WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama did not have to look far to find his choice for education secretary — just across the basketball court.

Obama and his education choice, Arne Duncan, play pick-up basketball games together, and Duncan has a history in the sport having played on the Harvard basketball team while a student there and then professionally in Australia.

At a news conference in Chicago to announce Duncan’s nomination, Obama chuckled when talking about the Chicago-area native.

“I did not select Arne because he’s one of the best basketball players I know,” Obama said. “Although I will say that I think we are putting together the best basketball-playing Cabinet in American history.”

There is an outdoor basketball court on the White House South Lawn that is used sometimes. On the campaign trail Obama said if elected he would consider taking out the indoor bowling alley at the White House and putting in a basketball court.

Other hoop players in the Obama inner circle include his choice to be Attorney General, Eric Holder, his national security adviser, James Jones, and his pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice.

They don’t seem to have the respect of the tall Duncan, however, who we might as well nickname “Dunkin’ Duncan.”

Who has the better jump shot, Obama or Duncan?

Duncan, said Obama.

“That one’s an easy one,” he said.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jeff Haynes (Obama heads towards a pickup game of basketball last month in Chicago.)