Posted on 12/28/2015 6:45:37 AM PST by vladimir998
Meadowlark Lemon passed away at his Arizona home on Sunday aged 83 He was perhaps the most beloved member of the Harlem Globetrotters in the team's history, playing 23 seasons When he joined in 1954 the team competed against other major opponents, but after the NBA was formed switched to trick plays and antics Lemon was known for his half-court hook shots and gags like chasing down referees and pouring buckets of glitter over referees' heads Wilt Chamberlain called him the greatest player of all time
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So glad I got to see him play!
RIP Meadow!
He damn near pulled off hitting a shot standing from the upper deck in a stadium! It was unbelievable! Loved watching Meadowlark Lemon!
He, and the others on the team, were a great group of guys.
They were a true joy for kids.
Indeed. I've heard this about other Globetrotter players. That their talents, skills and abilities could make most NBA players look small.
When they did play NBA teams, I think they were pretty much undefeated. They won something like 20,000 exhibition games in a row (not all against NBA teams).
I always wondered if the teams they played "threw" those games for the entertainment value or if the Globetrotters were really that good.
RIP
Yep they did. The Washington Generals(I think that was their name) traveled with the Trotters and lost every game. Not to insinuate they could have won if they even wanted to. A good show they were.
The only time times the Globies played NBA teams was in the forties and fifties when they still had the best black players because the NBA didn't allow black players until the early fifties.
In a series of games between the Globies and the Minneapolis Lakers (yes, before they went to LA), the Globies won the first two games but lost every game they played after that. The last game was played in 1958 which the Lakers won by eleven points.
He was a jinni, a gentleman and a genius.
I remember Crusty the Clown losing everything when he bet on the Washington Generals. “I thought they were due”
I remember watching the Harlem Globetrotters Saturday morning cartoon when I was a kid.
Can’t remember which show it was - may have been Scooby Doo. The Globetrotters were riding in a bus and had their hands stuck outside the windows and were dribbling basketballs as the bus sped down the highway! It was hilarious!
The Generals beat the Globetrotters once
All that legit basketball paid off once — on Jan. 5, 1971, in Martin, Tennessee.
Accounts of the game differ, but what’s generally agreed upon is that the Globetrotters were missing their best player, Curly Neal, and were generally in a funk. They weren’t hitting shots, their opponents were. As often happens, everybody stopped looking at the scoreboard to watch the fun things the Globetrotters were doing — until with a few minutes left, the Globetrotters realized they were down 12.
The thing they should’ve done was do their funny basketball tricks, the ones their opponents were not allowed to defend. Instead, they tried to win straight up. That ended with the ball in the hands of Generals owner/player/coach Red Klotz with a few seconds left — and he drilled a shot to give the Generals the win. Martin was a dry town, and the Generals didn’t travel with champagne (for obvious reasons) so they poured orange soda on each other in the locker room.
Klotz would say dozens of times over the years that the stunned fans looked at his team as if they had “killed Santa Claus.” http://www.sbnation.com/2015/8/14/9152971/washington-generals-harlem-globetrotters-losing-all-the-time
The Generals beat the Globetrotters once
All that legit basketball paid off once — on Jan. 5, 1971, in Martin, Tennessee.
Accounts of the game differ, but what’s generally agreed upon is that the Globetrotters were missing their best player, Curly Neal, and were generally in a funk. They weren’t hitting shots, their opponents were. As often happens, everybody stopped looking at the scoreboard to watch the fun things the Globetrotters were doing — until with a few minutes left, the Globetrotters realized they were down 12.
The thing they should’ve done was do their funny basketball tricks, the ones their opponents were not allowed to defend. Instead, they tried to win straight up. That ended with the ball in the hands of Generals owner/player/coach Red Klotz with a few seconds left — and he drilled a shot to give the Generals the win. Martin was a dry town, and the Generals didn’t travel with champagne (for obvious reasons) so they poured orange soda on each other in the locker room.
Klotz would say dozens of times over the years that the stunned fans looked at his team as if they had “killed Santa Claus.”
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