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President Obama, crappy hoops player? We've assumed he's good—biographer Jodi Kantor and NBA stars have said so—but an upcoming biography by David Maraniss begs to differ, Politico reports. As a prep school student in Hawaii, Obama made the team "more because of his intense passion for the game—his will—than anything else," writes Maraniss in Barack Obama: The Story. "The reality was that Barry, as skilled and intelligent a player as he was, could not stand out in this group."
"Decades later, a story emerged that his nickname was Barry O’Bomber, playing off his last name and a propensity to fire away from long range, but few team members recalled that nickname." A former alum recalls that Obama "loved basketball so much, I think a lot of things have been blown out of proportion." One apparent weakness: his jump. "In fact, [coach Chris] McLachlin coined a phrase for the phenomenon: Barry Obama, famous for his no-jump jump shot!" See more at the Washington Post.
