President Barack Obama honored the Detroit Shock on Monday for contributions on and off the basketball court.

He welcomed the Shock to the White House’s South Portico to honor its 2008 championship season, its third WNBA title since the team started in 1998.

Bill Laimbeer, who resigned as coach in June, joined the players along with current coach Rick Mahorn, Shock and Pistons owner Karen Davidson and Donna Orender, the president of the WNBA. Michigan Sen. Carl Levin and Reps. Sander Levin and Carolyn Kilpatrick also were at the ceremony.

“I want to congratulate the Finals MVP Katie Smith, team captain Cheryl Ford and all the other women that make this such an outstanding team,” the president said.

“I also want to salute this organization and this team for donating so much time and energy to lifting up the Detroit community. They’ve given free tickets to underprivileged youth, mentored abused women and children, donated backpacks filled with school supplies to foster kids, restored a rundown library into a safe, clean place for kids to play and to grow.”

He pointed out that his daughters, Sasha and Malia, have never known a time when women did not play professional basketball in the United States.

“They look at the TV and they see me watching ‘SportsCenter’ and they see young women who look like them on the screen,” said Obama, who got a jersey from the Shock. “And it makes my daughters look at themselves differently; to see that they can be champions, too. So, as a father, I want to say thank-you.”

Before the ceremony Monday, the Shock took part in a WNBA clinic at the Richard England Boys & Girls Club in Washington, D.C.

Detroit is 5-9 so far this season. The Shock next plays the Minnesota Lynx on Friday at the Palace.

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