President Obama has some advice for the NBA: Follow the example of the NFL and solve your labor problems before it's too late.

Obama, a big basketball fan, told NBC's Jay Leno on Tuesday that he's "concerned" the "heartbreaking" NBA lockout could wipe out the 2011-2012 season for fans:

If you look at the NFL, they were able to settle theirs. I think they understood players were making millions of dollars, owners, some of us are worth billions of dollars. We should be able to figure out how to split a $9 billion pie so that our fans, who are allowing us to make all this money, can actually have a good season. I think the owners and basketball players need to think the same way.

The First Fan warned NBA owners and players it's later than they think:

They need to remind themselves that the reason they are so successful is because a whole bunch of f0lks out there love basketball. Basketball has actually done well. But these kinds of lockouts, a lot of times, take a long time to recover from.

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Here's a clip from Tuesday's interview. Leno asks President Obama about Republican nominees and the "Occupy Wall Street" protests before turning to the NBA lockout at around the 1:50 mark: