NBA Political Contributions

There's a fun little thing on Huffington Post that allows you to see who's giving what to whom. It lets you track donations by either name or address. I thought I'd try some NBA names and see who popped up. So far, Barack Obama is leading the race in the NBA. Here are the results:

Execs:
David Stern (Ruler): $4600 to Hillary Clinton
Billy King (Sixers): $4600 to Barack Obama
Jerry Colangelo (Suns): $2300 to John McCain
Robert Sarver (Suns): $2100 to McCain
Wyc Grousbeck (Celtics): $4600 to Barack and $2300 to Mitt Romney
Danny Ainge (Celtics): $2300 to Romney
James Dolan (Knicks): $2300 to Hillary
Magic Johnson: $2300 to Barack

Players:
Stephon Marbury: $2300 to Barack
Baron Davis: $2300 to Barack
Grant Hill: $2300 to Barack

Others:
Ahmad Rashad: $2300 to Barack
Arn Tellem (Agent): $2300 to Barack

A lot of the "superstars" - Kobe, Lebron, Dwyane, KG, AI, Tracy - haven't given anything. I wasn't surprised by that, but I thought I'd at least see Adonal "Democracy Matters" Foyle or Charles Barkley on the list. I was surprised to see Steph on there. Perhaps I've underestimated him.

There were 4 listings for Michael Jordan - 3 that couldn't be him and 1 that might. The one that might is retired from Washington DC and gave $2100 to Barack.

Anyway, try it out. It's kind of stalkerish in that it lists the address of the donor, too. So whether you're interested in politics or stalking, here's the tool for you.

Everybody Wants to Be Like Lebron

Originally meant to be posted 2 weeks ago. My bad.

Basketball and politics are two subjects I'm passionate about -- I majored in poli sci and spent the majority a fair amount of time watching basketball -- but it's not often, especially in the Michael Jordan era, that these two topics merge. Well, leave it to the man currently bringing divergent groups of people together to bring these two topics together, too.

In a new book by David Mendell, Barack Obama is quoted at the 2004 Democratic National Convention saying,

"I'm Lebron, baby. I can play on this level. I got some game."

Initially, my reaction was just to chuckle...or is it giggle...Do girls chuckle? Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more prescient I found his statement to be. Remember, this was back in '04 when nobody outside of Illinois and the Democratic cognoscenti knew who Barack Obama was. He was a rookie senator about to take the national stage for the first time, as keynote speaker, no less! He was unproven but well hyped. Since then, you can say he's officially made the Leap, raising $32.5 million in one quarter and surpassing his rivals by at least $10 mil. Now the question remains: which Lebron will Barack be?

• Season 3 Lebron - He'll get a lot of press, make a lot of money, and be thisclose to reaching the next level, but he'll ultimately fail to make it out of the primary round.
  
• Season 4 Lebron - He'll demolish his Democratic rivals but get crushed by the behemoth from Texas.
• Season 5 Lebron???? - Perhaps President Obama will inspire his inspiration.

By the way, I'm still torn between Barack and Hillary.