You see, it was someone else's fault -- sort of an Obama theme, come to think of it.The school's style of basketball was just as vanilla. "His game didn't really fit our system," recalled Alan Lum, a teammate who now teaches second grade at Punahou. "We ran a structured offense. We were very disciplined. Barry, he did a good job with that, but he was a very creative player, you know? I guess a lot of his best days were on the outside courts, playing with friends." Obama acknowledged as much. "Basketball was a good way for me to channel my energy," he said. "It did parallel some of the broader struggles I was going through, because there were some issues in terms of racial identity that played themselves out on the basketball court. You know, I had an overtly black game, behind-the-back passes, and wasn't particularly concerned about fundamentals, whereas our coach was this Bobby Knight guy, and he was all about fundamentals--you know, bounce passes, and four passes before you shoot, and that sort of thing. So we had this little conflict that landed me on the bench when I argued.
"The truth was," Obama continued, "on the playground, I could beat a lot of the guys who were starters, and I think he thought it was useful to have me there in practice."
Curious side note -- in most of the YouTube clips of Obama playing basketball you see him making bounce passes.