Courting Obama, Pols Harbor Hoop Hopes

In Washington, everyone wants to be on the inside. How do you know you’re in? “A pickup game with Obama,” says a former Clinton press secretary. “That's the inner, inner, inner sanctum.” So aspiring members of the inner, inner circle are hitting the court, working on their moves, and hoping someday to play—and play well—in a game with the president, writes Wright Thompson for ESPN.

“Here I am shooting hoops again. And it's because of him,” says a congressman who last played in the early '90s. And he’s not the only one. Games are happening “all over town,” Thompson writes, from the interior secretary’s court to the gym at Sidwell Friends, the Obama daughters' school. Seven months ago, the House court had no regular game; now legislators are there almost daily.
(More Barack Obama stories.)