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One-on-One With ObamaPosted: Monday December 24, 2007 =
10:12AM; Updated:=20
Wednesday December 26, 2007 9:24PM Here's the beauty of pickup basketball: You may be a U.S. = senator, a=20 living symbol of racial healing and perhaps even the next = President of the=20 United States, but if you're gliding in for an easy layup and each = point=20 is precious, I've got no choice then, do I? You're getting hacked. = So,=20 yes, I'm hammering that arm and crashing headlong into your = whippet-thin=20 frame; and, yes, it's a foul so flagrant, so absurdly desperate, = that all=20 you can do, body buckling, is laugh. Hey, it's pickup. Everyone, = even you,=20 uses whatever he's got to win.
"Believe me," Barack Obama says, walking to the top of the key, = "you=20 can get shot for doing that." He's not serious. I think. But he wants me off his back, and = invoking=20 jumpy Secret Service men is a wise ploy. With the race for the = Democratic=20 presidential nomination whisker-close, Obama can't afford to show = up for=20 some Dubuque meet-and-greet with a mysterious fat lip. His wife, = Michelle,=20 warned me, "Don't break his nose, give him a black eye or knock = his teeth=20 out. Or I'll have to come find you." Actually, Michelle understands. She hails from a Chicago family = that=20 believes the game -- when you pass, when you call fouls, how you = check the=20 ball -- reveals character. Once her romance with Barack got = serious, she=20 pressed her brother, Craig Robinson, to conduct the acid test: Go = play.=20 Robinson tried to duck it; he had starred at Princeton, and Barack = had=20 been a benchwarmer for his Hawaiian high school team. "All I could = think=20 was, This guy's going to be terrible, and I have to report that = back,"=20 says Robinson, who's now the coach at Brown. "And you can't fudge = it,=20 because if he turns out to be a jerk and you knew but didn't say = it,=20 you're in trouble." He liked what he saw. Obama was confident but not cocky, = unselfish but=20 unafraid to shoot. On court he showed the same balance that has = fueled his=20 political rise; he could talk trash without seeming mean, compete=20 feverishly without seeming angry. Yet few knew how central the = sport --=20 "my first love," he calls it -- was to his self-image as a = mixed-race=20 child: How the greatest gift from his absent dad was a basketball, = how=20 playing gave him his closest white friends and a place where black = skin=20 wasn't a disadvantage. When a coach, a close friend, casually = threw out=20 the word n-----, Obama says, "It reminded me that race is = complicated,=20 that people are complicated, that you could have ugly strains even = among=20 people who were otherwise decent.... It does not necessarily mean = they're=20 bad people." So it's no surprise that Obama bit at the chance to play = one-on-one. We=20 met at the YMCA in Spencer, Iowa, in a gym with signs scolding, do = not=20 dunk balls or hang on rim! No problem. We both graduated high = school in=20 1979, and the days when a soda bottle could roll beneath our = jumping feet=20 have long passed. At 6' 1 1/2", Obama is all lefty, quick with = long arms.=20 Before we start, he grabs some opposition research from my son, = who=20 readily says I'm "not in basketball shape" and will thus spend his = teenage=20 years peering through the barred windows of our basement. "All right," Obama announces. "I've got your game cased = out." "It's all over?" I ask. "It's all over." Obama exudes none of that anxious Washington ambition; he's not = weighing words. He's here to play. The first game flies by in a blur of missed (mine) and made = (his)=20 jumpers: I lose 11-5. Obama throws out a cheap "Wooooo!" whenever = I shoot=20 but never resorts to ticky-tack calls; before the second game he = notes our=20 15-pound weight difference. "If you wanted to bang inside a bit," = he says,=20 "you could." I'm no fool. I start banging. After I commit that criminal foul = under=20 the basket, he lofts an air ball and I pull ahead 2-1. But we're = both=20 gasping, and proceed to play the ugliest, slowest game in history. = A=20 handler steps in, says his man must leave, so we decide to play to = seven.=20 Obama hits two jumpers to go up 3-2, and I remember what = Michelle told=20 me: "He's very good at the last minute." "All right," I say coyly, flipping him the ball. "This is for = the=20 presidency...." He drills a 19-footer, heels barely leaving the ground. "Did = you hear=20 me?" I say. "Why do you think I hit it?" he says. I back him down twice to tie 4-4. He drains two more, but I = swish one=20 to cut it to 6-5. Now Obama closes in, blocks my last shot, grabs = the=20 ball. He shuffles out wide, turns and sets, face blank. I thunder = toward=20 him, arm outstretched, feeling suddenly like Hillary and Edwards = and=20 anyone else in Iowa trying desperately to stop Obama's rise. The ball drops through the net like a stone. ![3D""](3D"http://i.cnn.net/si/images/1.gif") ![](3D"http://i.cnn.net/si/images/1.gif"=20)
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