First POTUS-elect With Game

The Chicago Tribune has a new (old) take on Obama in Another milestone: Obama 1st president who’s got game:

In Barack Obama, Americans have truly made history. We have elected to the White House, for the first time, a basketball player.

The nation has had its bowlers-in-chief, its baseball first-pitch throwers (and former owners), its golfers aplenty. For the most part, these are activities conducive to drinking a beer at the same time, which makes them sports in the same way microwaving a frozen dinner is cooking.

But Obama, to borrow a playground term, is a “baller”—a player, even at age 47, of a populist, sweat-inducing, real sport and the possessor, to judge from the video of him in action, of no small amount of game. (He played Sunday at the University of Chicago Lab School.)

If you think that doesn’t mean something to those of us who continue to play pickup ball well past our physical primes, think again.

Obama’s Fitness Routine

The same Tribune has something about Obama’s fitness outlook in His White House workout plan? No bowling:

The outdoor White House basketball court has nothing on Chicago’s East Bank Club, where President-elect Barack Obama has been known to shoot hoops. It’s cramped—just a half-court—and unusable in bad weather.

But change is afoot in Washington.

“The bowling alley, I understand, offers us some potential for expansion,” Obama told Men’s Health for the magazine’s November issue.

An agile pickup player who can drive left but gets pushed around in the paint, Obama favors basketball as his form of exercise. But he’ll get in a workout any way he can.

Obama Trading Cards

Meanwhile, in terms of Obama merchandise, my favorite so far is described in Topps Adds a few Interesting Cards to upcoming Barack Obama Card Set:

With the upcoming release of 2009 Topps Barack Obama Trading Cards, Topps has announced 4 additions to the product:

1) White House Puppy redemption card — 1 per case. There is tremendous interest in this but the Obama’s will not make their selection for a few months from now. When they do, we’ll mail the actual puppy card to those lucky enough to pull the redemption card.

2) Obama High School Basketball card — 2 per case. Featured in a Topps vintage basketball design from 1978, with a photo of Barack Obama in his Hawaii-based High School basketball uniform.

3) Foil Stamped Parallels — 2 per 24 packs. There will be an Inaugural, commemorative foil stamp added to the existing base cards, as an extra chase enhancement.

4) Silver Foil Sticker Parallels — 8 per 24 packs.

What Did He Wear?

To find out what Obama wore to play ball this weekend you can look at Obama’s Sunday: Regents gym workout; hoops at U of Chicago Lab school gym; visit to mom-in-law South Shore home Pool reports:

For the basketball game, which was not visible to the pool, POTUS-elect wore gray sweatpants with a stripe along the leg, white sneakers, a black jacket and the weather worn Sox hat.

Baller-In-Chief

By now you can probably tell that there’s a new website called Baller-In-Chief, which I am proud to say is the brainchild of yours truly.

Baller-In-Chief is everything about the basketball activities, interests, and game of president-elect Barack Obama.

It includes articles, videos, photos, blog posts, thoughts, ideas, and more.

So far there are over 100 articles alone, dating back to 2007.

I hope the site’s banner says it all.

This all started with a post called “Baller-In-Chief” that I wrote on The Black Fives Blog back in February, 2008.

Has there ever been a basketball-loving President of the United States of America?

I decided to do some research to find out.

As I followed the 2008 presidential primaries and the election campaign it became more and more clear not only that we were going to have a Baller-In-Chief but also that we needed a collection of all of his ballerdom.

It’s basically for people who have an Obama basketball Jones.

So, there it is. Enjoy!