Obama: USC a ‘tough place to play’
For those of you who don’t like President Obama, he gave you some more ammunition on Tuesday afternoon.
But the nation’s No. 1 ranking basketball fan also had something nice to say about the Gamecocks.
The occasion was a congratulatory phone call from the President to the Kentucky Wildcats, thanking them for raising more than $1 million for the Haiti relief effort. The Wildcats were in the Colonial Life Arena on Tuesday afternoon, preparing for the game against South Carolina.
So the media room at the CLA was set up for the call. Kentucky coach John Calipari stood on the podium, next to star center Patrick Patterson, with the other 10 Wildcats also standing. A little after 1:30 p.m., the phone rang.
A cheerful voice on the other end of the line said: “Hi it’s Katie Duncan calling for President Obama.”
Calipari hesitated a second, then smiled and said, “OK?”
The room laughed. After about 30 seconds, a familiar voice came on the line.
“Well man, I am honored to speak to the No. 1 team in the country, a few days after it happened,” Obama said.
When John Wall was introduced a little while later, Obama jumped in: “What’s going on All-Star? I’ve been watching you.”
After exchanging some thank-yous for the Haiti efforts, Obama asked who the Wildcats played next. Calipari answered that they were getting ready to play at South Carolina.
“All right. Well I think you should be all right,” Obama said.
Calipari winced, while there was some other laughter in the room. The President went on.
“But there is that tendency once you get to be No. 1 to start to let down a little bit. And it is a tough place to play. So you guys stay focused. I expect to see you guys in the championship game at some point. And again, congratulations on the great work you guys did.”
So, Garnet Army, there you go. You’ve made the CLA enough of a home-court advantage that even the President of the United States has noticed. Good job.
6 Comments to “Obama: USC a ‘tough place to play’”
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State newspaper sports writer Seth Emerson blogs on University of South Carolina basketball and baseball.
Great. Now he’ll probably try to deploy the Garnet Army to Afghanistan.
If you don’t like the president then you don’t like your self and he deploy troops in the first place, the other jerk started the stinkin’ war. Thank God for BLACK POWER!
the garnet army has it’s hands full at the games at USC, much less in Afg. Leave the pres. war, and color out of it. GO Cocks
Wow, the lack of appreciation of sarcasm on this site, as well as the over-the-top angry rebuttals, is amazing. It perpetuates the stereotype that rednecks are always spoiling for a fight, even if its only cyberbullying.
Obama cant handle CLA nor can Kentucky
COCK POWER!!!
Black Power??… Racist much?