I was never much of a basketball player. I tried out for the high school team but never made it. It was never my sport. My older brother was good – of course, he was about 4-5 inches taller than me for starters. I played hockey – he played basketball.
When I was a kid watching a good old American network TV channel in the 60s , I remember seeing the Harlem Globetrotters. The blew me away. The comedy and the mastery immediately grabbed my attention. It was like the Marx Brothers meet the Lakers. Crazy stuff. It spoofed the real thing but actually took the game a notch higher. I don’t know of any other sport that attempted to do what the Globetrotters did ( maybe a few baseball teams -The King and HIs Court etc…)
The real showman of this elite team was of course Meadowlark Lemon. He had a name like a blues singer and was a gifted basketball player.
Besides making incredible shots, the antics including the old bucket of confetti thrown at the ref, passing behind the back and chattering incessantly.
Good old Meadowlark passed away recently at the age of 83. He made it ok to kid around and ‘play’ a little differently on the court – he was a jester as much as an athlete – a great entertainer.