ESPN has a looong article on the increasing popularity of basketball in DC these days
Washington's Most Influencial are suddenly taking up hoops, all in the hopes of getting a run with President ObamaBY WRIGHT THOMPSONWASHINGTON -- Baron Hill is in training, working on his jumper, pumping iron, doing rep after tedious rep on the weight machines to strengthen his bum knee. He swore 15 years ago that he'd never play competitive basketball again, but here he is at his health club, 55 years old, shooting baskets alone. Once, he was an Indiana high school legend, a member of the state's hall of fame, but those pictures are in black and white.
Just your typical bourgeois midlife crisis, right? Not exactly. Consider who Hill is, where he is and why he's doing this. For starters, he's an influential member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a powerful guy, co-chairman of the Blue Dog Democrats. The court he's on isn't at a local Y. He's in Room SB-322 of the Rayburn House Office Building: the famous House gym. There's a little electronic device he keeps on his key chain that lets him in whenever he wants.
The why is a bit more complicated. Outside D.C., it would seem absurd. In D.C., it's just doing business. Getting his basketball game up to speed isn't about him. Well, that's not entirely true. It's somewhat about him, about his own political future. But it's also for the 675,000 citizens of his Indiana district, the people he has been sent here to serve. The reason he's back in training isn't because he wants to be but because the president of the United States likes to ball.
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