LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentuckians voted decisively to keep the Bluegrass red on Tuesday.

That's OK.

No matter your politics, there should be a sense of consolation for those who cast a losing vote in the commonwealth.

Yes, there's that historic fact that the first African-American is going to occupy the White House.

But there is also this: Guess what, Kentucky, there's going to be a hoops guy in the White House.

Presidents have been basketball fans, some have played a little, but none has been a hoops junkie quite like 47-year-old Barack Obama, the soon-to-be 44th president of the United States.

What was the junior senator from Illinois doing on Election Day? He was playing pickup hoops in a Chicago gym as a way to pass time before the results arrived.

ESPN's Andy Katz was there. As he told ESPN radio's Mike and Mike on Wednesday morning, Katz interviewed Obama last month for a piece on the president-elect's brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, the new head basketball coach at Oregon State. Obama said he planned to play some hoops on Election Day, keeping a lucky ritual he began during the Democratic primaries. Just talking, Katz said he'd love to be in on that.

Lo and behold, Katz received an e-mail message last week from Marty Nesbitt, Obama's campaign treasurer, saying that if Katz could get to Chicago on Nov. 4, he could play. Katz asked whether this was serious. Nesbitt said it was.

"About 2:45 p.m. Central time, I was shooting around and in walked Barack Obama, sunglasses, a Texas Longhorns sweat-top, which was kind of odd, and black sweats," Katz told Mike and Mike. "He started chit-chatting with everyone, talking to everyone. Teams were divided up, and we played four games, I believe.

"The first game, I was on the opposite team, and I have to admit, he did score on me."

How cool is that?

Reggie Love, the former Duke basketball player who is now Obama's personal assistant, played. So did Bob Casey, the senator from Pennsylvania.

But then what would you expect from a kid who played JV basketball at his Hawaii high school, who routinely snuck off the Harvard campus to play pickup games, who often used basketball to make friends.

"At least on the basketball court," wrote Obama in his book Dreams of My Father, "I could find a community of sorts."

When Obama started dating Michelle Robinson, he was subjected to a pickup game with brother Craig to see whether Barack was one of those whiners who called a foul on every play. Michelle didn't want a whiner.

Though presidents and politicians usually find their sporting community on the golf course, there have been exceptions. As president, Bill Clinton sat for a "Sports Illustrated" cover story to talk about his love of hoops.

Al Gore was a reserve guard on the 1966 Harvard freshman team. When running for president in 1988, Gore played a pickup game in Memorial Coliseum during a stopover in Lexington.

Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey senator, is probably the most famous, and best, basketball-playing politician. In fact, there's something about Princeton basketball and politics.

Robinson, Obama's brother-in-law, was Princeton's fourth all-time leading scorer before going into coaching. Among his teammates was John Rogers, a Chicago businessman who was the captain of the '80 Princeton team and is now an Obama fund-raiser.

For the sake of being fair and balanced, we should remember that over on Tuesday's losing side (nationally), vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin played hoops in high school. Maybe that's why Kentucky went for McCain-Palin.

But then maybe that's why the state could go for Obama, too. Kentucky loves basketball. He loves basketball. So much, in fact, he promises to put an indoor court in the White House. Come on, Kentucky, what better issue is there to reach across the aisle on and find common ground?

(c) 2008, Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).

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