Tuesday, December 28, 2010

President Obama interrupts Geno Auriemma's news conference

UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma was in the midst of his postgame news conference after his team's major-college record 89th victory in a row when a PR flack interrupted to hand him a cell phone.

Who could possibly be important enough to keep a roomful of reporters waiting? None other than President Obama himself.

"No, you're not interrupting anything," Auriemma said, chuckling. "If I was calling you and you had all those reporters in front of you, you'd be dying to take my phone call, right?"

[Related: Obama and Kobe Bryant trash talk each other]

Most congratulatory phone calls between a president and the coach of a championship team occur out of the public eye, so it was fascinating to see Auriemma so calm with one of the most powerful men on the planet on the other end of the line.

Auriemma, who has met Obama during White House visits each of the past two years, graciously accepted congratulations on defeating Florida State to eclipse the 88-game winning streak set by John Wooden's legendary UCLA men's teams from 1971 to 1974. He also noted that the Huskies haven't lost since Obama became president, joking "How about we keep that streak going for a couple more years, huh?"  

[Rewind: Obama gives his opinion on the struggling Heat]

Maybe the highlight of the video, however, is the zinger Auriemma unleashed to reporters as soon as he got off the phone with Obama.

"That was the new president of the University of Connecticut," Auriemma deadpanned. "We just wanted to get off on the right start." 

[Photos: More of record-breaker Geno Auriemma]

Other popular stories on Yahoo!:
Video: Lingerie football game ends in big brawl
Ticked-off coach mars historic moment
Strange sight at Chinese basketball game

Kelly Ripa Yvonne Strzechowski Rhona Mitra Kelly Rowland Danica Patrick

No comments:

Post a Comment