Obama hoops with ‘Melo and Bosh, no media allowed

At a certain point, word will leak out about what exactly went down when President Barack Obama played basketball with a group of current and former NBA players.

It happened after a fundraising dinner last night in New York, and the media was not allowed to watch, film or gawk.

In attendance were Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, NBA commissioner David Stern, Charlotte Bobcats owner and closet Republican Michael Jordan, and retired players Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Penny Hardaway and Sheryl Swoopes.

After dinner, Obama participated in an informal shootaround with the NBA players and other guests, according to campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

“He’s not taking any one-on-one game tonight,” Jordan said in introducing the president, according to Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News.

More from Nichols:

• “Mr. Romney, my opponent, his main economic plan is to give everybody in this room a tax cut,” Obama told the NBA crowd. “Now some of you may find that appealing, but the fact of the matter is we can’t afford it.”
• More than 250 tickets were sold at prices ranging from $2,500 to $50,000.
• Obama’s remarks were laden with sports metaphors, and he drew a comparison with what he did for increased political participation in the 2008 election with how Jordan spurred interest among non-basketball fans in the 1990s.
• “So this is my dream team,” Obama said. “It’s very rare that I come to an event where I am like the fifth or sixth most interesting person.” He made a point to mention NBA all-stars who played at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a key battleground state. “We have some Tar Heels in the House,” he said. Jordan has “his North Carolina shorts under his suit,” Obama said. “And that’s important to note.”

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(Editor’s note: A few readers and Twitter followers have discouraged political-related reporting on this site, saying we should keep it all-basketball. The feedback is appreciated, but NBA players and owners are becoming more politically-involved than they were in the past, which is an evolutionary pro sports-related social development that cannot be ignored. The publisher of this site is a registered independent, and we strive to keep our coverage politically neutral.-CS)