Chris Paul Hits Back At Barack Obama As Clippers Star Demands Proof Of Ex-President’s Surprise Claim

Barack Obama loves basketball. There’s no two ways about it. You can even make an argument that, as the POTUS, he was the biggest promoter of the game. He describes hoops as the art of “building a team that’s equal to more than the sum of its parts”. From convincing Stephen Curry to join the US roster for the 2024 Olympics to hosting secret games at the White House with the likes of LeBron James, Chris Paul, and D-Wade, Obama has continued to maintain a close bond with the big-name players.

Speaking of Chris Paul, he recently shared a reel by the Obama Foundation on his IG account, which featured a short clip of an interview with the former President. In the clip, Obama gets asked about a moment from his presidency that he would like to relive. His Answer? Basketball. He explained, “Well, for my 49th birthday, I organized my own little NBA All-Star game. LeBron came, and D-Wade, Derrick Rose, and Chris Paul. And so, we had like three pros and two amateurs on each team”. And it wasn’t just a friendly contest, as Obama revealed, he dominated one NBA star in the game!

“I hit a game winner, man, I hit a three,” Obama claimed. And, on top of that, he stated that “I crossed over Chris”. As some people in the audience laughed, Obama joked back that “You’re acting like I’m lying. Chris Paul’s a friend of mine. You want me to get him on the phone?” Well, he didn’t have to, as Chris Paul gave a hilarious response on his IG story. After all, along with the reel, Paul also added a caption that read “If you don’t have the film…it never happened🤷”. Woah!

So, it’s true then. Back in August 2010, several of USA Basketball’s biggest names turned up to play with the then-President during his 49th birthday. It wasn’t just active players that were there, as NBA legends Magic Johnson and Bill Russell had also turned up. Unfortunately, the game was closed to the media since, as then White House press secretary Robert Gibbs revealed, Obama “just wanted to play”. Therefore, it is impossible to know what happened. But from Chris Paul’s reaction, it can fairly be deduced that the former Prez did get one over the Clippers star.

There’s no doubt that Barack Obama exerts a lot of influence on the A-listers of the hoops world. This was further evident during a major incident in 2020.

Barack Obama’s advice was vital in bringing LeBron James and Stephen Curry back on the court

2020 was a challenging year for everyone across the globe. And the NBA world was in no way immune to it. Events transpiring outside the NBA bubble were having a ripple effect on the court, as well. And one such incident was the sh—ing of Jacob S. Blake, a 29-year-old black man. The first team to openly protest against this incident was the Milwaukee Bucks, who refused to play in protest. Other teams followed suit, as minutes after the Bucks took this decision, five other teams slated to play that day decided to opt out as well. This started a league-wide strike. With the situation becoming extremely tense, former President Barack Obama felt that a resolution needed to be reached. He reached out to Chris Paul, then the President of the Players Association find a solution.

Obama recalled a call back in October 2020, when he appeared as a guest on LeBron James’ barbershop-themed talk show, which was named ‘The Shop’. He revealed that it was almost close to midnight when Chris Paul called him with LeBron, Carmelo Anthony, and even Russell Westbrook on the phone. He highlighted his thought process back at that time by stating that “Protest is useful in terms of raising awareness, but given the power that the NBA players had, my suggestion was that we use that platform to see if you can start asking for some specifics. This isn’t something that’s just a one-off. That’s sadly what we’ve seen, as it happens again and again. So, one of the suggestions I had for the players was: Is it possible for you guys to set up an office that allows you, on an ongoing basis, to take best practices that are going to start making incidents like [Blake] less likely?”

The discussion with Obama, along with two days of other meetings and reflection, played a major role in eventually getting the players from the 16 playoff teams to continue the 2019-20 postseason. As the former President suggested, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced plans to form a social justice coalition.

Barack Obama never called in the chit to be ‘reimbursed’ for that favor. Well, Chris Paul can do that now by confirming Obama’s claims about the birthday All-Star game.