奥巴马在白宫接见上届NBA冠军湖人队

The Los Angeles Lakers will be honored at the White House at 11:15 (Pacific time) today for winning last season's NBA championship.

The team, coach Phil Jackson and Hall-of-Famer Magic Johnson, will be joined by President Barack Obama for the ceremony in the Palm Room, according to White House officials and team spokesman John Black.

The team's White House visit is expected to last about an hour. It will come one day before the Lakers face the Washington Wizards in the fourth game of an eight-game, 12-day road trip.

The visit will be the Lakers' first at the White House since January 2002, their only visit during their three-peat tenure.

"Regardless of who's in office and what your political affiliations are, it's still an honor to meet the person running the country and it's something I'm definitely looking forward to," Laker guard Derek Fisher told reporters last week.

Often unconventional Laker forward Ron Artest, who was not a member of last season's championship team, had a different view about meeting Obama.

"I'm not that excited to meet him because I look at him as a regular person," Artest said. "That's how he comes across on TV. He doesn't come across as somebody that can't be touched, that's not going to be warm and welcoming."

Obama called Jackson in June to congratulate him on winning his record- setting 10th championship as a head coach. They also discussed the keys to the Lakers' success and Obama's interest in the Lakers' triangle offense, according to the White House.

Obama, who played on Hawaii's high school state championship team in 1979 and still plays basketball with cabinet members, other government officials and friends, told Jackson he has admired him since he coached the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.

Jackson donated $2,300 to Obama's primary campaign in 2007, the maximum amount allowable under federal law, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant fan, Tony Sedastian of Hicksville, N.Y., shows his support prior to a New York Knicks against the Lakers NBA basketball game Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, in New York.

Obama had predicted that the Lakers would defeat the Orlando Magic in six games in last season's best-of-seven NBA finals, one more game than they actually needed.