Obama says he's retired from pickup basketball games
He may have been the most fervent basketball fan to occupy the Oval Office, but former President Obama says he decided to stop shooting hoops himself nearly a decade ago.
“I have hung ‘em up,” Obama said on the inaugural episode of the “Ways to Win” podcast, released Tuesday.
“I played all the way through the presidency,” the ex-commander in chief and basketball mega-fan told co-hosts John Calipari and Craig Robinson, the brother of Michelle Obama.
“The last time I played was November of 2016, so just two months before I left office,” Obama, 62, recalled.
“Man, I played great that day. I was raining down threes, and had this spin move, finger roll for the win. I was just firing on all cylinders,” he said.
But the swish spree ended up being Obama’s last hoops hurrah.
“At the end of that, I said this is the devil talking, and the next time I play … my Achilles [tendon] is gonna pop, and I'm gonna be in a boot for six months. I’m stopping right now. And I have not played since,” he exclaimed.
The 44th president — who in 2010 needed a dozen stitches after getting hit in the lip while playing basketball — indicated that abandoning pickup games proved to be a good move.
“I've had at least 10 friends who've popped their Achilles since that time, trying to be those weekend warriors,” Obama said.
While he might not be planning any fast breaks or alley-oops in his future, he indicated that he’s not fully stepping away from b-ball.
“I'll play y'all some HORSE,” Obama said, “but we're not we're not running up and down that court.”