On today’s episode of ESPN’s The Jump, host Rachel Nichols shared a lot of footage of her trip to the White House. President Obama and his cabinet granted ESPN unprecedented access to the Cleveland Cavaliers visit while in town, before facing the Washington Wizards (that game is tonight).
Although this is a shortened clip, you can still see some of the player’s experience meeting the President, the First Lady, Vice President Joe Biden and their staff.
Barack gave a speech inside the White House about how much it meant to have the team there and then went around to shake everyone’s hand. From the players to the staff in the organization to Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavs.
Then they went outside and had a press conference, where President Obama talked about each individual player and how they helped during the championship run (he made fun of J.R. Smith for wearing a shirt, gave props to James Jones, saluted Tristan Thompson‘s energy, Iman Shumpert‘s defense, etc.), plus gave them ultimate respect for being the first team in the history of the NBA Finals to come back and win after a 3-1 series deficit. He also took a shot at them by saying them defeating the 73-9 Golden State Warriors pretty much cemented his 1995-96 Chicago Bulls as the best team in NBA History.
If you want to see more footage from the trip, make sure you tune in to the latest episode of The Jump. Check out a short clip of the show up top.
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