Former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama have – or had – a lot of love for the Knicks, their Chicago loyalties not fully extending to basketball in part because of Michelle’s brother, Craig Robinson, and his former role with the ‘Bockers.
One allegiance the Obamas do have to Chi-Town is their love of Tom Thibodeau, who is now in New York, but even the former President couldn’t resist taking a dig at Thibs’ new digs in a coming TV appearance.
“I saw some of the footage of y’all with (New Jersey Senator Cory) Booker…I’m just saying, here’s the good news: looks like y’all could play for the Knicks,” our 44th POTUS said to The Kid Mero and Desus Nice in an appearance on Showtime’s “Desus & Mero” show premiering Sunday.
Mr. President was referring to a pickup game where Desus & Mero looked…not great against the Senator last year, so don’t expect those two to be suiting up alongside Obi Toppin and Mitchell Robinson anytime soon – but Thibs had a great response when asked about it by the New York Post.
“Obviously he’s a great president, a big Bulls fan, and so I’ve always enjoyed him,’’ Thibodeau said told The Post. “I thought he did a great job as president and we’re going to have to work on making him a Knicks fan, that’s all. All our players in the league have great respect for him. So we’re going to work on getting him to shift from being a Bulls fan to being a Knicks fan.”
Robinson, the former Oregon State head coach, had been the Knicks’ VP of Player Development and G-League Operations from 2017 until this past July, when he left just ahead of his contract expiring to become the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. There had been reports that his ideals had clashed with those of then-GM Scott Perry, and he was not going to be brought back when new team president Leon Rose assessed his front office.
So, even if the Obamas’ loyalty is to blood over Thibs, the coach understands.
“We can’t worry about what other people think,’’ Thibodeau said. “The important thing for us is to focus on what we can control, what we think, how hard we play, how smart we play, how together we play. We have great fan support. I was here when it was great. I grew up as a kid and the Knicks were great. I know what that’s like.”
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