Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle received a phone call from President Obama on Friday congratulating his team on their NBA Finals victory.
"The thing that he mentioned first and foremost was how well we played as a team. So I was really proud of that and I wanted to share that with the listeners and our fans and everybody in Dallas, because this is a big deal - not just for our team, but for the city," Carlisle said.
President Obama, an avid basketball fan, had a court constructed on the White House grounds. He mentioned some of the Mavs players to Carlisle during their brief talk.
"He mentioned some of our veteran guys - Jason Terry, Dirk [Nowitzki], Jason Kidd, [Shawn] Marion," Carlisle said. "And of course [J.J.] Barea's name came up because [the President] was in Puerto Rico last week. We had a very nice chat."