My name is Eli Smukler, and yes, I am the victim of a Basketball Jones.
For the purposes of this column at least, you don’t really need to know much more about me than my compulsive love of basketball.
I am not alone in my affliction. In fact, many of you reading this might know the stimuli very well.
The feel of the leather sliding off your hands, the sight of the ball as it reaches the peak of a perfect arc, the distinct sound of the net ““ whether chain link or mesh fabric ““ as it snaps against the backboard.
These are the things that make me happy.
Two years ago, distant though it seems, I heard a story about a politician. He was just becoming famous across the nation for many different things, and because of his profession, people liked to guess at which of these characteristics were important in telling the public who this man really was ““ his religion, his race, his view on abortion, his past connections to 1960s radicals.
But to me, all of these factors instantly became trivial after finding out one thing: This man was a basketball player.
No, he wasn’t in the NBA getting paid millions to be “talking about practice.”
He was just a guy getting into his late 40s who still enjoyed hitting the court every once in a while to make sure the feel of the game never strayed too far from his senses.
It was obvious to me. He had the Jones, too.
When Sen. Barack Obama was a senior in high school almost 30 years ago, he helped his team win a state championship. He wasn’t the star player, but he worked hard and contributed off the bench.
Since then, he’s played in leagues and pickup games wherever he could, even joking that if elected president he would replace the White House’s bowling alley with a basketball court.
Living without his father while growing up in Hawaii, where blacks were a particularly small minority, Obama used basketball as one of his connections to that half of his ancestry, according to his first memoir.
On his wall was a poster of Dr. J flying to the hoop, ensuring that he always had someone to admire and that the sport of basketball would always inspire him.
In the nearly 21 months that he has been on the campaign trail, Obama’s past has been dug up and more thoroughly searched through than the Sierra foothills in 1849.
But amid such an extensive biography of this man, there is one story that stands out for me, so clear in its morals that it sounds like a fairy tale.
Long before he was a politician, Obama was dating a woman named Michelle Robinson, whom he liked very much, and so he went to meet her family.
It just happened that Michelle’s brother played basketball as well. Michelle suggested to her brother that he play her new boyfriend in a pickup game to see what he thought of the man his sister was bringing home.
It just happened that Michelle’s brother was former Princeton forward and two-time Ivy League Player of the Year Craig Robinson.
As it turned out, Robinson was impressed with Obama’s lack of selfishness on the court, and in turn, passed his endorsement on to his sister.
Obama eventually got married to Michelle Robinson, had two children, ran for president and lived happily ever after ““ you know the story.
As a 19-year-old American, today will be the first day I can vote in a general election. However, as a 19-year-old, it is also often hard to relate to these politicians hoping to get that vote.
But alas! Here is a man who shares my passion!
Here is a man who received glowing endorsements from UCLA legend Bill Walton and has another former Bruin, Baron Davis, running campaign events for him.
Here is a man who would come to Westwood and give an afternoon policy speech and afterward head over to Pauley Pavilion to watch his brother-in-law coach the Oregon State Beavers in a quality Pac-10 basketball game.
In the past, we have had presidents who played almost every sport. Gerald Ford was an All-American linebacker for the University of Michigan. George H. W. Bush was the captain of the Yale baseball team. Our current president was a college cheerleader. But we have never had a hoopster in the White House.
In a famous polling question of presidential candidates, voters are asked which candidate they’d like to have a beer with. This is supposed to determine the personal connection that the electorate feels for a candidate.
Well, I’m waiting for the pollster to ask me which candidate I’d like to play a game of H-O-R-S-E with.
I guess I’ll just have to answer that question with my ballot.
If you’re voting based purely on sports-related reasons, e-mail Smukler at esmukler@media.ucla.edu.