An avid basketball fan, former US president Barack Obama has supported the NBA for decades. During his presidency, he had invited a few of the league’s top stars for pick-up games in the White House. When he went on a trip to Kuwait to visit the troops, he even showed them his basketball chops, casually sinking a three-point shot in a basketball court.
The 44th POTUS guested on Tyrese Haliburton and Tommy Alter’s “The Young Man and the Three” podcast on Wednesday. Barack Obama did not hold back when he made a specific comment about the NBA All-Star games.
“Y’all got a little more pride in the All-Star game. … You know how to play in a way like, ‘Alright, I’m not gonna hurt anybody, I’m not gonna take anybody out.’ But, that All-Star game’s broke, man.
“When Kobe [Bryant] and Michael [Jordan] and Isiah [Thomas], those guys were playing, man? They weren’t playing the way they did during the regular season, but they wanted to win. It insults the game.”
The recent NBA All-Star games have been criticized for their lack of competitiveness. The league tried to address the issue once in 2020 when it implemented the Elam Ending, with Team LeBron winning over Team Giannis 157-155 in a spectacular fashion. However, the following year, the games went back to the traditional style that has been criticized for being uncompetitive.
In the most recent All-Star game in Indiana earlier this year, the East defeated the West 211-186. It was a high-scoring affair mostly because the players on both sides of the court seemingly didn’t bother defending their marks, leading to easy scores. Many basketball fans took to social media to call for the cancellation of the All-Star games ifs the players won’t compete seriously.
Barack Obama says NBA players don’t play hard in All-Star games anymore
As if echoing the sentiments of many disgruntled NBA fans, former US president Barack Obama told Tyrese Haliburton that the NBA All-Star game isn’t what it used to be.
During his podcast interview with the former president Barack Obama, Haliburton revealed that NBA legend Larry Bird, who was honored in the last All-Star event, spoke to the players, urging them to “play with more effort and compete.” However, when the game ended, it was as if Bird didn’t speak to them at all.
Barack Obama said to Haliburton, “This is your business. This is your product. You don’t want people out there thinking, ‘Y’all out there just half-a**ed. Take it more seriously! The problem is, y’all getting paid so much now. … Y’all need to do something ‘cause I ain’t watching that thing no more.”
Fans can only hope that the players hoping to be in the next All-Star game will hear the former POTUS’s criticism and deliver a more competitive game next year.
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