The ceremony was for the University of North Carolina’s NCAA basketball championship team, but it also could have served as a thank-you from President Barack Obama for rescuing his bracket.
The president — wearing, appropriately, a Tar Heel-blue tie — met with the 2009 champs Monday at the White House for an awards ceremony and immediately told them, “Thanks for salvaging my bracket — and vindicating me before the entire nation. That first round was rough on me.”
This wasn’t his first meeting with the team. He went to recall the time he played ball with them before the election, and perhaps in a nod to the once reliably red state of North Carolina that went blue, Obama said, “I’m not sure whose luck rubbed off on who. I think there was just a good vibe going on there, because they’re now national champions and I’m now president.”
Everyone was in high spirits, including the state’s newest senator, Democrat Kay Hagan, who stopped by for the ceremony. But the President did admit that there was one person in the White House not as thrilled.
“Everybody on my staff was really excited about the team coming, except my assistant Reggie Love,” Obama joked about the Duke national champion basketball player turned Obama body man (who refused to take pictures with the team). “At some point he wants to scrimmage you guys, so we’ll arrange for that.”
Wonder whose side Obama will play on?
