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Reggie Love, Chris Paul, Don Cheadle, Arne Duncan and more share their favorite stories of playing basketball with beloved number 44.
Among the many legacies President Obama will leave behind, there is this: he was the best basketball-playing President we've ever had. For eight years we've caught snippets of President Obama's game, which—despite his lanky, sweatpants'd frame—showcased the unique swagger he tapped into throughout his presidency. In talking to people who've stepped onto the court with him (and against him), it's clear that the sport provides a window into the identity of the eternally smooth 44th President of the United States. What we discovered was a guy who liked to talk a little trash, hated to lose (and rarely did), and liked to go left—which seemed to work out as well for him as it did for us.
Ball Don't Lie: Hooping on the Campaign Trail
Some of our first glimpses of Barack Obama the basketball player came on the campaign trail in 2008, where he sometimes picked up a ball to play politics and bond with constituents, and sometimes picked one up to escape from it and blow off steam. Both (but mostly the latter) worked well enough that pickup basketball games not only became a staple during the Primary circuit, but became a standing date on all of the last three Election Days.
Dan Pfeiffer (Former White House Communications Director and Senior Advisor): We were at an event in South Carolina during the campaign in 2007. The President stopped to do a short interview, and then someone tossed him a basketball and we're live on CNN. And I'm like, "Do not shoot this. Do not shoot this. Do not shoot this." In the stupid world of politics, the metaphor of the candidate missing a shot on live television would have been unfortunate. And he kind of looks at me, like, "Really?" And fires one, and makes it, live on television, sort of feeding the legend of Obama, clutch individual. And [then he] walks into the rally. Which is something that he brought up with me for at least five years afterwards. Every time I would jokingly tell him not to do something, he would point out that I had told him not to make that shot, and he had made it. It was in jest but it was pretty serious, too. The point he was making always was: I'm good at moments like these, so don't doubt me.
Alexi Giannoulias (former Illinois state treasurer; played at Boston University): The night before the Iowa caucuses, we got a call from the now-president. [Obama campaign treasurer] Marty Nesbitt comes up to me and says, "I think he wants to play some ball. Can you find a gym? Oh, and it's got to be private, and it's got to be really close to here, and we have to have it to ourselves." And I'm like, "How the fuck—in Des Moines, Iowa, you want this by tomorrow morning? You want me to find a gym that we can play ball in a few blocks from here, in a state that I know nothing—" And he goes, "Yeah, can you make it happen?" And I was like, "No."
And then I called literally the only guy I know in Iowa. And he goes, "I have the perfect place." We go to this gym—dusty floor, freezing cold. We didn't even have ten guys. So the guy who opened up [the gym] for us and was sweeping the floors ended up being our tenth. We play, he wins the Iowa caucuses in a state that's 92 percent white. We don't play in New Hampshire, he loses New Hampshire. So he's like, "Alright. We've got a tradition. We're going to play every caucus and every primary day."
Reggie Love (former personal aide/body man, played at Duke): We played against some guys from New Hampshire, kind of like to win their support. And we're beating them really bad. I steal the ball and go down and dunk, and the President comes over, and he's like, "Look, we want to win, but we also want these guys' support. Just chill out."
David Axelrod (Former Senior Advisor): We were playing before a primary debate in Philadelphia, and I got isolated on him. He immediately sensed the opportunity and went sailing past me. And I did what basketball duffers do: I played a little matador defense and raked him right across the nose as he went by, and he went down. The Secret Service guys ran over. I really thought I had broken his nose. And as I stood there, I thought, He's going to go out on the stage with some sort of bandage on his nose, and people are going to say, "What happened to Barack Obama?" and the answer is going to be, "His consultant broke his nose." Luckily, after a couple of seconds of stunned silence, he bounced up off the floor and after a few kind of… pointed words, we resumed the game.
Dan Pfeiffer: You spend a lot of time in gyms for political rallies. Prior to the rally, while the introductory speakers are going, if there's a basketball around, the President will start shooting. We were in New Hampshire and the President was shooting, and Reggie and I were rebounding. Then the President went over to talk to someone or sign some books or something. So I went and shot around the key, and I made five in a row. Which is extraordinarily good for me. The President sort of stopped and was watching. And afterwards, he's like "Pfeiffer, that's a pretty good shot. I don't know how you'd get it off in competition, though." He appreciated that I made them, but was sure to point out that he thought my release was not quick enough. I never got to test it in a game, which is fine. You don't want to be responsible for breaking the President's rib, as someone once did, or breaking his nose, as another guy once did.
