President Barack Obama sees the
presidential contest as a clutch moment in his favorite sport - the fourth
quarter of a taut basketball game.
Fundraising with the help of current and
former National Basketball Association stars, Obama told a small group of donors
gathered Wednesday night at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center that the current
campaign is like the final minutes of a basketball contest with his team up by a
few points.
''But the other side is coming strong,''
Obama said. ''And they play a little dirty. We've got a few folks on our team in
foul trouble. We have a couple of injuries. And I believe they have one last run
in them.''
Obama raised $3 million with the help of
the players, who included former Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan and former
New York Knicks Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley. NBA Commissioner David Stern also
was there.
Invoking Jordan's competitive nature,
Obama concluded, ''If you have seven minutes to go and you have a little bit of
a lead, that's when you put them away.''
The players were part a daylong
fundraiser. Earlier, former and current players participated in a
$250-per-person autograph session and in a skills camp priced at $5,000 for two
people.
''It is very rare that I come to an event
where I'm like the fifth or sixth most interesting person,'' Obama joked at the
Lincoln Center dinner.
Later, Obama changed out of his dark suit
to shoot baskets with some of the players out of sight of the press. Obama, an
avid basketball fan and a player, made a splash during his 2008 campaign by
sinking a 3-point shot while visiting troops in Kuwait. His most recent
star-studded game, also played in private, featured actors George Clooney and
Tobey Maguire.
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