--- title: President Obama Has 'Discussed' Owning Part Of NBA Franchise description: White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama would "potentially" be interested. canonical: https://time.com/4378991/president-obama-has-discussed-owning-part-of-an-nba-franchise/ author: Emma Ockerman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-22T20:50:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:47:07.154Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Has "Discussed" Owning Part Of An NBA Franchise og:description: The White House Press Secretary said Obama would "potentially" be interested og:url: https://time.com/4378991/president-obama-has-discussed-owning-part-of-an-nba-franchise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f8d0269093d23fc/69889904e20a871b66a91557/obama3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Golden State Warriors honored at White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Has "Discussed" Owning Part Of An NBA Franchise twitter:description: The White House Press Secretary said Obama would "potentially" be interested twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f8d0269093d23fc/69889904e20a871b66a91557/obama3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Has 'Discussed' Owning Part Of an NBA Franchise > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Emma Ockerman](https://time.com/author/emma-ockerman/) ## Emma Ockerman Jun 22, 2016 8:50 PM UTC  President Obama pretends to shoot a basketball during an event in the White House, on Feb. 4, 2016. President Obama pretends to shoot a basketball during an event in the White House, on Feb. 4, 2016. Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Emma Ockerman](https://time.com/author/emma-ockerman/) ## Emma Ockerman Jun 22, 2016 8:50 PM UTC President Barack Obama might have his eyes on becoming a [part of an NBA franchise ownership group](http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/01/barack-obama-is-not-good-at-basketball/?iid=sr-link1) after he exits the White House. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama would “potentially, if the opportunity arose, under the right circumstances” be[ interested in the opportunity](http://fortune.com/2016/03/16/obama-march-madness-picks/), the Washington [_Post_ reports,](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/06/22/president-obama-has-been-talking-about-owning-a-piece-of-an-nba-franchise/) and that the President had even “discussed” being part of an NBA franchise ownership group. Apparently, the dream of owning a basketball team has been long-held. Obama told [Bill Simmons in an interview with _GQ_ ](http://www.gq.com/story/president-obama-bill-simmons-interview-gq-men-of-the-year)last year that he would “absolutely” want to be part-owner of an NBA team. “I have fantasized about being able to put together a team and how much fun that would be,” Obama told Simmons. “I think it’d be terrific.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4378991/president-obama-has-discussed-owning-part-of-an-nba-franchise/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4378991/president-obama-has-discussed-owning-part-of-an-nba-franchise/"},"headline":"President Obama Has 'Discussed' Owning Part Of an NBA Franchise","datePublished":"2016-06-22T20:50:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:47:07.154Z","description":"White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama would \"potentially\" be interested","url":"https://time.com/4378991/president-obama-has-discussed-owning-part-of-an-nba-franchise/","keywords":["Barack Obama","politics","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f8d0269093d23fc/69889904e20a871b66a91557/obama3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Emma Ockerman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/emma-ockerman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f8d0269093d23fc/69889904e20a871b66a91557/obama3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Golden State Warriors honored at White House","caption":"Golden State Warriors honored at White House","creditText":"Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4378991/president-obama-has-discussed-owning-part-of-an-nba-franchise/","name":"President Obama Has 'Discussed' Owning Part Of an NBA Franchise"}}]}] ```