Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

Attention all non-ballers: Greg Oden, the Portland Trailblazer’s 7-foot center, wrote on his blog (yes, athletes have those, too) Monday that he would cast his vote for Barack Obama. How’s that for a super delegate? The 20-year old manchild, drafted first overall in the 2007 NBA draft after leading the Ohio State men’s basketball team to a runner-up finish in the NCAA tournament nearly a year ago, outlined a conversation he had with Obama in which he described the Illinois Senator as “a real sports fan” and a “very nice man.”

The two declined to speak politics, instead opting to discuss Oden’s questionable hair style (he’s currently sporting a mohawk) and his impending return from a knee injury.

Now Oden may know nothing about politics, and die-hard politicos may no nothing of Oden, professional basketball or anything related to the sport that has spawned national confederations in 213 countries (according to Sports Illustrated’s “Basketball Book” — I have a copy, it’s a great read) since its inception some 115 years ago, but none of that matters. What matters is that Obama has championed the embodiment of the everyman.

While some might argue that calling a multi-million-dollar athlete not yet old enough to legally consume alcohol an “everyman” is a bit of a stretch, Obama’s strength is his appeal to average American; i.e. the sports fan. SI recently published a column by S.L. Price in a December issue entitled “One-on-One with Obama, in which the columnist describes a pick-up game he had with the Senator, using his strenghts on the floor as a parallel to his viability as a political contender.

He writes that Obama was “confident but not cocky, unselfish but unafraid to shoot. On court he showed the same balance that has fueled his political rise; he could talk trash without seeming mean, compete feverishly without seeming angry.” Price lost the contest 7-5.

Want to see a younger Obama in action? Sporting a sizeable afro and circulation-robbing short-shorts? The Washington Post has game footage of a teenaged Barack on its web site. (Look for number 23).

But what does any of this have to do with running for the highest seat in all the land? It’s all about connection. Like a perfectly-flicked wrist that launches a ball through a hoop for a score, so too does Obama provide the vessel for the launching of Americans’ dreams. Barack is the shooter. And the everyman is compelled to feel a connection.

For a sport born among urban sprawls where many of its players cannot afford the luxury of sporting equipment, basketball is an easy fix: You take a single ball, a makeshift basket and a few likeminded people, and you’ve got yourself a game.

Apply the same grit and ingenuity to a politician, and you’ve got yourself a candidate that can truly bring about change. Can anyone see John McCain draining a three from the top of the key? Or Hillary Clinton fielding a pass down low in the post before touching a layup off the glass? I know I can’t. And these are people that believe themselves capable of uniting a country?

Sorry, guys. But you just can’t hang.