Happy birthday, Barrack Obama.
Former Obama advisor David Axelrod told New York Magazine in a recent interview that NBA star Michael Jordan spelled the president’s first name wrong on a 50th birthday gift back in 2011.
“When the president turned 50, I wanted to get him something special … so I sent [a poster] to Jordan to have him sign it for me,” recalled Axelrod.
Unfortunately, the basketball star signed the poster, “To Barrack: you still owe me dinner. Wishing you well, Michael Jordan.”
“I gave it to the president,” continued Axelrod, “and he said, ‘I can’t put this up, he misspelled my name!’ So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll take it.'”
This isn’t the first time that Jordan has insulted the president. Last year, the former NBA star called Obama a “hack” and a “s—-y golfer.”
However, Obama doesn’t appear to be too torn up about Jordan’s jabs. On Monday, the president spoke to the David Glenn Show in Raleigh, North Carolina, and addressed the misspelled birthday gift.
“You know what, Michael will always have a place in my heart,” Obama explained, according to the Charlotte Observer. “The joy that he gave all of Chicago. He’s actually an early supporter. I think I may have been the first publicly acknowledged contribution he made politically.”
“He talks trash on the golf course, I understand even though he’s never played with me. … He’s a pretty hyper-competitive guy,” Obama continued. “Obviously, somebody wasn’t giving him the proper spelling of my name. I’m going to forgive him for that because I have six [NBA] championship memories [with the 1990s Chicago Bulls] that will never go away.”
