Former U.S. president Barack Obama recently shared that he once played a secret All-Star game with Miami Heat legends Dwyane Wade and LeBron James at the White House.
“For my 49th birthday we had an All-Star game that was just kinda for us,” Obama said during an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast. “LeBron came, and Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose who was from Chicago.”
The former president explained how easy it was to put together.
“One of the perks of being president is, you can invite people to the White House and they show up,” he said.
Obama explained that each team had three NBA players and two amateurs in an attempt to make the game as fair as possible. It’s unclear who the other NBA players were besides the three he mentioned in the podcast.
He added that some of his high school friends were part of the game, and some Wounded Warriors were invited to be a part of the day.
“Having LeBron suddenly guard you – this mountain of a human – you never feel so small and weak,” Obama joked. “You just pass the ball, or hand it to him and say here, I’m not worthy.”
It was widely known during Obama’s presidency that he enjoyed playing basketball as a hobby, but it was not known that he ever got the opportunity to play with some bonafide NBA stars in Wade and James.
This story adds to the legacies of Wade and James as two of the most popular players from this era of the NBA. Very few people can say that they played basketball with the president of the United States of America, but it’s fitting that the distinction belongs to those two future Hall of Famers.
