Barack Obama to Attend First NBA Game as President on Friday

¹²³ · Feb 27, 2009

Barack Obama has become the ultimate basketball ambassador. People identify the new President with the game so much so, that sites like Baller-in-Chief have been started to track all things involving Barack and basketball.

The "basketball+Obama" trend continued today with an announcement that President Obama would be making his way to his first NBA game as President. The game will be a high drama contest between the President's hometown Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards. OK, so the game probably won't be that good. But it's still good to see President Obama getting a chance to take in his favorite sport.

In related news, the Chicago Bulls paid a visit to President Obama at the White House Thursday. I haven't heard any news of the proposed White House basketball court being completed. But you know that if it had been built, the President probably won't be spending much time giving the Bulls a tour of the Oval Office.

Anyhow, Barack seems to be breaking tradition in allowing his hometown Bulls to visit the White House. Usually teams have to win something to get a chance to come hang out with the President on Pennsylvania Ave. And we all know that the Bulls haven't won much of anything since 1998. With the number of NBA players that are Obama supporters, and given President Obama's love of basketball, I can understand why tradition has been thrown out the window, however. In fact, don't be surprised if all 30 NBA teams end up paying a visit to Obama by the end of his first term. You just never know.
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¹²³ · Feb 28, 2009

Obama's Presence Creates Quite a Stir

The presence of President Obama at last night's game against the Chicago Bulls threw some extra buzz into the crowd at Verizon Center. It's no secret that Obama loves his basketball -- he played in high school and still regularly plays in pickup games -- so it could be argued that he's the first president to be a die-hard fan of the sport, something that is not lost on Wizards interim coach Ed Tapscott.

"I think it's terrific for the NBA," Tapscott said. "He's a big fan obviously. He has basketball in his family (Oregon State Coach Craig Robinson is Michelle Obama's brother). He's the first fan of the NBA. . . . I doubt that this will be the last time he comes to a game."
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Obama also earned cool points for watching the game from a courtside seat rather than a luxury box. The game's tip-off was slightly delayed as he entered the arena from a corner tunnel before taking a seat directly across from the Wizards' bench.

He waved as the crowd gave him an ovation and chatted casually throughout the game with the fans sitting on either side of him, but also paid close attention to the action on the court.

Obama is from Hawaii and became a Bulls fan while living in Chicago, but none of the Wizards said they had a problem with that.

When asked whether he planned on talking a little trash to Obama for his Bulls allegiance, forward Antawn Jamison vigorously shook his head to indicate no.

"Nah, I'm not going to trash talk the president," Jamison said. "He can do whatever he wants. Maybe we can gradually win him over to our side."
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huevonkiller · Feb 28, 2009

He left with just over 4 minutes left in the game once the Bulls were getting killed by the Wiz. I'm pretty sure he was bored.

THE HCP · Mar 1, 2009

I thought it was very cool to see him mixin it up with the common fan!

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Barack Obama to Attend First NBA Game as President on Friday

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Barack Obama to Attend First NBA Game as President on Friday

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