Barack Obama
© Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
When NBA stars were invited to play for former US president Barack Obama’s presidential games, they knew they came into the White House to have some fun. However, Obama’s former White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said there was one player who did not take it easy the entire game.
“The only people who played super competitively other than Obama was Chris Paul, obviously,” Pfeiffer revealed.
One player had no chill
As one of the organizers of the presidential games, Pfeiffer was well aware of the great responsibility associated with it. He had to always be on the lookout for anything that might injure Obama, and in the process, he diligently observed how the NBA players played.
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As expected, nobody took the games seriously except for Obama, whom Pfeiffer said always played competitively. But according to his communications director, Chris Paul matched the then-US president’s competitive juices and played hard from tipoff to the final buzzer.
“You never want to be responsible for putting someone in that game, because I was tangentially responsible for one of the great tragedies of the Obama basketball games. A guy that I kind of knew ended up in a game and he’s the one who busted Obama’s nose over Thanksgiving in 2010, which no one was pleased with and caused a minor media firestorm,” Pfeiffer told Sports Illustrated in 2020.
There was also a complete opposite
For most NBA fans, Pfeiffer’s revelation may not be that much of a surprise, as we all know how competitive CP3 is as a player. In fact, Kobe Bryant even once said he and Paul never fooled around, even during the All-Star games.
But according to Pfeiffer, there was also one NBA star who did not show even one bit of enthusiasm while at the White House. That someone was John Wall.
“There’s an infamous story that I don’t know, I can’t swear is true, but that John Wall slept through his presidential basketball game. That story has been going around the White House in DC for years,” he revealed.
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