Alexi Giannoulias: There are two primaries on the same day, and we're playing on some really nice court, and getting really, really competitive. I got knocked over, and a couple of plays later, I got a fast break, and he was playing D. He went to block me, and I kind of lowered my shoulder. And it hit his rib, and he landed on the floor and was laying there. Everyone went dead silent. He was close to being the Democratic nominee for president. It was bad. He had trouble breathing for the next month or two. He ran the campaign with a bruised rib. I saw Michelle at some event in Chicago a couple of months later, and she's like, "Man, every morning we talk about you." And I was like, "Why?" She goes, "Because I think you broke my husband's rib."
Roy Williams (North Carolina Tarheels head basketball coach): We scrimmaged while he was trying to become the Democratic nominee. He wanted to know if our guys would be interested in playing pickup with him. I figured it was one of my idiotic buddies playing a joke on me. He came early one morning, at about 7:15. At that time he was an up-and-comer. You heard, "Hey, this guy may have a chance." He has [some] sneaky little lefty, old-school moves. One of my players Jack Wooten tried to block his shot and I yelled at him. I said, "Jack, this guy could be the President of the United States. What're you trying to do that for?!" And President Obama just picked up on it so quickly. He said, "You see that secret service guy over there?" He really set a great standard for me, just about how humble he was and how great he was with people. Who he was as a person was really impressive. His game was just a little impressive.
Alexi Giannoulias: The President is a believer in you do everything you can up to Election Day, and Election Day, you chill. It was weird [on Election Day 2008]. You're playing basketball, and you're like, "Man, our buddy might be the most powerful guy in the world, literally, in a few hours." It's the elephant in the room. Everyone's thinking it. But the whole point of us playing is to get his mind off it. So it was like no one said anything about the thing that everyone's thinking, which is weird.
[Then], on re-election day in Chicago [in 2012], there's T-shirts, Scottie Pippen's there, movie cameras are there. And I remember turning to Reggie and Marty and being like, "Man, just to think [in '08] we were in this freezing cold, dusty gym, where our tenth was the guy who opened the place up for us." And now there's like six teams, there's scoreboards, shot clocks, jerseys, a media throng outside.
Arne Duncan (former Secretary of Education; played pro in Australia and the USBL): I just said [to the President], "How are you feeling?" And he said something like, "We've done everything we can. But at the end of the day I've got a great wife, and I've got two healthy kids, and that's all that matters." And, it wasn't like a line. He meant it. He was at peace. With the weight of the world, the weight of everything. I know how much he wanted to win that election, but everything for him, it always comes back to family.
"I was shocked at how good he was. But he got lucky one time on the break. I sort of jumped out, made him guess which way to go and he made the right play, crossed over, made it look like he crossed me up. It'll never happen again." — Chris Paul
Alexi Giannoulias: Marty made up the teams that day. Me and Barack, we have a pretty good team. But the other team is, like, Arne and Scottie Pippen. And I look at the President like, "Why do they have Scottie Pippen on their team? Don't you want to win this game?" He's like, "Well, you know, Marty made the teams." And I remember I'm like, "You're the President of the United States. Get Scottie Pippen on our team!" He went over and was like, "All right. Scottie Pippen is on our team." Scottie changed his jersey. He kind of winked at me, and then we just blasted them.
Marty Nesbitt (Obama campaign treasurer; played ball at DIII Albion College): That's not true. I know he asked Scottie before the game. [The President and I] were talking about the election day stuff, and I was like, "Look man, you can put your team together. I bet I can out-coach you and win." So he was like, "Oh, okay." There was one thing I miscalculated. Scottie Pippen was on his team, but I knew he was just coming off a knee procedure. I underestimated how good Scottie Pippen is. Scottie was like, "Man, I'm Scottie Pippen!"
Arne Duncan: The last time we played, Election Day 2016, he hit one or two game winners. And literally may not have shot earlier at all in those games. That's part of the basketball IQ. The craftiness. You pass 20 times and then the 21st time, you don't pass. And sort of catch everybody off. You're setting people up.
John Rice (served on two of POTUS's advisory boards; played at Yale): Here [President Obama] is, in 2016, not having played in a year probably, playing a full-court game, which is dangerous for people who are our age. And in the first two games, he hits the game-winning basket. On two really good, tough drives to the basket. And it was probably one of the most fun times we had ever played, because we knew it was maybe one of the last times. Everybody was so happy for him. And it turned out, obviously, for those of us who are Democrats, the day got worse.
Roy Williams: One time I told him, I said, "President Obama, you've got a job like a bad basketball coaching job. You got there in situations that were really difficult, and you got it changed and turned around." The economy, the unemployment was like 10 percent and it's down to 4 percent. But I said, "You're probably never going to get credit for doing it." And he just laughed.
All The President's Big Men
One of the benefits of being the most powerful man in the world is that you can play basketball with whomever you want. And for President Obama, that often meant playing with the best players in the world—the NBA stars whose games he'd frequently have on in the background when traveling on Air Force One or a bus.
