Michelle Obama Compares Marriage To Basketball & Calls LeBron James Ideal Husband: ‘Never Pick’ A ‘Loser’

Marriage is like basketball, according to Michelle Obama, and you want the best of the best on your ‘team’ to be your spouse — like LeBron James!

When it comes to picking a spouse, you’re going to want someone on your team that knows how to win, says Michelle Obama. You’re going to want LeBron James! The former First Lady used a basketball analogy on the September 2 episode of her Spotify podcast while discussing what makes up an ideal marriage: don’t want someone complacent who stays on the sidelines. You want a true teammate to be your partner for the rest of your life.

“You don’t want any weak links, you don’t want somebody that you can dominate. You don’t want somebody who’s kind of a loser, right?” Michelle said in conversation with Conan O’Brien on The Michelle Obama Podcast. “And also, if you’re on a team, you’ve got to be able to do everything — especially in basketball, it’s like, you would never pick somebody that says, ‘I only dribble. I don’t shoot, I don’t defend, I just dribble.’ If we looked at marriage as a real team, you want your teammate to be a winner. You want LeBron.”

“You don’t want the guy, third row on the bench, who didn’t make the team,” the former FLOTUS said. And she found her LeBron with her husband of 27 years, former President Barack Obama. They’re parents to two wonderful, accomplished young women: Sasha, 19, a freshman at the University of Michigan, and Malia, 22, a student at Harvard. While life with Barack is bliss, Michelle acknowledges that marriage — even theirs — isn’t easy. Especially when eight years of it were spent under intense public scrutiny in the White House.

“What is it like when your partner is the most powerful man, in the house, in the world, you know, and everybody salutes him?” she said to Conan. “And the entire presidency, rightfully so, is set up to protect and make life easy for the President. Which means, that in a marriage of equals, the other partner is second. Because the entire institution says ‘no, you’re First Lady, which means you’re second person under all the rules. the Commander in Chief takes precedent.’ So it’s the ultimate test.”

LeBron isn’t just a winner on the court; he’s a dedicated husband and father, as well. The Los Angeles Lakers player absolutely gushed over his wife of seven years, Savannah Brinson, on her 34th birthday with an adoring Instagram. “MY BEAUTIFUL STRONG AMBITIOUS DRIVEN COMMITTED LOVING AMAZING WOMAN I CALL MY QUEEN, MY BEST FRIEND, MY LOVE, MY WIFE! I SCREAM FROM THE DAMN BUBBLE HAPPY BIRTHDAY,” he wrote in the August 27 post.

The Michelle Obama Podcast airs Wednesday mornings on Spotify.