I don’t think I’ve ever seen President Obama come running out to the White House podium as fast as he did on Monday. That’s because waiting for him in the East Room was the entire Lakers team and their families. Tradition holds that championship teams are invited to visit with the President on their next trip through the area, and the Lakers are in D.C. to play the Wizards.

President Obama is a big basketball fan. He is known to blow off steam with his staff by shooting a few hoops on the White House court. On his last trip to New York, he commandeered the gym at St. Bart’s Church on Park Avenue next to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where he was staying. For nearly two hours, everyone but a few Secret Service agents was in the dark about his whereabouts.

In the new book, Game Change, the authors tell the story of then Senator Obama waiting to give the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. It was the speech that first put him in the national spotlight. Just before taking the stage, he was asked by a reporter if he was nervous. The Senator replied, “I’m LeBron, baby. I can play on this level. I got some game.”

Kobe Bryant presented the President with a Lakers jersey with the number 1 on it. (By the way, that’s Jordan Farmar’s new number. He switched this season from #5 to #1 because that’s the number he wore while playing basketball for Taft High School in the Valley. Somehow I don’t think Farmar minded giving up his number to President Obama for the photo op.) Derek Fisher gave the President an autographed ball. The funniest moment came when President Obama started ribbing Magic Johnson about Michael Jordan’s famous play against him in the 1991 finals. Then the President proceeded to recreate the play, when Jordan switched hands in midair as he went for the lay up. The President, who obviously knows hoops, is a big Bulls fan from his years in Chicago. All Magic could do was laugh and take the trash talk from the Commander in Chief.

It’s hard to tell who was having a better time- the Lakers or President Obama. Everyone loves a winner. Regardless of how you feel politically, everyone can acknowledge that the President has his share of problems these days. It can’t hurt to be associated, and photographed, with these superstars. I’m sure he was hoping some of that Lakers magic would rub off on him.

We can hope that perhaps some young Lakers fan saw the video of the ceremony and decided that politics was cool, and maybe begin to take an interest in government and current events. Now THAT would be cool. Right now we live in a world where more people are interested in what new gadget Steve Jobs of Apple will introduce on Wednesday than they are in hearing President Obama’s State of the Union speech that same night.

I have only one other thought- I wonder what the President said to Khloe Kardashian?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 12:13 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.