Guest Post: Quick Thoughts from the White House

KSR was fortunate enough to have a reader in the media corps today at the White House, and he gladly rose to the challenge to report his observations for the site. Please join me in welcoming Kellen Clemons! Evening Kentucky Sports Radio! I wanted to go ahead and give the Big Blue Nation some quick thoughts and insights into today’s visit to the White House as well as some of the photos I managed to take. I am working on something a bit longer and more thorough that should be ready in the morning that I hope everyone will enjoy, as well the 54 pictures. To the quick recap; - Ms. Tyler is right. From what I heard around the room and the press room, President Obama was genuinely surprised and touched by the jersey, basketball, and ring. - Part of the room let out an “awwwwwwe” when Coach Calipari explained that Darius Miller was giving the president his jersey number. - Calling it right now: ‘Darius Miller 2019: KY Governor’. Though he’ll be in the NBA for much more than 8 years. - President Obama focused on two concepts: Selflessness and Teamwork. He did a great job pointing out how this team would give up for one another to make the team as a whole better. - Coach Calipari is a marketing genius. I’ve been checking and I know of no other champion giving the President a ring. That was unique and is something he can talk about to recruits. - President Obama said something I never knew, though he may have been paraphrasing; “…when he recruited these players he asked them some simple questions: Do you want to win the National Championship? Evidently the answer was ‘yes’. Can you do it by yourself? The answer was ‘no’”. Just shows you how amazing this group really was. - The Big Blue Nation is awesome. While I’ve never been in the White House before, I’ve been to some other official events and they tend to be quiet and droll affairs. The crowd was all UK fans. Clapping is normal when a team is introduced to the East Room, our crowd was whistling and cheering like it was tip-off for another game. - As the team left the stage the crowd started chanting C! A! T! S! CATS! CATS! CATS! It was amazing. You don’t see that sort of thing at something like this but everyone seemed to embrace it. One (clearly non-kentucky) reporter had to ask what the chant was. - Final thought: They had the stage and podium on a platform about a foot above ground level. Yet Anthony Davis was standing on the true floor so he could be in the first row. Thanks again to KentuckySportsRadio for letting me share this with the Big Blue Nation. I will have more for you soon.