NBA

More Potential POTUS NBA Controversy: Obama Picks Lakers To Win Title

President Barack Obama caused a minor stir when he made clear that he thought free-agent-to-be LeBron James would fit in “pretty well” with his hometown Chicago Bulls, even earning a rebuke from Sports Illustrated’s normally non-combative Joe Posnanski.

And if those comments weren’t enough for people to pick apart, in an interview with TNT’s Marv Albert that aired last night (video here) – the same interview in which he mildly courted LeBron – Obama picked the Lakers to win their second straight NBA title. Directly after the interview aired, the Lakers dropped their second straight game to the Phoenix Suns, evening the Western Conference Finals at 2-2 and giving the Suns all the momentum in the series.

While of course there’s no real connection between what Obama says and what happens on the court, it’s also true that as Posnanski pointed out, Obama’s had high-profile struggles in the world of athletics before, despite a strong basketball background. If the Lakers go on to lose this series, or even if they make the Finals and lose then, it’s a virtual certainty that plenty of people will revel in Obama being wrong, and not just fans of the Lakers’ opponents. After all, partisan sports fandom and partisan politics are volatile enough on their own – what happens when they intersect? If the president doesn’t find out in 2012, he might if the Lakers lose twice more.