Obama Reveals He Played a Secret White House Pickup Game with LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Wounded Warriors: ‘Perk of Being President’

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Former President Barack Obama frequently broadcasted a love for basketball during his time in the White House. Even Magic Johnson once came out of retirement for an Obama basketball game, which were rumored to be taken seriously.

Joining the Armchair Expert podcast hosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, Obama detailed a secret game featuring some of the NBA’s best.

“For my 49th birthday we had an All-Star game that was just kinda for us,” Obama said. “LeBron came, and Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose who was from Chicago.”

“One of the perks of being president is, you can invite people to the White House and they show up,” Obama told Shepard and Padman. A statement that is generally true of athletes, but there were a number of pro teams who declined going to the White House in recent years.

Attempting to make the All-Star game fair, Obama said each team had three NBA players and two amateurs, competing in a round robin tournament. Some of Obama’s friends from high school helped fill out the amateur portion of each roster and Wounded Warriors were invited to hang out.

“Having LeBron suddenly guard you – this mountain of a human – you never feel so small and weak,” Obama said with a laugh. “You just pass the ball, or hand it to him and say here, I’m not worthy.”

Obama had enough self-awareness to recognize LeBron, Wade and Rose were all playing at half speed during the birthday tournament.

“Team sports at its best, is a great equalizer,” Obama added as the general theme behind his love for athletics. “There were coaches’ favorites and some politics behind the scenes…but basically, when you were on the court it was like, how did you play, rather than who you were.”