CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama walked in a side door Friday morning and surprised 22 WNBA All-Stars before their practice at his new presidential center. Both head coaches and the honorary general managers who drafted this weekend’s rosters were on the floor with them.
Practice ran at Home Court, the 60,000-square-foot athletic building on the center’s Jackson Park campus that opened to the public June 12. No All-Star practice had been held at a venue like it, and the WNBA is the first pro league to use the building.
“Some of you I’m meeting for the first time, all of you are extraordinary,” Obama told the players. “The way the game has been growing lately and the way the game has been picking up, people have been paying attention to your excellence. … It has been a sight to see.”
Plenty of them met him before, visiting the White House during his two terms after winning WNBA or NCAA titles.
He spoke for a few minutes and posed for a group photo, then spent about 10 minutes on handshakes and individual pictures. Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese pulled him in for a selfie. Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark posed with him and waved over teammates Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell for a second shot. Obama gave A’ja Wilson a shout-out during his remarks and went over to talk with her after.
Barack Obama Gets in a Defensive Stance on Jonquel Jones
Obama stepped onto the floor with New York Liberty center Jonquel Jones and dropped into a defensive stance in front of her for a few seconds, the only time he actually played any of it. He said he doesn’t do 5-on-5 anymore to protect his Achilles, but he had broken in the new court with a game of horse.
Obama went to the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles in February. He won’t be at Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game because of a prior commitment with his wife, Michelle Obama.
“It’s fitting for our 30th anniversary that we’re here as the first sports league to play in the Obama Presidential Center,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said. “Someone who has inspired hundreds of millions of people to dream big and accomplish things like President Obama has and his tie to basketball is amazing too. I think there’s no more fitting person to be meeting with the players.”
Barack Obama pulled up to WNBA All-Star Weekend practice today
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Obama Drops In on WNBA Changemaker Day
Obama crossed the campus afterward to the center’s Elie Wiesel Auditorium, where nearly 100 rising ninth-grade girls had gathered for the third annual WNBA Changemaker Day. The half-day summit drew students from Chicago Public Schools and from Obama Foundation programming run through the Girls Opportunity Alliance, and this year’s theme was finding a personal superpower.
WNBA brand strategist Nina Kossoff opened the program at 9:58 a.m. A panel moderated by ESPN journalist Ari Chambers followed, featuring Nike chief diversity officer Kizmet Mills, WNBA chief growth officer Colie Edison, and Linnae Harper, the Olympian and former Chicago Sky guard who manages athletics and sports leadership programming at the center.
Engelbert cut in at 10:13 a.m. to introduce Obama, who came out a minute later in jeans and a white button-down to a room that wouldn’t quiet down.
“I wasn’t gonna let a bunch of amazing young athletes, scholars, hoopers, come through my spot without saying hello,” he said, holding off on handshakes because “mayhem will break loose.”
Scenes from a historic day at Obama Presidential Center
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— WNBA (@WNBA) July 24, 2026
He talked about raising Malia and Sasha Obama, now 28 and 25, and what has changed for girls their age since.
“We live in a world that is a lot more complicated for you guys than it was in some ways when I was coming up,” Obama said. “There’s so much pressure and noise and sometimes I think, especially for girls and young women, there’s social attitudes that tell you that you need to be one kind of way.”
He told the students to find adults already doing the work they want to do and learn from them directly, and pushed them to look past what’s right in front of them.
“We only see the little fish bowl that we live in, but you know, it turns out there’s a whole big world out there full of possibilities,” he said. “The more you see out there that’s possible, the better off you’re going to be.”
He wrapped up after spotting a student who looked ready to fall asleep, joking that he gets the same thing at the Obama dinner table. Obama shook hands along the front row, took a group selfie, and left the stage at 10:22 a.m. The panel picked back up with a student Q&A.
Team Coop and Team Spoon will meet Saturday at United Center at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC in the 22nd WNBA All-Star Game and the second played in Chicago. Cheryl Reeve coaches Team Spoon, Becky Hammon coaches Team Coop, and Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon served as honorary general managers. The regular season resumes Tuesday.
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