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The Wizards Fan Who Talked Trash to Obama

When I saw all the photos of Obama at the Verizon Center getting into it with a fan wearing an Obama t-shirt, and then read the caption identifying the guy as "Washington Wizards fan Miles Rawls," I smiled. Then I thought, "Wait a second....Miles Rawls?"

That would be Miles Rawls, the commissioner of the Goodman League down in Barry Farms. The same guy who rocks the mic throughout those classic summer league games, saying, for example, "Man, they bumping like a [bad word]" when players make contact. The same guy who once pointed in the general direction of me, a Slate editor and a Comcast SportsNet employee and saying 'Man, we got white folks in the house. When you've got white folks in the house, you know you're special."

That must have made for some interesting Presidential banter, I figured.

"We were up by 15," Rawls remembered in a phone conversation this afternoon. "I told [Obama], 'You can tell them to warm up the limo, Sir, because this is a wrap here.' "

And really, not too many people can claim to have taunted a sitting President with the old "Warm up the limo" chant.

So anyhow, the back story. Rawls has season tickets facing the Wiz bench, at the bottom of Section 110. Like everyone else, he heard the rumors about how Obama would be there last Friday night. In anticipation, he went to a sportswear place on Pennsylvania Avenue called Shooters to pick up a $15 Obama t-shirt. He showed up at the Verizon Center around 6:25, and was greeted by his usual usher.

"The usher told me I had to be on my best behavior," Rawls recalled. "I said 'For what?' She said, 'The President's sitting right in front to you.' I said, 'Well, he best enjoy the show, because y'all know I don't pull no punches. For $285, y'all know what I do. I have me a good time.' "

Wonder if anyone warned the White House. Indeed, Obama had been placed in those courtside seats in front of 110, some of which are held back for last-minute VIP requests. A few of the regular ushers thought Rawls might give up his "carrying on" for the occasion; those ushers, the 46-year old said, "must don't know me."

Indeed, the man who has hosted dozens of NBA stars in Barry Farms over the summer has gone after Kobe and Dwyane Wade. He's gone after LeBron--"He listens, he gives you a little, smile but he stays focused," Rawls said. And he's gone after Shaq--"exchanging pleasantries," as he calls it.

"I told Diesel he was going down," Rawls said. "He showed me his four fingers, [like] that's how many rings he's got."

Obama got a somewhat warmer greeting. Rawls shook his hand. He asked "How do you like my shirt, Mr. President?" Obama said it was beautiful. Rawls told the President he would treasure this moment, and that he was proud of him. Obama said he appreciated it.

That was "right at the beginning," Rawls said. "Before it got heated."

He said his chatter, like always, was unscripted, "right off the top of my head. I just had to see how he was gonna take it," Rawls said. "Once I knew he was a big trash talker, too, about them Bulls, that means the gloves came off."

And Rawls has been doing this a while. He's put in 13 years as commissioner of the Goodman League, and about 30 years doing play-by-play of that Southeast circuit, starting when he was a 15-year old kid with a single, hand-held microphone. He will give the summer players all sorts of grief, playing to the crowd, but when I asked about his chatter at NBA games, he insisted that "heckling" isn't the right word.

"Heckling and having a good time are two different animals," he explained. "I wasn't heckling the President and I don't heckle the players. I talk about their weaknesses. We was having a good time. He was talking trash and I was talking trash. I couldn't believe he was that laidback and real. I loved it."

And while they talked through much of the game, Rawls--who had never met a President--said no lines were crossed. "I wasn't disrespectful," he said. "I know my limits."

So, for example, he told the President that if he was rooting for the visitors, he was "gonna have to keep it to a low roar, because we're cheering for the Wizards over here." Obama, in turn, repeatedly needled Rawls about the Wizards' habit of letting leads evaporate, especially when the Bulls made a run.

"We was just going back and forth," Rawls said. "Once Chicago started coming back, he told me, 'Now I think you need to sit down.' When Tyrus Thomas dunked on somebody, he turned around, was talking smack. Then JaVale McGee had that alley-oop, and he gave me the high five. We was just supporting each others' team, having a good time."

Rawls's phone, of course, started blowing up before the game was over, and has continued to ring as the photos and videos of their exchanges went all over the world. He said he made at least one member of the President's Secret Service detail laugh. He will, of course, keep the t-shirt, and wants to get the photo autographed; he also hopes to invite Obama to Barry Farms. He said he had an adrenaline rush throughout the entire game, and that it was a "once in a lifetime experience" he won't ever forget.

"Where can you do that, sit there and talk smack with the President of the United States face to face?" he asked me. "He's the President, but he's subject to my fun too. I have a no-holds-barred rule."

"But he enjoyed it," Rawls added. "Trust me."