Obama's basketball clout

oldgunrules · Sep 12, 2012

Just heard this remarkable story over NPR about the way President Obama goes about basketball games by a writer named Michael Lewis. I was driving to the gynm at lunch time when I heard this. I was late, but I still couldn't get out of my car until the story was over:grin:

I choose to post it here because I have no intention of spreading political views. This is just for the fun of basketball, especially for older fans like me who are on the decline but desperately trying to hang on.

http://www.npr.org/2012/09/12/161003362/michael-lewis-studies-obamas-way

It's a long interview. The basketball part starts around the 30:00 mark.

Jontro · Sep 13, 2012

spark notes anyone?

Pest_Ctrl · Sep 13, 2012

Jontro said: ↑

spark notes anyone?
Click to expand...

There's transcript on the website.

Below is the basketball part, but overall this was a great interview.

GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Michael Lewis, and we're talking about his new story in the current edition of Vanity Fair called "Obama's Way." It's based on a period of six months when he had access to President Obama, spent time with him, traveled with him, and also did several interviews with him.

One of the things you did with President Obama was play basketball with him. What did you learn about him from playing basketball?

LEWIS: Quite a bit. I think it's generally true that you learn much more about a person doing something with them than just talking to them. And he - I asked to play basketball with him and having no idea what his game, what the game was like, and he didn't really warn me.

I showed up at the White House one morning, and he comes down - and actually, he was preceded by the valet caring his Under Armour red, white and blue high-top sneakers. And he comes down, and he's looking for his mouth guard. And I said why - this is basketball. Why do you need a mouth guard? He goes: Sometimes I get teeth knocked out. And the election's in 100 days, and I don't want to get my teeth knocked out before the election. I said, you know, what kind of game is this? He goes, well, it's - it can get rough.

(LAUGHTER)

LEWIS: And we went to the - the basketball court we played on was in the FBI. We drove over to the FBI. And on the court is what looks like - it's not exactly an NBA team, but they were - the guys were serious basketball players. Everybody had been in - had played at a major college level, and a lot of the guys had played professionally. And it's a regular basketball game that meets three or four times a week that Obama slots into every now and then.

And I was shocked at the level of competition. I thought, my God, the president's 50 years old. He didn't start for his high school basketball team. How good could he be? But he was actually good enough to function in this environment.

And when you watched him play - or played with him - you noticed a few things. One was his insistence that no one treat him like he was the president. He was - you would - just watching the game, you would never guess which one was the president. People were - he got exactly as much respect and was exactly as abused as a person of his caliber of play should have been in that game.

If he found himself isolated on a better player on the other team, the other player just took it to him. If he was open for a shot on his team, but there was someone who was a better shooter who was also open, that other person got the ball.

And I said this to one of the players. I said, you know, it's kind of amazing that nobody defers to him. And the player said, you know, if you defer to him, you're not invited back. He doesn't want that. So that told you a lot.

He wants to be, one, in a very challenging environment. Two, he really likes relationships between equal - he likes normalcy. He likes to be treated like some - like a normal person. And then the third thing was he was shrewd, shrewd as can be on the basketball court. He was sort of, like, was - he spaced the court very well, and he found ways to get open. And in what looked like a very riskless game, like he was playing a very low-key riskless game, every now and then, he'd strike. And he has a really good three-point shot.

So he took, in the course of five games we played, or six games, he took maybe five shots and made all but one of them. And he had kind of orchestrated himself to - he had worked very hard to get to the point where he could take the shot and get a good shot. He also screams at you if you - if you're on his team and you take bad shots, he doesn't put up with it. He was hollering at me.

(LAUGHTER)

LEWIS: In fact, he hollered at me so much - he hollered at me - he was so - I was so embarrassed by being outclassed and feeling like he was going to be pissed off at me if we lost, that I, at some point, I kind of snuck out of the game and went and sat with the scorekeeper. But the first time I jacked up a shot that he thought I shouldn't take, he started screaming at me.

And at that the - when the game was over and it was clear his team had won four of the six games, you could see that the reason that his team had won was that the players on his team didn't take stupid shots because they were afraid the president was going to scream at them if they did.
Click to expand...

Yung-T · Sep 13, 2012

Great interview, thanks for sharing.

AstroRocket · Sep 13, 2012

Fun interview, thanks for sharing. By the way, here's the Vanity Fair article: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/10/michael-lewis-profile-barack-obama

durvasa · Sep 13, 2012

Sounds like a cross between Shane Battier (won't allow himself to take a bad shot) and Kobe Bryant (won't allow anyone else on his team to take a bad shot).

Yung-T · Sep 13, 2012

durvasa said: ↑

Sounds like a cross between Shane Battier (won't allow himself to take a bad shot) and Kobe Bryant (won't allow anyone else on his team to take a bad shot).
Click to expand...

Shabe Bryattier? Koane Battiant?

Air Langhi · Sep 13, 2012

Max tucker wrote a piece about his basketball too. In it he basically said Obama was Shane battier. He got picked high a lot of times and didn't live up to the pick.

mirus · Sep 13, 2012

oldgunrules said: ↑

Just heard this remarkable story over NPR about the way President Obama goes about basketball games by a writer named Michael Lewis. I was driving to the gynm at lunch time when I heard this. I was late, but I still couldn't get out of my car until the story was over:grin:

I choose to post it here because I have no intention of spreading political views. This is just for the fun of basketball, especially for older fans like me who are on the decline but desperately trying to hang on.

http://www.npr.org/2012/09/12/161003362/michael-lewis-studies-obamas-way

It's a long interview. The basketball part starts around the 30:00 mark.
Click to expand...

I like Michael Lewis 's boomerang .thanks in advance for sharing the interview

tofu-- · Sep 13, 2012

Yung-T said: ↑

Shabe Bryattier? Koane Battiant?
Click to expand...

The Half Mamba.

RV6 · Sep 13, 2012

http://bbs.clutchfans.com/showthread.php?t=225278

OlajuwonFan81 · Sep 13, 2012

Here is another interview of Michael Lewis on the Charlie Rose show.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12549

RCKTBachar · Sep 13, 2012

Why is this a remarkable story again?

AFS · Sep 13, 2012

tofu-- said: ↑

The Half Mamba.
Click to expand...

The O Mamba?

Forums

Obama's basketball clout

oldgunrules Member

Jontro Member

Pest_Ctrl Member

Yung-T Member

AstroRocket Member

durvasa Contributing Member

Yung-T Member

Air Langhi Contributing Member

mirus Member

tofu-- Member

RV6 Contributing Member

OlajuwonFan81 Member

RCKTBachar Member

AFS Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!