Former United States president Barack Obama was in attendance for Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors.
Obama shared his last experience of attending the Finals: the 1996 edition between his hometown Chicago Bulls against the Seattle Supersonics.
In his discussion, Obama gave some high-praises to Sonics guard Gary Payton and said that he did a splendid job in defending Bulls superstar Michael Jordan. In the process, he also gave a little jab at Kobe Bryant.
Listen to what he had to say, per USA Today Sports:
In the house for Game 2, former President Barack Obama discussed the last time he attended the #NBAFinals. pic.twitter.com/SPtaEunel7
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) June 3, 2019
Some subtle shade is always nice, huh?
Barack Obama isn't wrong, though. The 1996 Finals was, in fact, the least productive and least efficient Finals campaign of Jordan's six title runs.
His Airness averaged just 27.3 points and shot just 41.5 percent from the field in the six games against Payton and the Sonics. But as history has written out, this didn't stop Jordan – who took nearly two years off to play baseball – and the Bulls from reclaiming their throne atop the NBA world.
Bryant, on the other hand, had just one Finals campaign where he shot over 50 percent – against the New Jersey Nets in 2003. His other six Finals percentages hovered between 38 to 43 percent.
Nevertheless, Obama didn't seem to demean Bryant in any kind of way. The facts don't dispute his claim, either. Kobe did shoot a little poorly than MJ in the Finals.
Obama was incorrect on one little fact, however. After doing some checking, Jordan actually averaged the least shot attempts in those 1996 Finals compared to his other five Finals appearances.
*All stats used taken from Basketball Reference
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