Barack Obama Video: Watch Obama Talk NBA Lockout with Jay Leno

The leader of the free world, President Barack Obama, has some very strong thoughts on the 2011 NBA lockout, and he made them very clear during an interview with late-night personality Jay Leno.

If you didn't think the NBA lockout was a big deal, perhaps now is a good time to start reconsidering your stance.

With all that we have going on in the world for a president to worry about, it's got to be comforting to NBA fans to know that there is a very watchful and powerful eye keeping tabs on the potential loss of their season.

In fact, perhaps the NBA should invite the president to help watch over their lockout.

If his interview is any indication, President Obama has a pretty good feel on what it's all about and how to fix it.

Here's what he said, according to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports:

"

Well, look, if you look at the NFL, they were able to settle theirs—and I think they understood. Players were making millions of dollars. Owners, some of us are worth billions of dollars. We should be able to figure out how to split a $9 billion pot so that our fans, who are allowing us to make all of this money, can actually have a good season. And I think the owners and the basketball players need to think the same way…

"I’m concerned about (losing the season). They need to remind themselves that the reason they are so successful is because a whole bunch of folks out there love basketball. Basketball has actually done well, but these types of lockouts a lot of times take a long time to recover from.”

"

Political preferences aside, I think it's pretty easy for anybody to see that President Barack Obama loves sports. He's constantly talking about them, and it's no secret that he loves his local teams from Chicago.

In my opinion he nailed this NBA issue on the head. When all is said and done, it does revolve around the fans.

The fans are what make the product so successful.

My question is:

If the President of the United States can see that with everything he has on his plate, what is taking David Stern, the NBA owners and players so long?

In the end they are only hurting their fans, which in turn will hurt their product.