Bitter Georgia Brown--Two Harlem Globetrotters Are Suing Club’s Owners

Attorneys for two members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team filed suit in federal court Monday, seeking damages and explanations from the team and its owners, Metromedia Inc.

A teary-eyed Hubert E. (Geese) Ausbie, who said in May he had resigned after 24 years with the Globetrotters, said at a news conference that he was fired. His portion of the suit seeks $595,500 in additional severance pay, damages for breach of contract and unpaid endorsement money.

Frederic D. (Curley) Neal, a 21-year veteran with the Globetrotters, asked in the suit for $150,000 in endorsements. Neal has not been fired, the suit said, but the offer of a new contract “is so drastically beneath his value and even beneath the salary of the previous year yet (the organization) refuses to negotiate with Neal’s representative in either explaining or in trying to arrive at an acceptable figure for the coming playing season of the Harlem Globetrotters.”

Jay Dickey Jr., attorney for the players, said as he filed the suit that Ausbie and Neal are trying to find out where they stand with the Globetrotters as much as they are seeking damages. “A lot that’s in this complaint is seeking information as well as making claims,” Dickey said.

The attorney said Monday he had been contacted by Jerry Friedman, a Metromedia attorney, who wanted information about the suit but would not talk about the players’ questions.

“I asked why the team would not talk to the players’ representatives, and he said he wasn’t able to tell me at this time,” Dickey said. “The call was encouraging, but the content was not.”