WHAM, BAM! A friendly hoops contest turned into a bloody battle yesterday, leaving President Obama seeing red. He returned to the White House, where he put ice on his stitched lip. (AP)
DECEREGA
Sharp elbows.
WASHINGTON — It was friendly fire!
President Obama — who admitted to getting a “shellacking” from Republicans in the midterm elections — took an elbow to the mouth while playing basketball yesterday morning with a group of family and friends in town for Thanksgiving.
The offending player was Rey Decerega, who heads a Washington-based Hispanic advocacy group.
It began as a five-on-five game at Fort McNair, a historic Army base along the Potomac River with a basketball court and surrounding security zone suitable for the leader of the free world to take out some of his frustrations through the combat of his favorite sport.
During the fifth of five games they played, an opposing player “turned into [Obama], who was playing defense, to take a shot when the elbow hit the president in the mouth,” a White House official initially said.
“After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player’s elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House Medical Unit,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday.
After returning from the game at 11:15 a.m., Obama got stitched up in the White House doctor’s office in the mansion.
The president was given a local anesthetic while receiving the stitches. The medical unit used a smaller filament, which increases the number of stitches but makes a tighter stitch and results in a smaller scar.
At first, the White House refused to identify the player with the errant elbow or even say who was on the court at the time of the injury.
But as the day wore on and speculation from coast to coast ran wild, White House officials finally acknowledged some of the players on the court at the time and ultimately outed Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, as the player with the razor-sharp elbows.
Decerega issued a statement of his own — but did not back down or apologize.
“I learned today the president is both a tough competitor and a good sport,” he said in a statement released by the White House.
“I enjoyed playing basketball with him this morning,” Decerega said. “I’m sure he’ll be back out on the court soon.”
Witnessing the injury on the court was Obama’s personal aide, Reggie Love, who was a star player at Duke University and often shoots hoops with the president.
Then there was Arne Duncan, Obama’s education secretary and an old pal from Chicago. Duncan played basketball at Harvard and spent several years playing professionally in Australia.
Another player was Obama’s nephew, Avery Robinson, who is a high school senior.
Also in town but not playing, according to the White House, was Craig Robinson, Obama’s brother-in-law and Avery’s father.
The elder Robinson coaches the Oregon State University men’s basketball team, which is in town for a game today against Howard University.