President Obama on Tuesday continued his Election Day tradition of shooting hoops with a small group of friends to pass some time until results come in from polling precincts around the country.
Obama left the White House in his motorcade this morning Tuesday morning and arrived at Fort McNair, an Army post in Washington, D.C., just before 8 a.m. to play basketball with friends at the gym there, according to the White House. He played for about an hour and returned to the White House shortly after 9 a.m.
The president has played basketball before every major election he’s won, and he’s grown a little superstitious about the ritual. Obama skipped the pre-election game of hoops before just one race, the 2008 New Hampshire primary, which he lost to Hillary Clinton.
There was no word on who he played with at Fort McNair.
In 2012, when his re-election was at stake, he opted for pick-up basketball with former Chicago Bulls’ star Scottie Pippen, and Randy Brown, along with longtime friends Marty Nesbitt, Mike Ramos, and Reggie Love, his former assistant who had played basketball for Duke University. Alexi Giannoulias, a former Illinois state treasurer who lost his 2010 Senate race against Republican Mark Kirk, was also on hand for that game.
In 2008 and in 2012, Obama spent Election Day in his hometown of Chicago, which made it easier to organize a game of hoops with those basketball greats.
Obama’s team that year reportedly won by a wide margin with score, “like 102, 105, 108 or so to 80-something,” Giannoulias said afterward. Obama played well, Giannoulias added, although he didn’t say how many points the president scored that year.
