John Wooden, Larry Brown … Barack Obama?
UCLA basketball legend and analyst Bill Walton wants the program to aim high in its search for a new head coach — the highest office in the land, even. He said during a Thursday night ESPN broadcast that he wants the former president to take over at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins canned head coach Steve Alford last week after they started out with a dismal 7-6 non-conference record, including a 73-58 home loss to Liberty.
Many names have been floated for the vacancy, which is temporarily being filled by Murry Bartow, but Walton is only interested in one.
“What type of characteristics should UCLA look for in the next coach?” play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch asked Walton.
“Barack Obama,” Walton said.
“Well, I don’t think he’s going to coach,” Pasch replied.
“You keep saying that, but why?” Walton answered. “Why are you so negative? Why do you just turn down? His brother-in-law coached. I’m sticking with Barack Obama until he says no.”
Michelle Obama’s brother Craig Robinson was a head coach at Brown and Oregon State and is currently the Knicks’ vice president of player and organizational development. Robinson told The Post’s Marc Berman last month that Barack Obama is “no ball hog.”
Michelle noted in her book that she had Craig invite Barack to play pick-up basketball in part to determine whether or not he’d be a good person to marry.
“He wasn’t greedy,” Robinson said. “He showed character on the court. He called fouls and gave up fouls. You have to trust the guys you’re playing with in pickup, they’ll make the right call. He did all of that. I was able to get back to her and say, ‘He seems like a pretty good guy.’ The best thing about it I told her is he didn’t just pass me the ball because he was dating my sister.”
But Barack has some coaching experience himself. In 2011, he filled in to help coach daughter Sasha’s basketball team.
Even if he’s not interested in coaching college basketball, Obama’s second-term press secretary Josh Earnest said in 2016 that Obama has “discussed” joining an ownership group for an NBA team.