Arthur Jackson (founder of One on One Basketball Inc.; played at Brown): We had the opportunity to play with Durant, right after he was MVP of the [FIBA] World Championships [in 2010]. He's with [then-Oklahoma City teammates] James Harden and Eric Maynor. They show up, wearing sweats, and they're kind of shooting around. The President hasn't arrived yet. I'm down there shooting with them, and I say, "You guys better play." And Durant and Harden said, "We're going to play?" I said, "Oh, yeah, when the president comes, he wants to play." And one of them said, "I thought this was a photo op, man." And I'm like, "No, no, no. This is serious basketball."
Durant and Eric Maynor were on the president's team. Harden and Dahntay Jones were on Reggie's team. It was 2-2 after four games, so we played a fifth. We're up 19-11, and the President goes out. Suddenly, Harden is going [to] half court and pulling threes. Bang. Hits another three. And next thing you know, we're playing to 21 and it's 19-19. And you say, "Well, who are we going to give the ball to?" Of course, we give it to Durant. He isolates Harden, makes his move and Harden strips him, and goes down and makes a lay-up and we lose. It was the first time I lost playing with the President. Everybody was kind of shocked. And the president jumps up and he says, "I step off the court, we're at 19-11, we need one basket, we've got the MVP of the World Championships on the court, and we can't win? Are you kidding me?"
Shane Battier (former NBA player): I remember getting the invitation to go to the President's [49th] birthday party. Anytime you get a special email from the white house, you kind of hold your breath for a second. Like, What'd I do wrong? But when I opened up, it explained that the President was going to have a basketball birthday party, no different than my eight-year-old son. And I thought, "Wow, this is sort of like being invited to the cool dude table." You always heard about the legendary pickup games, and I was a college teammate of Reggie Love, so I think he put in a good word for me.
Marty Nesbitt: Everybody was there. Chris Paul, Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose, Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Grant Hill, Magic, Bill Russell, Kobe.
Shane Battier: We went through security, and then we got in cars and vans on the grounds and went over to the naval base where the game was going to be held. And that was probably the most exciting part: We got these Navy SEALS driving us—I think it was Alonzo Mourning and Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul—and they were doing offensive driving with us in the back, ripping through turns. Judging by all the security and the car it took to get there, it was probably the safest place we could have been in the entire world.
There's a code when you're shooting around with a bunch of guys, getting ready for a game. They talk a little differently, they walk a little differently. Especially at the NBA level. I don't know how to explain it, but that's what I was most impressed with about the President. He fit right in. I think that's maybe one of the most defining attributes of his eight years. He could talk to really any group. He could make you feel like he was one of you.
"We lost the first two games, so it was kind of embarrassing. At the start of the third one, he said, 'Look, I'm not losing all three games on my birthday. And that's an order.'" — Shane Battier
Marty Nesbitt: The first possession when the president had the ball, Chris Paul was guarding him. He took a couple of dribbles right, and then he crossed over and went left, and then he threw this behind-the-head pass to Pau Gasol, who made a lay-up. It was spectacular. I was teasing Chris Paul a little bit. He said, "Hey, man, I led the NBA in steals. If I wanted to take that—" And I said, "No question, but you didn't know the man could really play, right? So he surprised you." He just didn't expect that Barack could play as well as he could.
Chris Paul (Guard, Los Angeles Clippers): I was shocked at how good he was. Nice lefty jump shot. But he got lucky one time on the break. I sort of jumped out, made him guess which way to go and he made the right play, crossed over, made it look like he crossed me up. It'll never happen again. Hopefully now that he's out of office we'll have some time to see if it was real.
David Axelrod: Kobe Bryant was not playing because he was recovering from an injury. But he sat on the sidelines. The President was sort of having his way, and they were letting him doing it. And Kobe called over Chris Paul and said, "[You're the] meanest little motherfucker in the league, and you won't get within ten feet of this guy."
Shane Battier: I was actually on the President's team. I'm like, "Oh boy." I had no idea how the game was going to go. Do you take it easy on the POTUS? Do you go hard on him? I think there were probably internal discussions on other teams, like, "Look, if the President goes for the basket, do not foul him hard. There are guys with very large guns on the sidelines. You do not want to be taken out by them." Luckily, the president didn't go too hard to the rack. He went to the rack a couple of times, but the help-side defense may have been a little slow coming over to rotate for the blocked shot.
David Axelrod: [The President] ticked off Joakim Noah because the president was trash-talking him about his shot, [which is], shall we say, unorthodox. The president said, "Where'd you get that shot? That's the ugliest shot I've ever seen." So at some point, Noah decided, "Okay, let's see about yours." And he completely smothered the President. I mean he was guarding him and the President could not go anywhere. But I will say that with all of that, somehow playing against all these NBA players, he mysteriously was able to hit the winning shot.
