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Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:32 am EDT

Video: Obama out-shoots UConn women at White House

By Eamonn Brennan

President Barack Obama hosted 2009 women's NCAA tourney champ UConn to the White House on Monday, and beyond all of the requisite ceremonial jersey gifts and congratulations and unnecessarily eloquent speeches about what UConn women's basketball means to Obama and his daughters (I'll admit, that caught me off guard), there was time for a little friendly game of P.I.G.

And to their eternal shame, the UConn women couldn't hit shots. Obama won. That is to say, he sort of won; as you'll see in the video, I don't think the rules of P.I.G. were rigorously enforced here.

Obama's connection to college hoops started long before his presidency: He scrimmaged with UNC last summer and earned the all-important Dean Smith endorsement in the general election. Perhaps his most famous dalliance with college hoops came from his ESPN-hyped 2009 tourney bracket. Not only did Obama perform pretty well in the bracket -- he picked UNC to win, after all -- but he managed to anger staunch Republican Coach K in the process. That was fun.

One final note: Obama's shot form remains in need of work. It ends well, with a great little wrist flick, but how he gets the ball there -- moving it right-to-left just before he shoots -- is poor form. Fortunately, it's nothing a little work with Steve Alford's legendary collection of shooting videos can't fix. Keep that elbow square, Barack.

(HT: NBC Washington and the White House Youtube stream, whose editors mercifully understand that no one watches Internet clips for more than 1:30.)

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339 Comments

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  1. Cam R
    1. Posted by Cam R Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:45 am EDT

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    and that was a horrible game of P.I.G. i might add
  2. urbanlegendsrg
    2. Posted by urbanlegendsrg Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:49 am EDT

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    PIG? Very ironic with the Swine FLU crisis... Glad to see the Prez is passing time nicely and is calm with the recession looming and the crisis building....
  3. PurdueMatt
    3. Posted by PurdueMatt Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:28 am EDT

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    ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  4. Aaron
    4. Posted by Aaron Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:06 pm EDT

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    He needs to square up his hips and he'll shoot better. Technique is everything.
  5. Jonathan R
    5. Posted by Jonathan R Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:52 pm EDT

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    5th! but seriously, they should have obama play against coach k.
  6. austin
    6. Posted by austin Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:23 pm EDT

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    lol urbanlegendsrg i was thinking the same thing
  7. cwarner4422
    7. Posted by cwarner4422 Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:25 pm EDT

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    Typical republican is number 2. Hey what's the most important thing to you, your kids? Do you concern yourself with their lives every second of every day? You are naive to think that the president is working LITERALLY every second of the day.
  8. Timothy M
    8. Posted by Timothy M Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:26 pm EDT

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    You missed the closest college hoops connection to Obama: his brother in law.
  9. NVN2010
    9. Posted by NVN2010 Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:27 pm EDT

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    To come to the UConn women defense they were shooting in high heels! That throws off the form. At least he's at the Whitehouse and not chiling at a ranch in Texas.
  10. jim m
    10. Posted by jim m Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:27 pm EDT

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    I can beat those gals.... so what's the big deal?
  11. bmorekid3
    11. Posted by bmorekid3 Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:28 pm EDT

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    im in kind of a George Bush withdrawl..i havent heard him say something stoopid in 5 months...everybody hatin on Barack, he could just play b-ball for eight years and i would like 'em bettter than dubya.
  12. Redskins21
    12. Posted by Redskins21 Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:32 pm EDT

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    lol. Obama would dawg Coack K in 1 on 1..
  13. BoiseApartments
    13. Posted by BoiseApartments Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:33 pm EDT

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    how can you view the video? it doesnt come up on my computer. Is there some special video codec or video player I can download?
  14. Mike
    14. Posted by Mike Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:33 pm EDT

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    Wow he's better than I would have thought.
  15. Freeway
    15. Posted by Freeway Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:34 pm EDT

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    wow, get beat a bunch of girls in high heels....congrats Prez
  16. xXxFURYFIEDxXx
    16. Posted by xXxFURYFIEDxXx Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:42 pm EDT

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    Pres. Obama should have joined the NBA. Lolz.
  17. BoiseApartments
    17. Posted by BoiseApartments Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:42 pm EDT

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    anyone know how to view the video???
  18. HunkerDownDawgs
    18. Posted by HunkerDownDawgs Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:43 pm EDT

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    I like President Obama. But this is insane way to much going on right now. All the xtra activities need to be on the back burner for now. But then again EVERY working man needs a break. So I guess this may be a way for him to take the stress away. Do your thing and let the next 100 days be even better than they are now.
  19. RandyG
    19. Posted by RandyG Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:44 pm EDT

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    Hey #2 and #6, what are you doing on the internet complaining, rather than being productive citizens? Being the President, is a "job". He's always on call, but he is allowed to take breaks from time to time or he'll go crazy from the stress.
    What about GWB reading to children on the morning of September 11th? He should have been in a fighter jet himself shooting the planes down before the tragedy struck!
    Amirite? Let the guy have his fun. He's working his ass off and getting a lot of things done in his early days as President, whereas GWB didn't do much of anything until 9/11 happened..and then he still didn't do much after that other than focus squarely on terrorist bull [profane] and nothing else.
    Obama looks like he can multitask, and that's a good thing so far.
  20. Joy W
    20. Posted by Joy W Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:45 pm EDT

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    Good grief! you guys, you are very critical of something fun. Shut up! The pres has the right to shoot a couple hoops everyonce in a while. And he doesn't have to have perfect form; and I am sure the girls were elated to be there with him and getting noticed. Lay off Haters.
  21. Schwietness
    21. Posted by Schwietness Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:48 pm EDT

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    bmorekid3 - what an oxymoron, calling Bush comments "stoopid". U R Brilliant.
  22. BrentP
    22. Posted by BrentP Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:03 pm EDT

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    You guys who keep saying stuff like "glad to see him doing important things and not doing things like his job" are idiots. Always looking for something to nitpik at. You guys are the negative nellies in this country and are definatly not being part of the solution...so, what does that make you? In a GWB world that would make you the problem. In the new world it just makes you haters. Learn to relax a bit. Its a freaking publicity thing. Presidents have been doing it forever. Throwing out first pitches, congratulating champions, they have always been doing things like that. It doesn't mean that they TOTALLY forget about the worlds problems. They ARE doing their jobs. Even GWB, whom I can't stand, was "doing his job" when reading to those kids during 9-11. He was doing the PR part of being a president so I don't even blame him for the whole 9-11 thing. And really, I can't stand the man.
  23. changename
    23. Posted by changename Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:05 pm EDT

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    Aren't the shots supposed to be HARD?! The heck?
    And to you people saying that the president should be working 24/7...
    Get a clue.
    Hell, he could literally do nothing else and still be a harder working president than bush.
    NO ONE works 24/7, they'd die. Trust me, even I'm taking a break to write this and I run a business, freelance, go to college, workout, volunteer, go to church and work.
  24. changename
    24. Posted by changename Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:05 pm EDT

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    Though, I would agree the P-I-G is probably a poor choice of words considering the current Flu.

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