Among the many legacies President Obama will leave behind, there is this: he was the best basketball-playing President we've ever had. For eight years we've caught snippets of President Obama's game, which—despite his lanky, sweatpants'd frame—showcased the unique swagger he tapped into throughout his presidency. In talking to people who've stepped onto the court with him (and against him), it's clear that the sport provides a window into the identity of the eternally smooth 44th President of the United States. What we discovered was a guy who liked to talk a little trash, hated to lose (and rarely did), and liked to go left—which seemed to work out as well for him as it did for us.

Ball Don’t Lie: Hooping on the Campaign Trail

Some of our first glimpses of Barack Obama the basketball player came on the campaign trail in 2008, where he sometimes picked up a ball to play politics and bond with constituents, and sometimes picked one up to escape from it and blow off steam. Both (but mostly the latter) worked well enough that pickup basketball games not only became a staple during the Primary circuit, but became a standing date on all of the last three Election Days.

Dan Pfeiffer (Former White House Communications Director and Senior Advisor): We were at an event in South Carolina during the campaign in 2007. The President stopped to do a short interview, and then someone tossed him a basketball and we're live on CNN. And I'm like, "Do not shoot this. Do not shoot this. Do not shoot this." In the stupid world of politics, the metaphor of the candidate missing a shot on live television would have been unfortunate. And he kind of looks at me, like, "Really?" And fires one, and makes it, live on television, sort of feeding the legend of Obama, clutch individual. And [then he] walks into the rally. Which is something that he brought up with me for at least five years afterwards. Every time I would jokingly tell him not to do something, he would point out that I had told him not to make that shot, and he had made it. It was in jest but it was pretty serious, too. The point he was making always was: I'm good at moments like these, so don't doubt me.

Alexi Giannoulias (former Illinois state treasurer; played at Boston University): The night before the Iowa caucuses, we got a call from the now-president. [Obama campaign treasurer] Marty Nesbitt comes up to me and says, “I think he wants to play some ball. Can you find a gym? Oh, and it’s got to be private, and it’s got to be really close to here, and we have to have it to ourselves.” And I’m like, “How the fuck—in Des Moines, Iowa, you want this by tomorrow morning? You want me to find a gym that we can play ball in a few blocks from here, in a state that I know nothing—” And he goes, “Yeah, can you make it happen?” And I was like, “No.”