WASHINGTON — On the morning of the biggest speech of his life, Barack Obama found himself, quite literally, sidelined.
Obama shot baskets by himself at the Denver Athletic Club, talking trash to his friends as they ran the basketball court in what had become a campaign ritual, the pick-up hoops game. Worried that he might get elbowed in the jaw hours before he was to accept the Democratic presidential nomination before 80,000 people, the players persuaded Obama he had better sit this one out.
“There was a particular concern about not wanting him to turn up with a busted lip,” said Alan S. King, a Chicago attorney and a regular in Obama’s movable basketball games. “That’s the only time he’s ever done that.”
On some of the most momentous days on the election calendar, Obama has defused the tension by running the basketball court. The tradition began the day of the Iowa caucuses in January. Obama set up a game while awaiting the results, knowing that a poor showing in the caucuses might have killed his campaign.
He played ball; he finished first in the caucuses.
Obama and his crew skipped the election-day games in New Hampshire and Nevada — and lost the balloting in both states. Was there a connection?
Vic Lombardi, a Denver sports TV anchor recruited to play in a game that same month, said the competition was so fierce that one of Obama’s sneakers came apart.
“There’ve been a couple of plays where you see him go down and you’re just like, ‘Oh, man. That could be bad,’ ” said Reggie Love, Obama’s 26-year-old personal aide, who played basketball and football at Duke University.
Obama, 47, has been playing most of his life. He played on a high school team that won the state championship, though he was not a starting player. Friends say his game has evolved since then. Less dazzle, more thought. He moves without the ball in hopes of getting open and looks to pass to the man cutting toward the basket.
“He’s got a killer instinct,” said Arne Duncan, chief executive of the Chicago public schools who is 6-foot-5 and played on Harvard’s basketball team. “There are a lot of folks who play for the workout or because it’s something to do. Barack plays to win.”
