Former Chicago Bulls player Scottie Pippen, with his wife Larsa, joined President Obama in a pick-up basketball game on Election Day. (GETTY IMAGES)

President Obama is very superstitious. On Election Day, he wanted to keep tradition and play some hoops, something he did in 2008 when he won the presidency. But Obama didn’t want to just play a game, he wanted to make sure he won. So he called in a ringer: Scottie Pippen.

Obama is a huge Chicago Bulls fan, and having Pippen on his team was a no-brainer for the 44th President of the United States. Obama and Pippen were joined by former Bulls guard Randy Brown and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Thanks to Pippen, the president’s team won. Later that evening, the president won re-election when he defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Election Day was a great day for President Obama.

Adam Fluck of Bulls.com wrote:

There are certain perks that come with having won six world championships and being a member of basketball’s Hall of Fame.

One of them, as Scottie Pippen learned this week, is that you get an invitation to play in President Barack Obama’s traditional Election Day basketball game.

So on Tuesday afternoon, as millions of Americans took time out of their daily routine to vote, Pippen joined Obama, along with some of the President’s closest friends and top advisors, on a basketball court roughly one mile west of the United Center.

“When he first entered the gym, if you hadn’t looked over to see him, you wouldn’t have noticed,” said Pippen of Obama. “It was surprisingly low key. He just came in and started shaking hands. He’s someone who is very easy to approach.”

It was the first time Pippen had met Obama. The connection was made through a mutual friend, Marty Nesbitt. Obama mentioned that Nesbitt thinks very highly of Pippen.

“He said it was a pleasure to meet me and that he had heard good things about me from Marty,” said Pippen. “I told him, ‘Thank you and I wish you well tonight. But if you want to be a winner this afternoon, you better play with me.’”

Apparently the President agreed, so when the action began, Pippen and Obama were on the same team, in addition to former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and two others. And this was no informal pickup game—there were officials, a running clock and four 12-minute quarters.

As for a scouting report on the left-handed Obama, Pippen came away impressed.

“He’s not an overly aggressive player, but he takes what the defense gives him,” said Pippen. “He’s got a smooth game. He probably used to be a little more aggressive, but obviously he doesn’t want to get hurt.”

That certainly wasn’t going to happen if the defense had anything to do about it.

“I thought the lanes opened up when Michael Jordan used to drive,” laughed Pippen. “I used to be like, wow. But when I saw the President drive, I thought they were bringing the whole motorcade through the lane it was so wide.”

In the end, and perhaps this comes as no surprise, it was Obama and Pippen’s team who walked away with an easy win.

“We kind of blew them out,” said Pippen. “It should have been worse but we started messing around at the end. The game was close for awhile, but in the third quarter we opened it up. They tried to get back in it in the fourth, but we kept expanding the lead. It was a good game, fun and competitive.”

Barack Obama will serve a second term as President of the United States. (US PRESSWIRE)

The hotly contested presidential election was on the minds of the entire nation, and NBA players chimed in with their thoughts. Not a huge surprise that the players were heavily in favor of President Barack Obama, who won re-election on Tuesday, but there were some entertaining posts on Twitter.

The state of Ohio, which hasn’t had this much attention since LeBron James made his infamous decision, ended up putting President Obama over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. LeBron posted an interesting tweet as soon as the projections came in.

James wrote: “2 terms!!!! Ohio u guys are the awesome #ObamaStillPrez.” Then he followed that with this gem: “Ohio and Fla. My favorite states!”

Chicago Bulls great Scottie Pippen thanked the president for inviting him to play in a pick-up basketball game, while ESPN analyst and Hall-of-Famer Dick Vitale may have had the line of the night. Check out some of the tweets:

First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama attend the U.S.-Brazil exhibition game at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (REUTERS)

The U.S. men’s basketball team looked a little bit out of sync in its Olympic tuneup Monday night against Brazil in Washington, D.C., and with good reason.

The Brazilians certainly had a hand in forcing Team USA out of its comfort zone, but the more likely excuse was the added pressure of having to perform in front of the 44th President of the United States.

President Barack Obama, as well as First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, were among the sellout crowd at the Verizon Center to watch Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and the rest of the American squad that will represent the United States in the 2012 Summer Games in London.

