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SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA—United States presidents have been known to play a sport with utmost passion.
John F. Kennedy sailed on Nantucket Sound near the family compound in Hyannisport.
Bill Clinton jogged and played golf while in office and was reported to take as many mulligans as it took to get it right on the course.
Outgoing President George W. Bush loves cycling but also lives and breathes baseball—having been the managing partner of the Texas Rangers in another life.
But what about Barack Obama—who inherits the Oval Office, come Jan. 20th?
Obama and Filipinos are cut from the same sports fabric.
The first African-American to assume the most powerful job on earth plays the sport widely fancied by Pinoys: basketball.
Obama’s got game. He has been a basketball fanatic since he played for his Punahou School team—winner of the Hawaii state championship in 1979.
Even in the heat of last November’s elections, Obama played pickup games whenever he found time.
Thus, the way to the First Hoopster’s heart is to cultivate his fondness for basketball, say armchair psychologists and observers.
These self-styled experts refer to this move as the “audacity of hoops,” an obvious takeoff from Obama’s best-selling book about his core values he wrote while eyeing the US presidency.
Obama has put together the best basketball-playing Cabinet in recent memory. Many members of his official family were either high school or college cagers who would hate missing pickup games with the boss.
So how can our leaders persuade Obama to lend them an ear in order to energize US-RP ties in the next four years?
Certainly not by dispatching VIPs on the people’s dime to seek an appointment with the guy. Certainly not by means that raise the eyebrows of the public.
Instead, it behooves our mucky-mucks, diplomats on American soil and US desk analysts to keep their game plan short and sweet: Play the basketball card whenever possible.
In short, stress the nation’s love affair with basketball and employ the game’s team concept in dealing with official Washington.
Take a cue from former University of California and Phoenix Suns great Kevin Johnson—the mayor of Sacramento.
Johnson said the soon-to-be-44th US president loves basketball because it helped him parry the hook shots, sharp elbows and barreling drives dished out on him by life. The game also taught the future Chief Executive to emphasize community and the need to work with others.
Obama broke down barriers and brought people together with a historic election victory. Such a feat reveals the next president’s management style.
It’s a style borne out of basketball, Johnson observes.
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Harry Tañamor’s gold medal at the inaugural AIBA World Cup is cause for jubilation indeed, especially by the people who sent him to Moscow. But wasn’t their action akin to closing the barn door after the horse gets out?
Harry’s job was to win a medal in the Olympic Games in Beijing, period. But he failed to do so after his defeat to a less-experienced Ghanian fighter in the first round. Don’t you think the 31-year-old’s yearend achievement was too little, too late?
Those “vindicated” by Tañamor’s triumph would be ill at ease after reading this. But then I am closing the barn door before the horse gets out.
Congratulations are in order for Harry. But there’s no sense belaboring the point about him. Let’s go to the London Olympics with fresh talent.
