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Basketball is coming to your nearest White House.
Say what you want, cry if you like, but it is coming and those in mourning, will just have to accept it.
The NBA, yes that dubious organization is jockeying for position with the next POTUS. It is called we are your friends and if the POTUS loves basketball, everyone else will too. Damn, the NBA media mind is working already. No shame, in the hustle game.
During the campaign, Mr. Obama said he planned to replace the White House bowling alley -- installed by Richard Nixon in 1969 -- with an indoor basketball court. (There is a tiny outdoor court at the White House adjacent to the tennis court on the southwest side.) National Basketball Association officials have reached out to members of the transition team to offer their services in installing a regulation court at the White House.
If "there is an upgrading of the basketball facilities at the White House, you can be assured that the NBA and the players will be there," says NBA Commissioner David Stern.
I am totally confident the Stern will be the first one cheezin' with O and wanting to get 'in' on the new basketball court.
Now, the bowlers are in tears. Hey, it is the prerogative of the president for his workout vice. This job is stressful enough, a daily workout is MANDATORY.
"It would be a sad, sad day" if Mr. Obama scrapped the bowling lane, says Jim Sturm, president of the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America and owner of two bowling centers in Charleston, W.Va. "I think his political analysts ought to take a long look at removing [it]. It could have a long-term impact on his political prospects."
Political fallout on a bowling alley? Please. This alley was put in the White House by Richard Nixon, bowling was his vice. If Obama wants a basketball court, why not? There is not one on the premises, with exception of a very lame half court (if that) and it is a PAIN to bundle up all the secret service, with all those gas guzzlin' SUVs, shutting down the streets and lanes in DC, just so he can go to the YMCA for 40 minutes. Would it be an inconvenience to Obama? No, but ask the others who are trying to work out, or get around in the city and have to deal with this on the daily. Their answers would be much different.
And basketball request time?
Whether bowling stays or goes this is clearly basketball's moment. Basketball fans outside the president-elect's inner circle are clamoring for the chance to join a White House game. "The big buzz is pickup," says Gil Jackson, head basketball coach at Howard University. "People are already posturing as to how they'll get in on those games. Myself included."
Requests for pickup games are expected to go through White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel's office. Mr. Emanuel, or someone on his staff, would screen the requests, with Mr. Obama getting the chance to assemble his own weekly games.
It is Obama time. He is a young man who loves physical activity. Nice to see this back in the White House.
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