WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama welcomed the Duke Blue Devil men’s basketball team to the White House Thursday to congratulate the team on its 2010 National Championship, the program’s fourth title under coach Mike Krzyzewski.
In a sun-drenched Rose Garden, Obama made light of his busted bracket, as the prognosticator-in-chief had Duke losing to Villanova in the Elite Eight. He made sure to mention his bracket was more successful last year when he correctly picked Duke’s archrival, the North Carolina Tar Heels, to win the title.
An avid basketball fan, Obama said this year’s tournament was incredible from start to finish, including the final game in which Duke survived a last second heave by Butler University’s Gordon Hayward to escape with a two-point win.
Duke’s NCAA basketball championship earned the team a trip to the White House on Thursday (Paul Schott/MNS)
“The championship game against Butler…was everything fans hoped it would be,” Obama said. “It came down to the final possession, and these guys hung in there and won it all.”
The president congratulated the whole team but singled out the seniors, referring to point guard Jon Scheyer, a native of suburban Chicago, as “my homeboy.”
Obama also recognized tournament Most Outstanding Player Kyle Singler. Thinking back to his 2008 presidential campaign stop in Singler’s hometown of Medford, Ore., he joked, “I was the second most famous person to ever show up in Medford.”
Thursday’s visit by the 2010 NCAA champions Duke Blue Devils was hardly Barack Obama’s first encounter with the roundball. He has a well-known basketball pedigree that dates back to his days as a high school hoopster in Hawaii, where he earned the nickname Barry O’Bomber for his jump shot.
The president still plays on a regular basis. He practiced with the University of North Carolina’s squad during his 2008 campaign, and he also has a ritual of playing on every election day. These days, he works on his jump shot at the new White House basketball court. He says the court is a refuge from the pressures of his day job.
“During the health care debate, when things are going just crazy on Capitol Hill, a lot of times I’ll just come out here and shoot or play a game of HORSE,” he told TNT’s Marv Albert. “It takes an edge off things.”
Obama’s inner circle is also loaded with experience on the hardwood. His brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, is the head coach at Oregon State; Education Secretary Arne Duncan played professionally in Australia; and top aide Reggie Love played for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.
The president is also a passionate fan. Well-versed in both the college and pro game, he correctly picked North Carolina to win the NCAA tournament last year in his ESPN bracket. However, he did not pick Duke to win it all this year. Instead, he picked Kansas, which crashed out in one of the tournament’s biggest upsets to Northern Iowa.
And like every other basketball fan, Obama has an opinion on the future of free agent to be LeBron James.
“I think the most important thing for LeBron right now is to find a structure where he’s got a coach that he respects, is working hard with teammates that care about him,” he said. “And if that’s in Cleveland, then he should stay in Cleveland. And if he doesn’t feel like he can get it there, [then] some place else.”
As for the commander-in-chief, he’s got his own key basketball-related decision to ponder: whether or not to take up Senator Scott Brown on his offer of a pickup game. The new senator says he wants to play the president in a charity game in Springfield, Massachusetts, the home of the basketball Hall of Fame. An Obama spokesman says the offer is being considered.
Paul Schott
Krzyzewski has now won titles during three different administrations. He won his first two national championships in 1991 and 1992 when President George H.W. Bush was in office, and his third shortly after President George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001.
Obama acknowledged several prominent Duke fans in attendance. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Ric Shinseki and Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.V., are Duke alumni. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., teaches at Duke, and the rest of the North Carolina congressional delegation joined him at the ceremony.
After leaving the White House, the Blue Devils were on their way to the Pentagon to thank the troops, something important to Krzyzewski, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.