ANKARA, Turkey - President Obama spoke to Turkey’s Grand National Assembly Monday and had this message for them: their basketball players have got good basketball skills.
“The ties among our people have deepened as well, and more and more Americans of Turkish origin live and work and succeed within our borders,” Obama told the Turkish legislators.
“As a basketball fan, I’ve even noticed that Hedo Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur have got some pretty good basketball games,” he said.
Turkoglu and Okur are basketball players who have played in the U.S. professional National Basketball League for several years each, Turkoglu for the Sacramento Kings and the Orlando Magic, and Okur for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz.
The line got a some laughs and applause from the Turkish legislators inside the Grant National Assembly building.
Obama did de-slang the line a bit. Originally he was going to say the two players “have got pretty good game.”
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