title:  The Obamas Gave A Heartbreaking Tribute To Muhammad Ali (VIDEO)
text: The last couple of years have been rampant with what seems like premature deaths. Would we have ever been able to prepare ourselves for the deaths of Robin Williams, David Bowie, Prince and so many, many more people? Unfortunately, we have another name to add to what seems like a particularly grim year: Muhammad Ali   and the Obamas, in a statement to America,  mourned the loss as deeply as any of us.To the Obamas, Ali   who was resoundingly loved and admired, and was actually (unlike President Obama) a black Muslim   was  The Greatest. Period. Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time, Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he d tell you. He d tell you he was the double greatest; that he d  handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail,  Obama wrote.  But what made The Champ the greatest   what truly separated him from everyone else   is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing. The President also tweeted, showing himself working with a picture of the Champ behind him.He shook up the world, and the world s better for it. Rest in peace, Champ. pic.twitter.com/z1yM3sSLH3  President Obama (@POTUS) June 4, 2016Obama also noted that he has a pair of Ali s boxing gloves in his private study.Obama continued,  I am America,  he once declared.  I am the part you won t recognize. But get used to me   black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.  That s the Ali I came to know as I came of age   not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today. Muhammad Ali shook up the world,  Obama concluded in his tribute to Ali.  And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace. Source: Rolling StoneHere s a video:While Obama was born during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, he came of age watching Ali. To Obama, Martin Luther King and even Malcolm X were parts of history books, but Ali was brash, confident, smart, socially aware and a force to be reckoned with in the 60s and 70s. While so many Civil Rights leaders were working behind the scenes, or perhaps in front, but more quietly, Ali told the world that he could do anything, no matter his skin color. Perhaps there would have never been a President Barack Obama if it weren t for the example put forth by Muhammad Ali.Featured image via Kent Gavin at Getty Images.