When the president walked over to his courtside seat prior to tipoff, all eyes in the arena were fixated on the jumbotron. Durant, who grew up in the D.C. area, couldn’t help notice the presence of the leader of the free world in the arena, as did teammates Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler, Chris Paul, LeBron, Kobe, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, James Harden, Andre Iguodala, Carmelo Anthony, and Anthony Davis.

“You have dreams about being in the NBA. You have dreams about making the game-winning shot at the buzzer. You never have dreams about having the president actually watching you play, because you don’t think it’s possible,” LeBron told The Associated Press.

“It’s definitely humbling, to see him here, the first lady and their kids here to watch us play. Really, it’s amazing.”

The added distraction may have contributed to the team’s slow start, as Brazil jumped to a 27-17 lead in the first quarter. The Americans erased any upset bids in the second quarter when they turned it up defensively and held Brazil to just five points in the second quarter. The U.S. took a 32-32 lead into halftime.

“Between Nene, Varejao, and Barbosa, they have a good team. It took a while for our guys to kind of get in a rhythm,” Obama told ESPN’s Mark Jones. “We’re so much deeper that you get a sense they’ll wear them down. I don’t think it’ll be close in the second half.”

Well, Obama’s second-half prediction didn’t quite happen as the Brazilians kept the game close and didn’t allow the Americans to run them out of the gym. The U.S. eventually pulled out an 80-69 victory thanks to LeBron’s game-high 30 points (including 14 in the fourth quarter). It was a far more difficult challenge than the 113-59 blowout win against the Dominican Republic in Las Vegas on July 12.

Despite the disjointed performance against Brazil, President Obama is confident LeBron and Co. will right the ship once the Olympics start on July 27.

“Coach K is one of the greatest coaches of all time. He knows how to bring folks together and think like a team. And obviously the talent that we have at this point is unbelievable. There’s no reason we shouldn’t bring home the gold,” Obama said.

“One thing I’m happy about is how hard everybody is playing,” Obama continued. “You really get a sense on how proud they are to represent the United States, and I think they’ll conduct themselves really well in London.”

As for the 1992 Olympic team vs. 2012 Olympic team debate, add President Obama to the list of people who disagree with Kobe’s recent boast that this year’s USA team could beat the Dream Team, led by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Charles Barkley.

“I was around in ’92. I was a Bulls fan so I gotta go with the original Dream Team,” Obama said. “And I suspect that Michael [Jordan] and Sir Charles [Barkley] would point out that they were never down at any point of their games.”

Obama added, “You know, Kobe’s a competitor, so you expect him to do a little trash talking whenever the opportunity arises.”

President Barack Obama shows his basketball skills at a ‘Let’s Move’ clinic with members of the NBA, WNBA and the Harlem Globetrotters. (GETTY IMAGES)

President Barack Obama has recently announced that he is launching the Obama Classic Basketball Game. The game is set to feature more than two dozen NBA players, including superstars such as Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, and Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard.

The game, set to take place on Dec. 12 in Washington D.C., will also feature Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat, Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics, and many others. There is no word whether the game will be televised on ESPNor elsewhere yet. According to the CS Monitor, tickets for the Obama Classic will price from $100 to $5,000, all of which will go towards the Obama Victory Fund, a combined fundraising effort between the Democratic Party and Obama’s re-election campaign.

The news of The Obama Classic comes in the middle of one of the most heated labor disputes in National Basketball Association history. But the lockout may be ending soon as the league and the players have tentatively reached a new collective bargaining agreement. There is much paperwork needed to be done, but Commissioner David Stern expects both sides to agree to the deal and open training camp on Dec. 9.

Two weeks ago, the NBPA and the hardline NBA owners couldn’t seem to agree on a new labor deal, which forced the players to unanimously dissolve their union and restructure it into a Trade Association.

Doing so set the stage for the two antitrust lawsuits that have been filed against the owners of the NBA in the name of the players. The two lawsuits, which had been filed in the Northern District of California and in Minnesota. However, attorney David Boies, who had been hired to represent the players, recently decided to consolidate the two lawsuits into one, which will be heard in Minnesota.

The listed plaintiffs for the newly consolidated case includes Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Rajon Rondo, Steve, Nash, Baron Davis, and others. The owners have yet to officially respond to the lawsuit, though David Stern did hold a conference call with each of the owners, and also described the lawsuit as a waste of time. However, Boies stated at the time that after giving concession after concession, the players had no other choice.

— Home page photo courtesy of US Presswire