LeBron James and Dwayne Wade likely aren’t popular in Cleveland, and they haven’t yet earned their mettle in Miami, but they have been welcomed in Washington.
That doesn’t mean they’ve been traded to the Wizards. But along with Carmelo Anthony, NBA legends Bill Russell and Magic Johnson and several others, they did spend time this weekend playing pickup B-ball with President Obama.
The basketball greats joined the president in entertaining wounded troops in a gym in Washington’s Fort McNair. Reporters weren’t allowed in, so there’s no telling if Obama got dunked on, hit three-pointers, or if he’s any good at all on defense in the paint.
What is known is that Obama, the NBA ballers and the soldiers all got together at the White House afterward for a barbecue that included shrimp taken from the Gulf of Mexico. Asked why there was no public exposure of Obama’s storied court skills against basketball’s finest, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president “just wanted to play.”