Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Playing hoops with the prez

As is tradition, the national champions went to the White House to get their pic taken with the president, give him a #1 Huskies jersey (but not a lady Husky jersey--after all, it's not Tennessee!), and get some well-deserved pats on the back.
This time around though, they got to actually play ball. President Obama is, of course, a huge hoops fan. And he took the women out to his own private (no press) half court to play some P-I-G. And the president used the event as an opportunity to praise the visibility of women's sports.
No mention of his own erasure of women's hoops when he failed to fill out a bracket for the women's tourney earlier this year.
And I was a little but surprised to hear him say that his daughters get to see, while he sits down for a little Sports Center, "women staring back." Not sure where they see this. I rarely see women on Sports Center. I can't even get highlights of WPS games, so I don't hold out hope that they will make the Top 10.
The president's endorsement of ESPN's "coverage" of women's sports is just going to go to the station's head. I can see next year's Women's History Month press release already: ESPN endorsed by President Obama and his daughters.

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