Shane Battier: The President brought us all together and was like, "Look, this isn't dummy basketball. We're going hard. We're playing to win. And when you got a shot, you go block it. You got a dunk, you take it. We're playing all out here." We lost the first two games, so it was kind of embarrassing. At the start of the third one, he said, "Look, I'm not losing all three games on my birthday. And that's an order. So do what you gotta do, but we're going to win this game." And we said, "Yes, sir." Even though it was a friendly pickup game, I think our team went a little bit harder because we had the executive order on our hands. We won. And in fitting fashion, the President hit the game-winning shot. It was point-game, and we gave him the ball, and it all cleared out. He took two dribbles, got to the elbow, raised up, and knocked it down. And he walked it off the court like he knew he was going to hit it. I wouldn't say it was MJ-esque, but I'm sure in his mind it was MJ-esque.
(Reggie) Love & Basketball: Obama's Inner Circle on the Hardwood
As fun as it may have been playing in high-profile games like his own star-studded birthday party, President Obama's regular game involved a rotation of his staff and cabinet, which not coincidentally happened to be the best basketball-playing cabinet in U.S. history. These were the guys who played the most, and knew him the best—especially "body man" Reggie Love and former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (who played pro ball in Australia and the U.S. Basketball League).
Reggie Love: People would email: "Hey, I don't have any plans this week. Are we going to play?" And then you'd look at the schedule and check with [the President], and he'd say, "Ah, this weekend feels busy," or, "My knee's still a little bit sore. I don't know if I want to play, but I'll let you know on Saturday." He was always the guy that was driving whether or not we were playing. But I think he also took into consideration that there were folks in the ecosystem that enjoy playing.
John Rice: Reggie is really the fun alter ego of the president. They had a great relationship and I think their trash-talking continued for days in between games. For Reggie, it might be the only thing you have on your boss. You're working for him, you're young, he's the President, you're his right-hand guy. What else are you going to give him a hard time about? And then for the President, when he's coming off a win, it's just another thing to remind [Reggie] that he's the young guy who's just starting off in his career. That dynamic, I think made it more special for both of them. The President really respects Reggie as a player and knows that he's an elite athlete. And the President realizes he's not an elite athlete.
Arthur Jackson: I'm sure there was more to [their relationship] than what we saw in the gym—texting and things like that. But definitely when they stepped on the court, it was for bragging rights, no question. Reggie would get his young guys, and there were battles. This was competitive, high-level basketball. We were the older team, but we were willing to do whatever it takes to win. And the majority of the time, we did. I mean there was nothing better than playing with the President and having him beat Reggie.
Marty Nesbitt: Reggie had all these Division I players and they figured out how to beat them all the time. It was really funny.
Arthur Jackson: We were the core on that team that would beat Reggie and his young guns, and it's because we all knew how to play. But more importantly, we knew who was hot and who wasn't and how to get guys open, and we knew how to win. Every once in a while there might be someone who didn't, but they would not be on the court very long.
Reggie Love: I'm now not really young, but at that point, eight years ago, I was. So there were a bunch of guys my age, who were kind of like mid-twenties, who played against the guys that were kind of late-30s through late-40s, and they used to kick our butts.
John Rice: Arne is kind of [Obama's] pickup basketball safety blanket. Those guys have incredible chemistry. As a team in the professional world, as part of his cabinet, and on the basketball court, they have this connection. He trusts Arne in general, obviously, and on so many levels professionally. But he trusts him on the basketball court in a way that he doesn't trust anybody else.
Samantha Power (United States Ambassador to the United Nations): At one point, there was a horrible thing that happened in Haiti: an earthquake that wiped out the whole U.N. leadership. We were a few days into it, managing the crisis. The President was sending troops. We had a call with the Secretary General. It was just a very stressful time, and [Obama] said to me, "Do you want to go shoot some hoops?" I had worked with him for a long time, I had never played basketball with him, and I love basketball. And I was like, "Uh… I don't know." Then I went back to my office, and everyone was like, "How could you have done that?! What are you, crazy?" It was just a cringe-worthy moment, knowing for the rest of your life you could have said, "Yeah, I went left on him, and he had nothing."
"I think part of the reason the President enjoyed it so much is it's almost sadly one of the only places where he can be a normal guy. There's no 'Mr. President' out there." — Arne Duncan
Joe Paulsen (Obama's Personal Aide/Body Man): If he's going to be somewhere for two weeks on vacation, there's a pretty good chance he's going to play basketball, so the advance team is checking in with a local high school or wherever there's a court. The word goes to whoever can play, and they come, and obviously it's a little different because you have to go through metal detectors in order to play basketball. But other than that, once the game starts, it's pretty normal.
