The sun is fading on another picture perfect Wollongong summer day when a helicopter comes into view, landing with majestic, whirring, blustering presence on WIN Stadium's back field.
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The ground is usually occupied by Dragons players, but right now there's a different kind of buzz and intensity.
Security detail everywhere, the 44th US president, Barack Obama emerges from the chopper.
Obama is whisked through the stadium and into WIN Entertainment Centre, where he will be guest of honour for the Illawarra Hawks.
He's greeted with a standing ovation, like a 5000-seat version of the one he received in Toronto for game five of the NBA finals.
Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?
Obama took a sudden interest in the NBL this week, liking the Illawarra Hawks' Twitter handle after they signed American teen prodigy LaMelo Ball, and presumably father LaVar and the family's Karadashian-style reality show as well.
And Obama has some grounding in Australian basketball, given his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan played in the NBL.
Duncan came to Australia on a week's notice in 1988, after an unsuccessful training camp with the Boston Celtics.
"He was one of the most intelligent players, of the imported players, I've ever brought out - in terms of understanding the game," his first coach, Brian Goorjian, said. Duncan played with the Eastside Spectres, who eventually merged to form the South East Melbourne Magic. Bringing Obama to Wollongong seems the stuff of fantasy.
But then just weeks ago so did the idea that - from Los Angeles to Albury - LaMelo Ball would play his first professional game in NBL pre-season against the newly-formed South East Melbourne Phoenix.
Obama was out here for a speaking tour last year and became an honourary supporter of AFL premiers West Coast, thanks to the influence of former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
All the Hawks, who gained NBA prominence last year when Patty Mills proudly wore their indigenous-design singlet, would need is opportunity.
Hawks owner Simon Stratford has already committed to sending playing kit to Obama, another remarkable step in trans-Pacific basketball relations. LaMelo's older brother Lonzo has been traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, who drafted Zion Williamson with the No.1 pick on Friday (AEST).
And in announcing the Hawks deal, LaMelo has already declared he wants to be standing in Williamson's shoes next year and be the first name read out.
But first it's not so much what the NBL and the Hawks can do for him, as much as what he can do for the Hawks.
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