President Obama hit two game–winning shots on Election Day 2016

The President has played pickup ball on the past three national election days.

President Obama came through in the clutch on Election Day. On the basketball court, that is.

On Thursday, GQ published an oral history of Obama's tradition of playing pickup basketball, featuring insight from Chris Paul, Maya Moore and Shane Battier.

While the 2016 election didn't go the way he wanted, Obama did hit two game winners on Nov. 8, according to former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Here's how Duncan, who played at Harvard and professionally in Australia, described the moment:

"The last time we played, Election Day 2016, he hit one or two game winners," Duncan told GQ. "And literally may not have shot earlier at all in those games. That’s part of the basketball IQ. The craftiness. You pass 20 times and then the 21st time, you don’t pass. And sort of catch everybody off. You’re setting people up."

• SI VAULT (Dec. 31, 2007): S.L. Price plays candidate Obama in one-on-one

Also included in the piece is a detailed scouting report of Obama's game, the story of Obama sort of crossing over Chris Paul, and an account of the time David Axelrod almost broke the President's nose. 

-Daniel Rapaport