President Barack Obama honored WNBA champions the Minnesota Lynx at a White House ceremony in the East Room on Thursday, taking a moment from the chaos in Iraq to tell the basketball stars that they set a great example for his daughters and girls all over the country.
Fox Sports reported that it was the second time in the last three years Obama hosted the champs.
"Last year, Seimone Augustus issued one of the strangest apologies in sports," Obama said in his speech. "I've never heard this before. She said 'I'm sorry if we make it look too easy.' That's a good problem to have."
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The Lynx visited the White House in September 2012 after winning the championship in 2011. They lost the title to the Indiana Fever the next year, but came back this past season full force, capturing it back.
"You began last season with something to prove," Obama said. "In 2013 you set out for a little redemption and, to put it mildly, you succeeded."
He told the team that when young women play sports, they do better in school, and thanked them for making sports like basketball more appealing them.
Star forward Maya Moore said it was her sixth trip to the White House. She's been invited twice as part of the Lynx, two as an NCAA champ from the University of Connecticut, one with Team USA after winning Olympic gold in 2012, and one individual event.
"When she comes, we kind of — we’ve got all her stuff here; she’s got a toothbrush," Obama said, joking with the audience.
The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported that Moore played along with the joke, saying she would take him up on the room he mentioned.
"I think we can continue to make this an annual trip and I want to see that room you’re talking about," she said to the president toward the end of the ceremony.
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