5:52PM EST November 6. 2012 -
On Tuesday, Scottie Pippen was back to playing second fiddle to a more famous teammate. The Chicago Bulls Hall of Famer hooped it up with Barack Obama during the president's traditional Election Day basketball game in Chicago.
Pippen and former Bulls teammate Randy Brown were invited to the game, along with Obama's traditional pickup partners like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former Illinois treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and former body man and Duke player Reggie Love.
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Obama played a game during the 2008 Iowa caucuses and resumed it after he didn't take the court on the day of his defeat in the New Hampshire primary. It's been a running Election Day tradition ever since.
"We did this four years ago and had a lot of fun," Duncan told USA TODAY Sports after Tuesday's game. "There was real good camaraderie, and he's worked so amazingly hard, it was a chance to relax with friends for a couple of hours. It brought good luck four years ago. Hopefully, it will bring good luck again."
Duncan added that the president was in a good mood on one of the biggest days of his life.
"He's in great spirits," Duncan said. "He feels really good. He was really loose. He was cracking jokes and talking trash and having a good time. It was really, really fun. It's the one place where he can just hang out, so it's a really good break for him."
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The game was played at Tim Grover's Attack Athletics facility, According to a White House pool report. 20 people played in two teams of 10.
Who else has Obama played with during his four years in office? The White House doesn't often reveal the identities of Obama's basketball buddies(unless they're multi-championship winning players on the hometown team, apparently) but we compiled a list of all the known Obama hoopsters back in September.
So how did the president play Tuesday?
"He played pretty hard. He got to the basket a couple of times, had a couple of good crossovers and scored," Duncan said. "He plays real hard and he plays real smart. No one gives him any breaks out there. Everybody competes. That's what makes it fun."
While there wasn't an official final score, Obama's team won by about 20 points, per a White House pool report.
USA TODAY Sports' Jeff Zillgitt contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.news.theusalinks.com/2012/11/06/barack-obama-played-election-day-basketball-game-with-scottie-pippen/
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