Barack Obama claims to have assembled the “best basketball playing cabinet in American history”. Arne Duncan, the incoming education secretary, was team captain at Harvard and played professionally in Australia. Jim Jones, the new national security adviser, and Eric Holder, incoming attorney-general, were keen players in their school days. Then there is Mr Obama himself, who won the Hawaii state championship with his high school and spent part of Election Day shooting hoops.

But, while Team Obama might look good on the basketball court, it remains to be seen whether he has picked the right players to run a government.