Klosterman and the Obama Basketball Myth

I dig Klosterman, and loved this Esquire piece on Craig Robinson, brother-in-law of the baller-in-chief. Chuck examines the worn yarn about how Robinson was able to learn alot about Obama in their first pick-up game together.

Money paragraph:

In an interview with ESPN, Robinson described Obama's floor game like this: Barack is a left-handed player who can only go to his left. He's got a long frame. He'd rather drive than shoot. He isn't much of a passer. From this cursory description, it sounds as if Obama is a politicized version of ex-St. John's scoring machine Walter Berry. But this comparison is inaccurate. According to Robinson, the player Obama most resembles is stoic, Nixon-era point guard Lenny Wilkens. Now, this might be true. His logic works. But I assume Robinson also felt an obligation to select a southpaw doppelgänger who represents a certain class of positive, nebulous value. Wilkens has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame twice and has no negative baggage; conversely, nobody who understands basketball would want to think their president is like Walter Berry, an offensive black hole who once casually remarked, "My game does not consist of fundamentals." Such an allusion would not test well.