Arne Duncan: Just to be clear, games were extraordinarily competitive. People gave the President a break never. I think part of the reason the President enjoyed it so much is it's almost sadly one of the only places where he can be a normal guy. There's no "Mr. President" out there. And I think had anybody backed off, it would have ruined the whole thing.
John Rice: The first time I played, I was playing against him. We played best out of seven, and I hit the game-winning three to end the last game. I was surprised how pissed he was. Maybe not upset, really, but he was more bummed about losing than I expected him to be—so much so that it also came up that evening. My sister Susan [Rice] is a national security advisor. I think the President was having a Halloween party or something at the White House, and she was there. This is 2009 Halloween, beginning of his presidency, when the economy is in the crapper, when there are all kinds of problems he's got to fix. Arne and the President were still stewing. It's pickup basketball, and he's stewing over it hours later. The fact that he was so competitive in basketball helps you understand the kinds of qualities that helped him become President of the United States.
Arne Duncan: Obviously not skill-wise, but I'd liken him to Michael Jordan in killer instinct. [He's got a] great smile, but he's trying to kill you out there.
Ken Salazar (former Secretary of the Interior): He stuffed me pretty good one time, and his photographer took a picture. And then he photographed the picture and he sent it to me.
Don Cheadle (actor): The first time [I played] was a few years ago. George [Clooney] called me out of the blue and said, "Hey, I don't know what you're doing tomorrow morning, but the President is going to be out here and he's thinking you might want to lace up and play some ball." My dude who was [guarding] him, Michael Heslov, wasn't really guarding him up to my liking. I didn't think he needed to necessarily foul him, but I did say those exact words to him: "Foul him." [imitates other guy] "But he's the President." I'm like, "What are you talking about? He's out here on the basketball court. He clearly is into the competition. So do you want to switch?" He's like, "No, I got it." "Then get it! Foul him. Foul him." [The President] laughed. And then the next time I saw him at another event, I was in a receiving line with my wife. He sees me and he goes, "You know, the last time Don ever played, he was saying 'Foul him.'" And I said, "Yes, Mr. President, foul you. That is what I said." "I wish he had," he said.
Marty Nesbitt: For people who are having their first opportunity to play with the President, they get psychologically intimidated. You've got to undo that. You've got to pull them aside and say, "Look, if he wins, I gotta listen to this stuff, so we are winning this." He's not one of these, like, total boisterous trash talkers, but if you're guarding him, he's not quiet.
John Rice: If you're playing with him, he has a level of expectation that you're going to give it your best, you're going to appreciate the fact that you're there, in the game. And if you're not demonstrating that appreciation, or, in particular, if you're hurting the team that he's playing on, he's going to call you out on it. There is nothing worse, and I've done this a few times, than missing the game-winning shot when the President passes the ball. You're letting the President down.
Don Cheadle: At one point we were playing, and he kind of turned his ankle, and everybody was like, "Oof." And kind of backed off. And he looks around and goes, "What is everybody doing? I didn't say we were stopping. Let's go."
John Rice: We played at the FBI building one morning. Michael Lewis shows up. And people thought he was just going to come to watch because he was hanging out with the President for a few days. But Michael played. So he shoots an airball, sort of shrugs and apologizes. The other team gets the ball and comes down and hits a lay-up, and the President...exploded isn't the right word, but got really pissed at Michael for not hustling back. He yelled at him for his lack of hustle and for letting him, the President, and everyone else down in the game. Not because he shot an airball but because he compounded the mistake by not hustling back on defense. A guy who's obviously writing an article about the President, he didn't cut him any breaks.
Arthur Jackson: The first time we played, I had to cover him. It was a very competitive game. That's the one thing I think people don't really know. When he plays, it's a high level of basketball. It was 2-2, and I'll never forget, the president said, "No one's going home now. We're going to have a rubber match." It was down to the wire, like 18-15, and we play to 21. We hit a three to win, and it was like we had won the national championship. Everybody was celebrating. I was so impressed because I turned, and the President was right there, kind of smiling and first thing he said was, "Congratulations, you guys." And he came over and shook our hands. And then he said, "But I want a rematch."
The Eagle Has Landed...Hard
Considering how often the President played intensely competitive basketball, it was only a matter of time until someone drew blood. That unlucky opponent was Rey Decerega, then the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. In November of 2010 he caught the President with an inadvertent elbow, opening a hole in Obama's lip that required 12 stitches to close. (Decerega's elbow needed four.)
Rey Decerega: Obama had a nice baseline bucket on me, so, you know, you want to go back and show you have some stuff, too. As my team came back up the court, he was calling out the matchups—"I got him!"—and started crowding me at the top of the key. It just came in the heat of competition.
John Rice: I was in New York for Thanksgiving, and it's likely—I'm not saying 100 percent—but Rey was not a regular in the game. And I think he got the opportunity to show up largely because I and maybe another person couldn't make it. So he was sort of the add-in. And I felt a little bit bad about that. But certainly, you'd much rather be somebody else than be the dude who does that. Because that's the worst thing.
Rey Decerega: I swung through to create some space. The next thing I know, there's blood gushing from my elbow and the President of the United States' face. I think that up until the point where my elbow made contact with his face, it was a defensive foul. After that, though, when the President of the United States is bleeding, I'm not getting that call.
"Secret Service didn't tackle me or anything, but as they hustled the president out, one agent gave me a "Do you know what you just did?" look." — Rey Decerega
Arthur Jackson: I thought he had lost a tooth. I was one of the first guys to go over to him, and he showed me that he had bit through his lip.
Arne Duncan: It would have been an offensive foul. That sort of ended the flow for that day. I'm not sure Michelle was totally thrilled with him coming home looking like that.
Rey Decerega: It was like a car accident—you know something really bad happened, everything is going in slow motion, and you're trying as hard as you can to make sense of the situation. Secret Service didn't tackle me or anything, but as they hustled the president out, one agent gave me a "Do you know what you just did?" look. Yeah, I knew.
Arthur Jackson: Rey is the most caring, conscientious guy. And you could just see, he literally turned white. He was just so panicked and freaking out without emotionally showing it, that I called him afterwards just to check in on him. He felt so bad. He couldn't believe it.
John Rogers (co-chair of Obama's Inauguration Committee; played ball at Princeton): We saw the President the next day and he was proudly showing pictures of the moment he was getting hit. He was proud of how rough-and-tumble the game had been. One more little story to share with his basketball buddies.
The Barack Obama Scouting Report
Consider this your guide to the President's game from those who played with him most, and a few who played with him least—but know basketball best. If you ever find yourself running against him, do not give him an open shot, make him go right, and hope his computer of a brain is having an off day.
Arthur Jackson: He definitely knows how to play basketball. But the impressive thing to me, and what most people don't understand, is he knows how to win on the basketball court. He's not going to shoot it if it's not money.
"Pardon the phrase because we're talking about the President of the United States, but my man doesn't have the greatest basketball body. Let's just be honest about this.'" — Roy Williams
Reggie Love: When I watch him play, because he's left-handed and the way he shoots, it looks like a Johnny Dawkins sort of shot. Obviously, Johnny Dawkins was a hell of an athlete, so I don't know if I'd say the style of play was 100 percent compatible or comparable. He's always going to come back to his right shoulder to finish left. He may not, but that's his highest percentage shot. And if he gets to his left hand, there's a good chance he's going to figure out a way to finish on you.
Arne Duncan: He knocks down open threes. He's probably quicker than people realize, but he's crafty. That's how he creates space. It's not like he's blowing by you. It's a crossover, a pump fake, a fake hand off, a back cut. Definitely more the mental part. [He's] not Russell Westbrook. But I'll say he's probably best going to the basket. That's what you should try to take away.
Roy Williams: Pardon the phrase because we're talking about the President of the United States, but my man doesn't have the greatest basketball body. Let's just be honest about this. But he reminded me a little bit of the old school Lenny Wilkens. I think that would make him feel good if I said that. A little bit of a sneaky game. He knows how to play.
Maya Moore (forward, Minnesota Lynx; five-time White House visitor, '09-10 UConn Huskies, '11,'13,'15 Minnesota Lynx): Don't let him catch and shoot. That's too easy. He has a funky little left-hand jumper, a little unorthodox, but it goes in. It's consistent. If it's not broke, don't fix it. You gotta make him put it on the floor. I know he's in shape, but if you're physical, that can take a lot out of a player, so try to be physical. Try to wear him down. And don't let him get in your head, Gary Payton-style.
Marty Nesbitt: Always play smart. There's no margin. You can't make errors because you're never going to recover from them. Because he's not going to make mistakes. He's going to get the ball in the right place, get the right player taking the right shot. So you cannot squander your opportunities when you play against him.
Shane Battier: Don't overcommit to his drive, because he's looking to drive and dish at the last second. So make him prove that he can finish over the top on you. But he's a competitor. Not afraid to stick his nose in there on defense.
Sherrod Smith (White House liaison): He's a good passer, and his great court vision allows him to make some unexpected assists that lead to easy shots. His weakness is probably lateral quickness. Of course, given the demands of being the Leader of the Free World, the President doesn't have much time to do plyometrics and basketball drills.
Marty Nesbitt: He's self-aware. He can play with players that are a lot better. He can play with players that are a lot worse. The most important thing about being a good basketball player is having awareness. How do I use the assets I have? Who can do what? How do I get them where they can be successful? And he does that well.
