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You heard wrong. He was lecturing the masses to say that they “won't” make it in the NBA or as the next hip hop star.

But this is also the couple who “the community” not to go to work in offices for corporate America.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042737/posts
Obama Slams Hoop Dreams for High School Diplomas
abcnews ^ | 07/08/09 | ABC News’ Sunlen Miller Reports

Barack Obama took a “tough love” message to African American youth, telling that finishing high school is a better route to success in life than an unlikely trip to the NBA or the top of the rap industry.

“You are probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you are the next Lil’ Wayne, but probably not, in which case you need to stay in school,” Obama, D-Ill., told a cheering crowd, brought to a standing ovation at a town hall meeting in Powder Springs, Georgia.

The presumptive Democratic nominee was speaking about high school drop out rates and the need for people to be committed to working hard in school so they can get a job after school.

Obama said he knows some young men think they can't find a job unless they are a really good basketball player.

“Which most of you brothas are not,” Obama, who played basketball in high school, a sport he continues to play to this day, said jokingly. “I know you think you are, but you're not. You are over-rated in your own mind. You will not play in the NBA.”

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1978845/posts
Michelle Obama: Tells Lower Middle Class Women, Don't Go Into Corporate America
The Astute Bloggers ^ | March 01, 2008 | Staff

A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.”