[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 5 (Monday, February 7, 2005)]
[Pages 123-125]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Honoring the 2004 National Basketball Association Champion 
Detroit Pistons

January 31, 2005

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Gosh, what an honor it is to 
welcome the mighty Detroit Pistons to the White House. With all the fans 
here and the players, I guess you'd expect to hear somebody ringing the 
gong. [Laughter] I love to welcome champs to the people's home.
    I also am glad to welcome members of the Michigan delegation: 
Senator Levin, thank

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you for coming; Congressman Kildee; Congressman Levin--that would be 
Senator Levin's brother. [Laughter] Joe Knollenberg is here. Thanks for 
coming, Joe. It's great to see you. Congressman Carolyn Kilpatrick--that 
would be the mom of the mayor. [Laughter] I'm sure the mayor was there 
during the celebration. Candice Miller is with us. Thank you all for 
coming. I'm honored that you're here to welcome your favorite team.
    I'm proud to be on the--sharing the stage with Coach Larry Brown. 
The guy must know what he's doing, you know? [Laughter] He's NCAA champs 
with the Kansas Jayhawks and now is a professional basketball coach that 
won the NBA crown.
    Bill Davidson--I've known Bill Davidson in the past. He is a true 
gentleman, a great civic leader in the Detroit area. Mr. Davidson, thank 
you for being here. Congratulations on the championship. Oscar Feldman, 
part-owner of the Pistons is with us. Thank you for coming, Oscar.
    Joe Dumars and Bill Laimbeer--both of them came to the White House 
as champs. As I recall, you came here in '89 and '90--I'm aware of who 
was living here then. [Laughter] Welcome back. Congratulations to Joe as 
the president of basketball operations--Mr. President. And Bill, of 
course, is the coach of the Shock, who we welcomed here to the Rose 
Garden last--2 years ago.
    Tom Wilson, the president of Palace Sports and Entertainment. I want 
to thank all the players and your families who've come. Welcome. I hope 
you've gotten a tour of this majestic place. It's a special place to 
work and live.
    I want to congratulate Chauncey Billups for being the NBA 
Championship Series MVP.
    So nobody expected you to win. I know how you feel. [Laughter] You 
won because you put a team together. You had people willing to serve 
something greater than yourself, and it's a wonderful example for kids 
on playgrounds or people in all walks of life. I guess you kind of just 
played it the right way. I think that's what the coach says, ``Play it 
the right way.'' That's how we should live life. That's what champs do. 
They set an example.
    As you know, a lot of kids look at you. They see you as the big 
star. They wonder what life should be like, and every time you set an 
example for a kid to make a right choice in life, you're helping save a 
life. And I want to thank you for the extent that you do that.
    I also appreciate the fact that you've been involved in great causes 
like teaching children how to read. I can't think of a more important 
cause than lending a gift of knowledge to a child. I remember the time 
in Houston, Texas, when a woman walked up to me and she said, ``Reading 
is the new civil right.'' I thought that was such a powerful phrase. If 
you believe that, if you believe you liberate people by teaching them to 
read, consider yourself liberators as a result of being in the program, 
``Read To Achieve.''
    I want to thank you for setting an example for the tsunami relief 
effort. As you might remember, I tapped two former Presidents, 41 and 
42--that would be my dad and President Clinton--to join together to help 
raise money. I suspect basketball players probably have a little more 
pull than they do. And so I want to thank you for setting an example of 
serving people who hurt. In other words, you have taken your great 
championship status and converted it to good, and that's good.
    And so we're here to congratulate you for being the great champs 
that you are. And by the way, I also want to thank you for providing 
entertainment for our troops overseas. I don't know if you know this or 
not, but a lot of people overseas support professional basketball. 
Professional basketball provides great relief from their duty and 
entertainment, a reminder of what life is like back home, and I suspect 
a lot of them are Detroit Pistons fans as well.
    So thank you for what you're doing, supporting those who have helped 
make this world a more peaceful and free place. In other words, welcome 
to the White House, and congratulations for being called champs. Thanks 
for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 3:05 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks,

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he referred to Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick of Detroit, MI, son of 
Representative Carolyn C. Kilpatrick; Bill Davidson and Oscar Feldman, 
owners, and Joe Dumars, president of basketball operations, Detroit 
Pistons; and Bill Laimbeer, head coach, Detroit Shock, Women's National 
Basketball Association.