Alexi Giannoulias: It sounds really cheesy, and obviously I'm biased because I fucking love the guy, but I've always thought that you can really gauge a lot about a person by how they are on the court. And if someone's kind of a selfish asshole, there's something that carries over. And he was always a great leader. He was competitive. You weren't going to fuck with him. But he wasn't an asshole. He wouldn't knock you down, but if you knock him down, you couldn't run him over every time.
Arne Duncan: He was an amazing teammate. And whether he scored ten points or no points was absolutely irrelevant. All of it was about: Who's getting the loose ball? Who's going to help with defense and recovery? Getting a steal, or whatever. I'll say it: it's an absolute stark contrast to the President-Elect. A totally different mindset. It was all about team. It was all about winning. It was zero about him.
H-O-R-S-E on the South Lawn
President Obama had a converted tennis court on the South Lawn, where he often escaped to play a quick game of H-O-R-S-E, P-O-T-U-S, or P-I-G. A lucky few guests got the invite—often unexpectedly—to join him. This is where the honorable President Obama perfected his greatest hustle.
Danny Green (forward, San Antonio Spurs; two-time White House visitor: '09 UNC Tar Heels, '14 San Antonio Spurs): Going into the White House and actually meeting him, you don't know how to greet him, how to say hello, how to shake his hand. Is there a secret way to shake his hand? Is there a right way? A wrong way? You don't want to mess that up. You can see how serious of a deal it is when [San Antonio Spurs' Coach] Pop is kind of on his P's and Q's. It was like, okay, this is intense. Pop is almost never like that. But we were going to meet the President.
Roy Williams: A very personal thing with me is when we were taking our picture in 2009 at the White House, the official team picture with the President of the United States, all of a sudden, I looked around and everybody has on dark colored suits, except me. I've got on some blue slacks and a gray coat, and I just stick out like a sore thumb. And I said, "President Obama, I apologize. Looking around, everybody has on a solid dark suit except me." He looked at me, just sort of grinned, and said, "Coach, you have no idea how much fun it would be to wear clothes like that."
"He's congratulating us, reminding us of our accomplishments, and then he takes us out back and beats us! And I'm just like, 'Did we just get hustled?'" —Maya Moore
John Prendergast (activist, Enough Project): I was with Don Cheadle, George Clooney, and one of my colleagues, Brad Brooks-Rubin, and we had a long and very productive meeting in the Oval Office with Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett accompanying the president. Unexpectedly, at the end of the meeting, the President jumped up and said he wanted to show us something.
Don Cheadle: We literally [had just] finished our conversation. "Well, this is the policy. You're going to go talk to the finance, right?" "Yeah." "And you also have to talk to Susan." "Yeah, I'm going to talk to Susan." "Okay, want to go shoot some P-I-G?"
John Prendergast: President Obama set the tone early by launching NBA three pointers. Before each one, he'd say "Steph Curry" and he nailed well over half of his shots. Don, George, and I are pretty competitive, so even playing in our dress shirts and shoes and ties, no one wanted to lose. And that included the President. Although the jokes were flying around, so was the trash-talking and the focus with each shot. The president has a sweet stroke, and he thought his home court advantage might help him win out.
Don Cheadle: I had to follow him, so that was great. He was like, "You go after me, Don." I was like, "Great, I'll go after you, Mr. President." I just remember he was going to areas, and I'm like, "Why are we off in this weird corner, on the left side, behind the three-point line, off the glass? What's that shot?" And who shoots in a suit? So he's clearly used to that. I have on a tie and a blazer and a shirt, like, "Wait a minute. How do you even shoot in this stuff?" I imagine he gets to take breaks, so that was his break. And then on the way back, he was like, "I'm going to have this blow-out party. You guys should come to the party. See you next month." I'm like, "Alright. Thank you, Mr. President."
Maya Moore: We were in our White House outfits, dress shoes, looking lovely [for our 2009 NCAA women's basketball champions] picture. He takes us down this path, and we're wondering where we're going. And then, there's a basketball goal on the concrete! We looked up, and there are Secret Service agents in the trees, and we're all thinking, "What are we doing!?" I don't remember who initiated it, but he's known to hold his own in the trash-talking category, so I feel like he probably challenged us to a game of P-I-G. I don't like to make excuses, but he has a home court advantage, and he wasn't in heels. We were coming off an undefeated season, so that was our first loss of 2009. I'm still little bitter about it. He knew what was going to happen! He's congratulating us, reminding us of our accomplishments, and then he takes us out back and beats us! And I'm just like, "Did we just get hustled?" He set us up!
Hope Dreams: Obama's Basketball Legacy
The end of President Obama's residence in the White House might mean the end of the South Lawn basketball court, but it's unlikely to end his close relationship with the game—or the people he played with regularly.
