President Obama has won at least one important matchup today, winning a pickup basketball game on the morning of Election Day. The President played with former Chicago Bulls players Scottie Pippen and Randy Brown, winning by 20-points.
The pickup game has become an Election Day tradition, which started during the 2007 Iowa Caucus with a then underdog Obama. This time playing with former NBA Champions, the President’s brother-in-law and Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, White House Assistant Chef
Sam Kass, Reggie Love, Mike Ramos and Marty Nesbitt.
Image via Chicago Bulls
Posted in NBA
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Tagged Chicago Bulls, NBA, Obama
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The highlight for many athletes when winning a championship is the visit to the White House and meeting the President, but Delonte West will not be traveling with the Dallas Mavericks to meet President Obama because of weapons charges and is banned from the White House. West pleased guilty to weapons and traffic charges when he was pulled over in 2009, and police found three guns hidden in a guitar case.
“I’m banned from going to the White House, so I’m not going to make it. But I’m going home to D.C., I’m just not allowed to go to the White House,” West told the Ft. Worth- Star Telegram. “That’s what happens when you make bad decisions in your life. You can’t go to the White House.”
After the media picked up the story, West went on a Tweeting rampage because he felt reporters were asking him unrelated basketball questions including saying he, “He says he has to sleep in his car because he can’t get apartment complexes in Dallas to approve him because of things they read on the internet,” and “The league minimum of $800,000 isn’t really all that much because of lawyer fees, agent fees, league fines, escrow, and his divorce settlement.”
But don’t feel too bad for West, he didn’t even play for the Dallas Mavericks Championship team las year and played for the Boston Celtics.
The San Francisco Giants visited President Obama and the White House in honor of their 2010 World Series Championship win.
The President took a break from national debt talks to congratulate the team, who despite winning the World Series in 1954 did not visit President Dwight Eisenhower because it was before the tradition started.
Obama poked fun at Giants Tim Lincecum saying, “America learned sometimes it’s a good idea to bet on the skinny guy,” and telling Brian Wilson he “feared the beard.”
The President told the crowd of almost 200 people, which included prominent guests House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “So even though this team is a little different, even though these players haven’t always followed the traditional rules, one thing they know is how to win.”
One person not in attendance was the Machine, who apparently couldn’t clear Secret Service!
UFC fighter Jacob Volkmann told a reporter he wanted to beat up President Obama as his next opponent. Though Volkmann back pedaled and said he was only joking, the threat prompted an investigation by Secret Service and has now cost Volkmann his job.
Volkmann is an assistant wrestling coach at a Minnesota high school. In an interview with Fox News Radio, Volkmann said, “They didn’t like how I was representing the school… They said I was representing them bad because of what I said about the president and his policies.”
