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THREAD: One final time this week, I wanted to share my story on when then-Senator Barack Obama played pickup hoops with UNC during a campaign stop in Chapel Hill.
But I was also wanted to share some interesting things that didn't quite make the final cut: https://theathletic.com/2327277/2021/01/18/barack-obama-north-carolina-tar-heels-basketball-roy-williams-tyler-hansbrough-danny-green/?source=emp_shared_article
But I was also wanted to share some interesting things that didn't quite make the final cut: https://theathletic.com/2327277/2021/01/18/barack-obama-north-carolina-tar-heels-basketball-roy-williams-tyler-hansbrough-danny-green/?source=emp_shared_article
First, check the 1st pic in the story. You don't have to scroll far. Looks like Obama's shot is getting swatted by Hansbrough, but...
"Everyone speculates that I just annihilated his shot. It looks like that — and I like the fact it looks like that — because I didn’t block it."
"Everyone speculates that I just annihilated his shot. It looks like that — and I like the fact it looks like that — because I didn’t block it."
I just thought that quote was SO Hansbrough, who also told me how he was *slightly* unsure of one aspect of his introduction to Obama.
"Not sure if he called me Psycho T — I hope he didn’t. It seems like everybody was calling me that back then."
"Not sure if he called me Psycho T — I hope he didn’t. It seems like everybody was calling me that back then."
Most people struggled to come up with a pro comparison for Obama's game. Danny Green probably came closest (and was the most generous):
"I wouldn’t say De’Aaron Fox or Cuttino Mobley (laughs), but something like that. Somehow a combination?"
The lefty thing held everyone up.
"I wouldn’t say De’Aaron Fox or Cuttino Mobley (laughs), but something like that. Somehow a combination?"
The lefty thing held everyone up.
Reggie Love, the former Duke basketball and football player who became one of Obama's advisers, only makes a brief appearance in the story. But as you might guess, he was NOT happy about playing at UNC. Most of the guys around Obama, and the President himself, ragged on Love.
"Being in the Dean Dome, the practice gym, he was just complaining the whole time that he had to do it," Whichard says. "I remember he wore a Celtics jersey — it might’ve been a Larry Bird jersey — that morning when we were all rising him, trying to get him to wear light blue.”
When UNC won the title in 2009 and went to see Obama at the White House, they didn't just bring along photos and jerseys to give him. ESPN sent Bobby Frasor a camera to document the whole thing... and the video still exists! Behold:
Also enjoyed this quote from Hansbrough, because it gives you some perspective into how these college students at the time viewed it all: “Looking back, if I’m complaining about having to wake up early to play basketball with the President, I had it pretty good back in the day."
When Obama came back in 2016 to campaign for Hillary Clinton, he met the team in Eddie Smith Field House. His whole convoy of SUVs comes roaring in, and Obama gets out alone to walk 50 yards over to meet the team.
And as he's walking, Nate Britt says what everyone is thinking:
And as he's walking, Nate Britt says what everyone is thinking:
"Man, that guy’s got more swag than anybody I’ve ever seen."
Consensus from the rest of the team: Yep, it's true.
Consensus from the rest of the team: Yep, it's true.
That "cool" factor was only amplified when Obama spoke to UNC in the locker room before the Zion shoe game.
"He had on a black bomber jacket, half-zipped. And then on the left forearm, there was just this subtle, one-inch white '44.' I mean, it’s just like, come on, man."
"He had on a black bomber jacket, half-zipped. And then on the left forearm, there was just this subtle, one-inch white '44.' I mean, it’s just like, come on, man."
Roy Williams actually knew Obama's high school coach, Chris McLaughlin, and Chris' son has spoken to Roy about trying to get on the PGA Tour.
And whenever UNC goes to Hawaii, still, it practices at Punahou School, where Obama went from fifth grade through the end of high school.
And whenever UNC goes to Hawaii, still, it practices at Punahou School, where Obama went from fifth grade through the end of high school.
Now let's get to Jack Wooten. Wooten obviously defended Obama more than anyone, but why with so much vigor? I asked.
"Keep in mind that for the last 10 months, I had been guarding McDonald’s All-Americans, future NBA players… so the drop-off from that to Obama was significant."
"Keep in mind that for the last 10 months, I had been guarding McDonald’s All-Americans, future NBA players… so the drop-off from that to Obama was significant."
“I get accused of fouling him a lot. Let’s just say the memories of that day — when I had multiple deflections, steals — have now blurred into the line of fouls," Wooten jokes. "People’s memories are getting a little fuzzy, but everything I did was within the rules of the game.”
And lastly, some of the longer answers from guys about what that experience meant in general, and how their perceptions of it have changed over time. Most of these were too long to make it in, but they're some of my favorite quotes I heard...
"It’s not easy following sports as much as he did while you’re running a country. It’s not easy. He had a lot on his plate, obviously, but he still shared his brackets," Danny Green says. "That separated him, made him one-of-a-kind. I don’t see anyone replicating that.”
"Honestly, I didn’t appreciate the moment because I was so young in college, and I didn’t recognize who Obama was going to be," Hansbrough says. "Now that I look back on the pictures, and I see him coming in and playing ... I try to realize how important that moment was."
"Sport, and especially basketball, is such a great way to connect on a human level," Wooten says. "That’s what I think we’re missing: the human connection, and then that leads to empathy. People seeing people as people — and you do that on the basketball court."
"It says a lot about his character and the type of president that he was for us," Ellington says. "He didn’t realize how much of an impact that it did have on us players. You can only pray for another president to come along and have that same type of personality and character.”
And lastly, I'll leave you all with this one. Thanks for reading this thread, and hopefully it's as interesting to you as it is to me. How Whichard, who worked with and for Obama, saw the President and the the way he used sports...
"He saw basketball as a vehicle that touched people across races, across genders, across generations," Whichard says. "He saw the moment that the game was having, and his ability to interact and engage with it was a really powerful force for awareness and change...
"And you know, I think that it’s possible to do that with other sports. It’s possible that other presidents could replicate it. But it was just such a natural choice for President Obama, such a natural space for him to occupy, that he did it more seamlessly than most could.”
I forgot the best part: Obama's speech that night!
Worth taking the nine minutes to listen to this. It's as true today as it was in 2008, if not more:
Worth taking the nine minutes to listen to this. It's as true today as it was in 2008, if not more: