Barack Obama inauguration draws attention of sports world
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Hall of Fame coach John Thompson has described Barack Obama’s move into the White House ‘the greatest thing to happen to African Americans since the Emancipation Proclamation.’
‘It hasn’t been able to seep in,’ the former Georgetown college basketball coach told The Associated Press. ‘I will have tears in my eyes when that boy raises his hand.’
Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo attended the inauguration with wife, Rose, oldest son Reagan, and his father Samuel, who flew to Washington from his family’s home in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
‘We have the son of an African man, not from a second or third generation, from the first generation,’ Mutumbo told the AP. ‘That brings so much joy and so much pride for me.’
Mutombo managed to witness Obama’s inauguration by flying straight to Washington, D.C., from a game in Denver -- and then rushing to the airport to catch a flight to Houston.
Muhammad Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, was the guest of honor at the Bluegrass Ball -- a Washington gala sponsored by the state of Kentucky -- where 1,400 people gathered to pay tribute to the new president.
‘What’s interesting is that Muhammad had time to grow into his role as being a world humanitarian,’ his wife, Lonnie Ali, said Monday. Obama, she added, ‘will inherit the world on his shoulders, not just the U.S. And it is a much heavier burden than I think Muhammad had to face.
‘But I think [Obama’s] his shoulders are broad,’ she added. ‘He and Muhammad are really made of the same fabric.’
Other athletes scrambled to re-arrange travel in order to watch the inauguration on television.
The Boston Celtics, who will play the Heat in Miami on Wednesday, voted to fly out early on Tuesday morning in order to land in time to watch the inauguration on television.
‘They said, ‘No, we want to see it live. We think it’s that important,’’ Celtics coach Doc Rivers told the AP. ‘One of them said, ‘Twenty or 30 years from now, I want to say I saw him speak live when he came in.’ I guess it will be like JFK in a lot of ways. I’m glad our guys have the awareness of real life.’
The Chicago White Sox even sent out a news release that crowed about their mascot, Southpaw, appearing on the Illinois float in today’s inauguration parade.
-- Greg Johnson