Obama Hails the ‘Miami Heats’
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JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/GettyImages(MIAMI) — Unfazed by a partisan spat sparked by his comment on former Red Sox player Kevin Youkilis, President Obama Tuesday night opined on a professional sports team again, publicly praising the NBA champion Miami Heat at a campaign fundraiser in the city.
The only problem this time was that Obama mispronounced the name of the team — referring to it as the “Miami Heats.”
At the top of his remarks at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach, Obama said his public recognition of dignitaries and special guests would be “incomplete if I did not congratulate the city of Miami for having the world champion Miami Heats here in town.”
“You guys earned it,” Obama said as the crowd applauded.
“And since one of my favorite people is [sic] Alonzo Mourning is here and Tracy Mourning,” he added. “I just want to give them a special shout out. Alonzo looks like he can still play. Hasn’t aged a bit … looks the same, except he doesn’t have a flat top.”
Mourning, 42, spent 15 years in the NBA playing longest for the Miami Heat.
At an event in Boston on Monday night, Obama ribbed donors for the trade of beloved Red Sox third baseman Youkilis to his adopted hometown team the Chicago White Sox: and the crowd ribbed him right back.
“Boston, I just want to say, thank you for Youkilis,” Obama told the crowd, drawing a mix of boos — which Team Obama claimed were “Youks!” — and laughter. “I’m just saying, he had to change the color of his socks.”
The remark drew a rebuke from Republicans, who seized on the boos as a sign of Obama’s alleged insensitivity to his audiences.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio