Meadowlark Lemon, whose halfcourt hook shots, no-look behind-the-back passes and vivid clowning were marquee features of the feel-good traveling basketball show known as the Harlem Globetrotters for nearly a quarter-century, died on Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he lived. He was 83.
The death was confirmed by his wife, Cynthia Lemon.
A gifted athlete with an entertainer’s hunger for the spotlight, Lemon, who dreamed of playing for the Globetrotters as a boy in North Carolina, joined the team in 1954, not long after leaving the Army. Within a few years, he had assumed the central role of showman, taking over from Reece Tatum, whom everyone called Goose, the Trotters’ long-reigning clown prince. Tatum was a superb ballplayer whose on-court gags — or reams, as the players called them — had established the team’s reputation for laugh-inducing wizardry at a championship level.
Man ML and Curly Neal were/are the Globetrotters to me. I remember him bombing in hook shots from half court and entertaining the fans with his comedic wit. When he retired they just were not as funny. RIP Meadowlark
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Seemed like Meadowlark was the face of the Trotters forever.
Little known fact. I think it was before Meadowlark joined the team, but the Globetrotters played and beat the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA at some point. A couple of years later the NBA finally integrated African American players into the League.
Meadowlark was the soul of that show. I haven't seen the Globetrotters since I was a kid, but I couldn't believe those weren't the best basketball players in the world. I once saw footage of Curly Neal swishing a shot released over his head from behind his back beyond half court.
