WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama had just one disclaimer when he announced former pro-basketball player Arne Duncan as his education secretary: "I did not select Arne because he's one of the best basketball players I know."

Still, he conceded, "I will say that I think we are putting together the best basketball-playing Cabinet in American history."

Not that they'd have much competition from the likes of John Foster Dulles, Henry Kissinger or Janet Reno.

"Over the presidencies of the 20th century there were Golf Cabinets, there were Poker Cabinets, and even I suppose Tennis Cabinets," said John Sayle Watterson, author of "The Games Presidents Play: Sports and the Presidency."

But basketball, he said, is a first. "I think this is sort of an updating of that."

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Obama is an enthusiastic player who picked up the game in junior high and became known as "Barry O'Bomber" in high school. You might even call the presidency his backup choice. He told Barbara Walters he dreamed of going pro until he realized he wasn't good enough.

Duncan, a regular at Obama's pickup games, can do him one-better. He co-captained the Harvard basketball team and played professionally in Australia before becoming the head of the Chicago school system.

Obama's choice for national security adviser, James L. Jones, was a forward at Georgetown. Incoming Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner hates to miss a pickup game. Eric Holder and Susan Rice, incoming attorney general and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, both played ball in high school. Janet Napolitano, Obama's choice for homeland security secretary, has regularly guest-coached women's basketball for Arizona's three state universities.

Obama also plays with top adviser Robert Gibbs, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias - who played professionally in Greece - and personal aide Reggie Love, who played on a Duke team that won an NCAA title.

Legend has it that Obama even played with former Princeton star and now Oregon State coach Craig Robinson to win his approval while Obama was courting his wife, Michelle, who is Robinson's sister.

The basketball court is clearly a place where Obama develops rapport. But it's also a proving ground for the kinds of skills a leader needs, said Dave Czesniuk of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston.

"I think there's a lot to be said for folks who managed participating in sports with academics, with part-time jobs, with family commitments," he said. "There are time-management skills involved and certainly social development skills and confidence, self-esteem building as well as the ability to deal with difficult situations."

And all the presidents' sports aren't mere diversions.

One of Theodore Roosevelt's most enduring legacies - national parks - stemmed from his love of hiking and hunting. Roosevelt often invited his Tennis Cabinet to join him in daily exercise.

William Howard Taft had his Golf Cabinet, and Warren Harding spent plenty of time on the green when he wasn't meeting with his Poker Cabinet. His weekly poker games at the White House were a place for dealmaking and forging relationships. (Future president Herbert Hoover, however, refused to play.)

Others have been less overt. Gerald Ford downplayed his all-star football past to avoid being seen as a dumb jock, Watterson said. The elder George Bush played baseball and soccer at Yale and was "maybe the best athlete of the 20th century presidents," Watterson added, but still had a reputation as a .....

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