While the Lakers got the White House treatment earlier this week for winning the NBA title, the Knicks soon will be getting some presidential props — for being teammates with point guard Chris Duhon.
Duhon, a college buddy of President Obama aide Reggie Love, has arranged for his teammates to take a tour of the White House.
The Knicks are in Washington today and Saturday, but their White House tour has been rescheduled from this weekend to Feb. 26, when Obama and the Knicks are both in town.
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The Knicks plan to visit the White House the day before their game, though it is doubtful there will be a pickup game included.
Duhon has in turn invited Love, his best friend from Duke, and Obama to attend the Knicks-Wizards game next month at Verizon Center.
Duhon, who is in a massive shooting slump (7 of 47 in the last nine games) played pickup games in Chicago with Obama while the president was running for the Oval Office.
“People have to give him more time,” Duhon said of Obama’s performance. “It took us a long time to get into this, so it will take time to get out of it.”
Tomorrow’s Wizards game is the Knicks’ first appearance in Washington since the locker-room gunplay of Gilbert Arenas and Jarvis Crittenton got them suspended for the season.
⇒ Members of the Italian Basketball Federation were at the Garden last night to recruit the league’s three Italian stars — Danilo Gallinari and Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli — for this summer’s European Championships qualifier in late August. Gallinari hasn’t decided whether to play.