Before Jordan or LeBron made #23 famous, an 18-year-old by the name of Barry Obama wore the number for his senior season at Punahou School in Honolulu, when he helped lead his school to the 1979 Hawaii State Championship,
His uniform, an off-white jersey with royal blue detailing and yellow-gold trim, is currently up for auction from Heritage Auction, and is expected to reel in up to $100,000. The lot was brought forward by a man named Peter Noble, three years behind Obama at Punahou, who also wore #23, and kept the jersey almost 40 years ago when the school switched to new uniforms. The winning buyer will also get Noble’s yearbook, which includes photos of Obama taking jump shots and posing for photos with school clubs.
Unfortunately, there’s no immediate record of Obama’s stats from that senior season, so we can’t know for sure how good he was. It’s clear, though, that years of hooping at the White House and filling out brackets (Barack-etology!) came from a genuine, lifelong love of the game. The president famously had to play basketball every day of an election (he’d lost the New Hampshire primary to Hilary Clinton on a day he didn’t play), and obviously was at Cameron Indoor earlier this year to watch Zion’s foot jailbreak a shoe. For adult footage of #44 playing pick-up, watch this unbelievable video, which shows him playing in Indiana in 2008. He’s got a nasty left, above average court vision, and even knocks down a three.
Anyway, if interested in picking up his high school jersey, head here. With 19 days to go, the current winning bid is $30,000.
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