Samantha Power: What ended up happening is this [South Lawn] court just became a place where a lot of his very close advisors played, but also where there was room for all comers. And it was amazing. You march across the White House Lawn as if it's your house. You walk down that path kind of right by the Rose Garden. And then occasionally the guards will be like, "What are these people doing, traipsing, sweating all over the Rose Garden?" Not every president would be excited about their staff being out there. I thought that was generous. It was like he was saying, "Look," as he always says, "this is my house. You guys are working so hard. Here's one thing I can give my team to have access to." It was really kind of him.
Marty Nesbitt: I think for him, and for all of us, it was an escape. When we all walked on that court, I wasn't thinking about the election. I was thinking, "We've got to win this." For that two hours, or whatever it was that we spent on the court, we all got lost in the moment.
"Some people cheat the game. He's never cheated a game." — Arne Duncan
John Rice: The press is never invited to these games. So I view it as an opportunity for him to be himself, to hang out with the fellows, to talk trash, just to get away from being in that bubble and that spotlight all the time.
Arne Duncan: I think this has shaped his identity from the time he was a kid. I think, like me, basketball was always a sanctuary for him when stuff in his life was tough. And it's been a lifelong love affair. Some people cheat the game. He's never cheated a game.
Samantha Power: Because the boss was a basketball player, it just has to be the case that that's why basketball became such a prominent and pervasive hobby for so many of his staffers. And by the time I left in 2013 to come up here to be U.N. Ambassador, I was in four games a week. These games just started proliferating. Now some of them were pre-existing games, like up at St. Albans or whatever, that don't have anything to do with him. But it just was the case that the sport—at least of the first four years of this administration, and the people who staffed it, and the people who were close to him and who worked with him—was basketball.
Ken Salazar: Oftentimes, during those early years, he was teaching his girls how to play ball. So he would come over to the Interior sometimes by himself, with Sasha and Malia, and he would be a father instructing his girls on basketball.
Reggie Love: I would say probably the most satisfying memory was having to coach Sasha's middle school team and seeing seventh graders execute the pick-and-roll flawlessly. I don't know that it's much more rewarding than that. It all started with practices, and then a couple of weekends, the head coach was gone, and she asked if we would fill in for her. So we filled in for a couple of games. It's less about the Xs and Os and more about the psychology for middle school girls, right? How do you get people fired up about this thing that they don't really get, or they kind of get but don't necessarily understand? I think he's really good at getting the girls motivated and sort of explaining to them that this is not a sleepover. This is a competition.
Arne Duncan: I think he'll continue to play, and, frankly, maybe play a little more now. He's got a bit more time, and if he does get hit—I understand it's hard to give the State of the Union with a black eye or a bloody nose. There's a reality there. He's still in good shape. He works out all the time. I bet he plays a bit more now, going forward, than he has the past couple of years.
Reggie Love: Not to be racial, but for most people of color who play basketball who really love the game, one of the main reasons they like it is because it kind of takes all the bullshit out of it. Doesn't matter where you're from. Doesn't matter where your daddy went to college. Doesn't matter who you're sleeping with. All that shit doesn't matter—you just go play. And in most parts of life, you don't have that.


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Talk about the home of music: Resourceful mum carves doll's house INSIDE a guitar as a gift for her daughter
Talk about the home of music: Resourceful mum carves doll's house INSIDE a guitar as a gift for her daughter
This room should have the perfect acoustics.
Miniatures artist Lorraine Robinson, originally from Mansfield, carved a doll's house into a guitar using incredible attention to detail.
The 49-year-old, who now lives in Australia, used her own prized instrument for the intricate project, as a special present for her daughter Cathryn.
'I couldn't see her keeping a plain old room box, and wanted it to be unusual,' said Ms Robinson.
'So I thought of many ideas that would incorporate her passions.
'I wanted to give her a gift that she would cherish and would be specific to her.
'This guitar was my first guitar and I knew she would recognise it because of the stress fracture that runs down the top of the body on the front left-hand side.
'Cathryn spotted this straight away and hugged me even more knowing full well what I had done.'
The two-floor room has exquisite detailing with tiny pencils visible on a table along with cupboards, stairs and other furniture.
Ms Robinson spent about two weeks on the guitar dwelling, working between eight and 10 hours a day. She said it had been daunting at first to saw into her prized guitar, although she soon began to enjoy the challenge.
She said: 'As I sanded the edges smooth I got an instant image and began to have fun.
'Giving such personal gifts is amazing and I just love it so much.'
The mother-of-three, who moved to New South Wales, Australia, in 1991, was a paramedic before becoming a full-time miniaturist.
For her next ambitious project she is planning to build a doll house inside a vacuum cleaner and a retro portable TV.
©Fairy Meadow Miniatures/Exclusivepix

subset: commoncrawl