From Kiki Ryan for Politico.com)

Most past presidents have had a sport of choice: Richard Nixon loved to bowl and installed the White House bowling alley; Bill Clinton played golf; John F. Kennedy liked touch football; George W. Bush was a mountain biker. And while basketball may be thought of as President Barack Obama’s main game, a look at the first 18 months of his presidency (and a little bit before) reveals that he’s quite the athlete-in-chief — his wife and kids are pretty sporty, too.

Here, POLITICO takes a look at the Obamas’ sporting life.

Basketball:

Obama, a power forward, often shoots hoops on the South Lawn of the White House, where he had a basketball court specially installed. He’s played with his staff, including former Duke basketball player Reggie Love, his daughters, and members of his administration — like the 6-foot-5-inch Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The family has taken in a number of basketball games as spectators, too. Obama was at the Verizon Center in January to catch the Duke-Georgetown game (he even visited announcers in the CBS booth). Shortly after moving into the White House, he caught his hometown team, the Chicago Bulls, play the Washington Wizards at the arena. More recently, Obama had a basketball double-header: he caught Washington’s WNBA team, the Mystics, at the Verizon Center with Sasha (who wore the team’s jersey) after playing a game of his own with an Army team at Fort McNair.

Obama’s love of the game is apparently contagious. While in Los Angeles in June, the first lady took her mother and daughters to watch the Lakers play in Game Six of the NBA Finals. (Sasha and Malia brought home a jersey signed by Lakers coach Phil Jackson for Father’s Day.)

And don’t forget Obama’s brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, the head coach at Oregon State University. The entire family watched the Beavers take on George Washington University in November.

Tennis:

Both FLOTUS and POTUS like to volley.

While appearing on “The Jay Leno Show” last October, Michelle told Leno that there’s nothing about Barack that bothers her, calling him “perfect.” Except for one thing: when he beats her at tennis. “He beats me quite often,” she said. “That gets to be pretty annoying.”

The competition between the couple most certainly comes out on vacation. Last month, while vacationing in Maine, the first family visited the Bar Harbor Club to hit the court. During their vacation last summer on Martha’s Vineyard, the family played on the private tennis court nestled into their rental property. In Hawaii last Christmas, the first couple played at the Kailua Racquet Club, too.

Daughters Sasha and Malia resisted tennis at first, Michelle Obama recently told Ladies’ Home Journal. “But now they’re starting to get better, and they actually like it,” she said.

When not playing with the family, Michelle has also played on several occasions with her chief of staff—and pal—Susan Sher. (And since we’re on the topic, her garden even contains tennis ball lettuces.)

Baseball:

Safe to say Obama’s arms are better at throwing up three-pointers than tossing out pitches. In April, President Obama threw the first pitch at Nationals Park “a little high and outside,” as he described it. Last summer, at the All-Star game, he also threw a ceremonial pitch: the ball barely made it to the plate.

Still, he’s a fan. Obama frequently wears Chicago White Sox gear—even when the Nationals are involved. He wore his Sox cap for his pitch in April; in June, he cheered on the South Side Chicago team, again wearing his cap, as they played the Nats.

Michelle Obama seems to like the sport too. She and Jill Biden joined Yogi Berra as he threw out the opening pitch at Game 1 of the World Series last year. FLOTUS has also visited Camden Yards in Baltimore, where she pitched and caught and hung out with kids at a “Let’s Move” event.

Golf:

Obama may not be as golf-crazed as some presidents, but as of last month, he’d played 41 rounds since taking office. During a two-month stretch earlier this year, he played golf eight out of nine weekends. While in Washington, he heads to the course at Andrews Air Force Base, often with White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson. And as with tennis, he uses his vacation time to play, too. He hit the green multiple times in Hawaii over Christmas and last summer in Martha’s Vineyard.

Soccer:

It’s fair to call Obama a soccer dad. He and Michelle are frequently spotted on the weekends cheering on both daughters, who play here in town.

Bowling:

Actually, let’s not go there. Who can forget Obama’s dismal game during the Pennsylvania primary, when he bowled a 37 with repeated gutter balls? That’s one sport Obama should drop.

(More Photos.)