4 NBA Players Obama Should Consider for VP

Posted by HoopsAvenue on August 15, 2008 under General NBA | 2 Comments to Read

Pretty soon Barack Obama will be announcing his running mate and, from what we hear, he hasn’t made up his mind yet so HoopsAvenue wanted to toss a few NBA names in Obama’s direction. Ball Don’t Lie ran down Obama’s ‘NBA Dream Team’ cabinet 2 months ago and suggested Tim Duncan as Vice President, but we’ve got some other names to throw in the hat:

1. Dikembe Mutombo – Mutombo brings a boatload of experience to Obama, which would be a big boost for the senator. Additionally, Mutombo is known to be strong on defense which would appeal to a lot of voters, but his connection with President Bush could be a detriment to the campaign.
   
2. Bruce Bowen – Bowen’s reputation for strong defense makes him a natural choice to be Obama’s VP, but he’s also a very polarizing figure, unpopular in LA, Phoenix, and many other cities around the country, which could cost Obama votes.
   
3. Antawn Jamison – Jamison is experienced, professional, and well-liked. He looks like a perfect choice to be VP, but Obama’s message of change might not resonate if he chooses a Washington-insider like Jamison.
4. Dwight Howard – He’s from the southeast, a region where Obama struggles, and is now very popular in the swing-state of Florida, but does Dwight Howard have the experience to be VP? Howard would be a risky pick so maybe he should wait until 2012.

Players Not to Consider

• Gilbert Arenas – His recent blog post where he said, “There’s another reason I don’t vote – I don’t want jury duty. If you’re not registered to vote, you can’t get jury duty. I know that campaign Diddy had a couple years ago, “Vote or Die,” yeah if the alternative is jury duty, I’m going to die. I’m not going to get in one of these cases where they blow the jury members’ houses up to get out of the trial, I’m cool. I’ve seen too many movies,” kinda makes it difficult for him to enter into politics. Plus, he’s busy building a really cool pool.
• Rasheed Wallace – Wallace would definitely resonate with Obama’s message of change, but he’s a bit too outspoken. When his Pistons won the 2004 NBA championship and had to meet President Bush the next year, he said, “”I’m not going to say (expletive) to him. I didn’t vote for him. This is just something we have to do.”