Former President Barack Obama was in attendance Wednesday night for North Carolina’s big win over Duke.
The 44th president of the United States was greeted by the crowd with cheering and applause and he entered the arena flanked by Secret Service.
President Barack Obama gets an amazing reception just before Duke vs UNC pic.twitter.com/8ufWuupfV2
— Joe Mazur (@joemazurabc11) February 21, 2019
Obama is a man of the people, even the Cameron Crazies. pic.twitter.com/om4F4xUKZi
— ESPN (@espn) February 21, 2019
Barack Obama had a great time at the Duke/UNC basketball game https://t.co/qXD9OaLgc4 pic.twitter.com/Sxyeh9iRcL
— thisis50 (@thisis50) February 21, 2019
His seats also weren’t too bad as he sat courtside for the game.
Obama with “44” on the sleeve of the bomber jacket pic.twitter.com/DnEub7MR83
— 247 Live Culture (@247LC) February 21, 2019
“His shoe broke.” – Obama
(Via @ChaseHughesNBCS)
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) February 21, 2019
I don’t care if you like Obama or not — it’s pretty damn cool that he just casually strolled into the most hyped college basketball game of the year.
If I was a former POTUS, I would attend every single sporting event that I could. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get tickets at all. (RELATED: Duke Star Zion Williamson Suffers Sprained Knee In Loss To North Carolina)
You also have to love his security detail just scanning the crowd as Obama just starts shaking hands like it’s no big deal at all.
Welcome to Duke, @BarackObama pic.twitter.com/CQ8Swi5eVq
— Duke University (@DukeU) February 21, 2019
He also is apparently a bit of a Zion fan, and wished him well after the game following a knee injury.
Zion Williamson seems like an outstanding young man as well as an outstanding basketball player. Wishing him a speedy recovery.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 21, 2019
Whether you like Obama or not, you have to admit him showing up to the game was a good thing for college basketball. The more attention the sport gets, the better it is for everybody involved.
Having a former president casually sit courtside is a great way to generate attention. Now, we just need to get Trump to start sitting at the 50-yard line of major college football games. That would really set the sports world on fire.