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‘Y’all Caught Me With That One’: Barack Obama Explains ‘Key & Peele' Olympics Moment

Even President Obama found his ‘Key & Peele’ experience with NBA stars very funny.

Jimmy Traina

Tyrese Haliburton got President Obama's take on "Key & Peele."
Tyrese Haliburton got President Obama's take on "Key & Peele." / The Young Man and the Three

1. It’s been 10 years since Key & Peele gave us that famous sketch spoofing the difference in how President Barack Obama greets white people as opposed to Black people.

Then, this past summer, President Obama brought that skit to real life when he visited Team USA in Las Vegas ahead of the Summer Olympics. There, his greeting for LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Anthony Davis was quite different than his greeting for Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

Appearing on the debut episode of the Young Man and the Three (the reimagined Old Man and the Three podcast now that JJ Redick is coaching the Lakers), Obama couldn’t help but get a laugh out of the Key & Peele sketch coming to real life.

Host and Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton told listeners that when Obama greeted the team in Las Vegas, he got a “big dap” from President Obama, unlike Few, who “got the Key & Peele handshake.”

“I gotta say, that was funny,” said Obama, who then explained what happened.

“I'm going down the row. A lot of those guys I knew. And then right before I got to Coach Few, it's Steph, it's LeBron. I've been knowing those guys forever. I’ve had dinner with them, their families.

"So, then Coach Few, I had never met. And he put out his hand. So, I'm like, ‘alright, I don't know is he going to be comfortable if I pull him into a bro hug.' I don't know. So, I just shook his hand.

"Kerr was right afterwards and Steve I knew. But the way it played out, I will say it looked just like that Key & Peele skit.”

Like so many people who end up going viral, even Obama he couldn't deny what happened after seeing the video.

"It wasn't conscious,” said Obama, "but when they ran it side-by-side, I had to say, 'alright y'all caught me on that one.'”

2. According to Pro Football Talk, Monday night’s Chargers-Cardinals game that aired exclusively on ESPN+ drew only 1.8 million viewers which is just hard to believe.

Happy streaming, everyone!

3. Here is this week’s edition of the best weekly segment on all of sports TV: "Bad Beats."

The 20 seconds from 4:53 to 5:13 are absolute gold from SVP and Stanford Steve.

4. Inside the NBA made its return last night and the guys were in midseason form.

5. The name Fernando Valenzuela instantly takes me back to when I first started becoming a baseball fan and Fernandomania was running wild. In honor of his passing last night, I had to give you some classic Vin Scully calling Valenzuela’s pitching.

6. The latest SI Media Podcast is an all–Traina Thoughts, all-mailbag edition with Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY.

Among the questions and topics: How will Tom Brady be affected as a broadcaster by the new restrictions put on him once he became a part-owner of the Raiders? Are Joe Buck and Troy Aikman ESPN’s biggest win over the past five years? Will Bob Costas ever call postseason baseball again? What changes should Major League Baseball make to the way the sport is broadcast during the playoffs? The problem with the WNBA’s schedule during the Finals. Which games should the NFL and NBC consider flexing out of Sunday Night Football? Where does Bobby “The Brain” Heenan rank among the greatest analysts in sports history?

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I saw the movie Saturday Night, which details the very first night that Saturday Night Live aired on NBC. I’ll share my full thoughts on this week’s SI Media Podcast, out tomorrow morning, but after doing a deep dive when I got home about what was true and what was not, I came across George Carlin’s monologue about baseball and football from that debut episode on Oct. 11, 1975.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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