If you watch most random people on a basketball court, one thing is clear: They didn't grow up playing this game.
It's not so much that they are bad at it, it's just it's clearly not something they do. There are certain ways that basketball players move, and some people simply don't move that way, like -- I can't find the clip -- John Travolta in Grease.
That is seldom more obvious than when you see a politician out there on the court, at some event with a lot of TV cameras, trying to look right at home even though they are shuffling their dress shoes unathletically around the joint.
Graded on the politician curve, President Bush actually gets a B+ for this, but I'm not picking him for my pickup team, you know?
And that's OK. Playing hoops is a non-essential skill. Us basketball players would mostly be no good at human Tetris, teaching a dog to open a car door, or fingerpicking a killer "Stairway to Heaven" by candlelight, in a Slayer t-shirt. So what if your leaders don't play your game?
But lately, we have had a problem. A partisan political problem, in fact.
The problem, for the sports media, has been that one of the candidates blatantly can play basketball, and does so with glee.
And that's kind of fun idea.
As much as I do not want to tell you who to vote for, it's sure hard for me, as someone who writes about sports (but sometimes wanders into celebrity and even politics) to not talk a lot about Barack Obama.
And at this moment in time, that can seem a little partisan, you know?
But, my fellow Americans (if, indeed, you are American, which a lot of basketball fans are not), today brings excellent news. CNN buries the lead in telling us about John McCain's newly announced running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:
She was dubbed "Sarah Barracuda" by opponents when she was mayor of the town of Wasilla, Alaska, resurrecting a nickname she earned as a state champion high school basketball player, according to the Almanac of American Politics.
Sarah Barracuda (UPDATE: Image), Senator Barack ... ladies and gentlemen, barring some kind of wild third-party insurgency from a non-player, we are a few months from having a baller in the White House.
Now, who'll join me in lobbying to scrap that third debate in favor of a 'Cuda vs. 'Bama showdown on a playground in some swing state?
