On the latest episode of the Point Game Podcast featuring CSNChicago.com Bulls Insider Vincent Goodwill and San Antonio Express-News Spurs writer Jabari Young, TNT's David Aldridge joined the two in review of the first week of the NBA season.
Aldridge, a longtime NBA writer and columnist, was in Chicago for the NBA's season opener with the Bulls and Cavaliers and had the opportunity to interview President Barack Obama, who was in attendance.
He was asked if he was nervous considering all the extra security in the building that night and the fact it was the President of the United States.
"The answer to all that is yes, it's the president. You don't get that often," Aldridge said. "A long time ago I interviewed President Clinton in D.C. at the MCI Center. It's deep, man. You know who the guy is and what he means to people. Yeah, you're nervous."
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Everyone knows Obama is a huge Bulls fan and NBA fan in general so the interview itself wasn't too difficult.
"It's good I can ask him regular questions as opposed to try to figure out what his level of knowledge is about the NBA and then it can go in a any direction and some of it isn't good if he doesn't know anything," Aldridge said. "But what made it easy is because he does know. It wasn't like I had to think about the question. It's a regular question because I know he knew."
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Aldridge was also in Chicago for the he said/he said controversy between Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg and Joakim Noah. Hoiberg said Noah volunteered to come off the bench and Noah, days later, said the conversation didn’t go like that.
“What Fred told us in the (TNT) meeting was that Joakim came to him,” Aldridge said. “But he did not say ‘I want to come off the bench.’ The version we were told was, ‘If you’re thinking about this, I play really well with (Taj) Gibson, so if you wanna do it, I’m down with it for the good of the team.’ There’s a distinction there.
“I think he understood the way they wanted to play, that they wanted to shoot more 3s like everybody else, that he and Pau (Gasol) just don’t work together. Not that way.”
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Aldridge has covered the NBA for The Washington Post, had a stint at ESPN and was a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was asked about the difference between covering the league back in the day compared to the Twitter/Instagram world that's inundated coverage now.
"You don't have time to think anymore," Aldridge said. "I could have a piece of information and get it in the afternoon. I could think whether it's important or not, call some people to see what they think and then write a story with some nuance. You don't do that anymore. I don't do hot takes, I'm no good at it."
Aldridge also named Magic Johnson the most compelling person he's covered, gave his observations on the NBA at large, including LeBron James "pacing himself" through the regular season and in the wake of Flip Saunders' passing, spoke about the longtime coach as well.