After Abdicating His Duties Friday, Obama Gets Back to Business Today

After bizarrely walking out of the press conference Friday, the president gets back to the important business today: Playing basketball.

It's becoming an annual tradition.

The Lakers win a championship. The Lakers have a victory parade. The Lakers visit President Obama the next season when they cruise through Washington.

They met him at the White House last season and they are scheduled to see Obama again Monday at a Boys & Girls Club in the city, where they will be conducting a clinic with elementary-school children and perhaps playing some light one-on-one with the president.

Craziest Missed Dunk Ever?

The things some guys will try in garbage time of NBA games. This is Shannon Brown of the Lakers trying to throw one down on Los Suns last night in Los Angeles. Had it worked it would forever be a highlight reel dunk. Even though he missed it'll still be shown a bazillion times on ESPN.

Check out this still shot:

Kind of reminds me of the hops I had when I played in the NBA.

Oh, sorry, I was just going Dick Blumenthal there for a minute.

Obama Boldly Predicts Lakers in Six

Coming off his audacious pick of the favored Steelers in the Super Bowl and the groundbreaking selection of North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament, our fearless leader again taker a great leap forward by gambling his sports cred on the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers to defeat the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals.

Nothing like going out on a limb.

"The Lakers in six, I think," he said.

Such decisiveness.

Of course if the Lakers do win in six we'll never hear the end of it. They're still babbling about his NCAA picks on ESPN, three months later.

For the record, I'll take Los Angeles in five.

The Sound of Silence

Maybe someone in the Knicks front office can clandestinely send LeBron James a number 23 jersey now.

Just to see how it looks.

Head down and shoulders slumped, LeBron James headed off the court as the Orlando Magic streamers shot off above him.

Dwight Howard was hugging Hedo Turkoglu, dreams of Beating L.A. dancing in their heads. James wasn’t bothering to stick around to shake hands, offer congratulations or pretend there was a bright side to the Magic ousting his Cleveland Cavaliers from the East finals with a 103-90 victory in Game 6.

James was off the floor before the confetti could hit his shoulders.

He later dressed in silence in a corner of the locker room then put on some gold, oversized headphones and headed for the door. Normally one of the last to leave, he was now one of the first. With anger and frustration evident in each step, he charged through the back halls of Amway Arena without greeting anyone, got on the team bus and soon was off to the airport.

There was no looking for his mother, Gloria. There was no talking with Nike executives. And forget addressing fans and media – Mo Williams was left to answer for the defeat.

LeBron was gone. The King was silent.