Obama Knows Ball
While this is a good starting lineup, I believe he could do better.
It’s no secret that former President Barack Obama is a bit of a basketball savant. He got to watch the Golden Age of basketball in the 80s so he’s been able to see many of the greatest players ever.
However, he’s not an 80s basketball purist. During the Netflix series Starting 5, Obama was asked to give his all-time starting five for NBA games, a moment that quickly made waves in the NBA news. Here’s how he broke it down:
- Michael Jordan
- LeBron James
- Steph Curry
- Kevin Durant
- Hakeem Olajuwon
Thoughts on Barack Obama’s all-time starting 5? 👀 pic.twitter.com/AzAJuVzWuL
— Basketball Forever (@bballforever_) October 14, 2024
A Team for the Ages
This isn’t a bad list. Curry and Durant give spacing, LeBron is the distributor, Hakeem brings elite rim protection while Jordan shuts down the perimeter. Obama clearly knows ball.
It’s important to note that he isn’t saying these are the five greatest players ever. If this was his top-five all-time, then I’d say he definitely doesn’t know ball. While this is a good starting lineup, I believe he could do better.
From one basketball fan to the next, I hope you enjoy @HGMedia‘s docuseries – Starting 5 – which is streaming now on @Netflix.
And if you were ever wondering which players I’d have in my starting five – take a look! pic.twitter.com/Vet3Zz68Fr
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 13, 2024
The Ultimate All-Time Starting 5
Any all-time starting five needs to have LeBron and Jordan in it so Obama got that right. However, I don’t think Durant or Hakeem should be there. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the third greatest player of all time and needs to be on the team.
He may not be the defender that Hakeem was but he was pretty close. He made an All-NBA Defensive Team nine times in his career while also being the greatest scoring big man ever.
A lot of people want to see Kobe Bryant in the starting five and while he’s my favorite athlete ever, you could only replace Jordan with him and it’s hard to make that argument.
The hardest one is Steph Curry. Steph Curry’s stats as a 3-point shooter make him so valuable but how can you have him over Magic Johnson? The LeBron factor makes it possible. LeBron is arguably as good of a distributor as Magic but Magic can’t shoot threes.
At power forward, you have to put Tim Duncan over Durant. He’s not a shooter but this lineup already has so much scoring. He’s the ultimate team player and would help keep this group efficient. Here’s the final breakdown of the ultimate starting five:
- Steph Curry
- Michael Jordan
- LeBron James
- Tim Duncan
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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