COMMENTARY : Globetrotters Got Basketball Boom Going

In the era of the three-point field goal, the behind-the-ear pass and the windmill dunk, it is called showtime. Among its proponents are the foremost players in the world.

Once upon a time, detractors called it showboating, even globetrotting. Curly Neal laughs at the thought. “They’re doing what we used to do,” he says now, “only they’re getting more money to do it.”

Indeed, they are. Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and their peers in the National Basketball Association are getting millions not just to win games but to entertain. And their ability to perform all kinds of wizardry with a basketball has attracted huge endorsement contracts their predecessors could not have imagined. The irony is not lost on Neal, who picked up the dribble where Marques Haynes left off and starred for 22 years with the Harlem Globetrotters.

“We played on NBA cards in the 1960s, to help them draw,” he recalls. “We used to play on the same level. We just did more show. Now everyone does show, even the coaches.” He had in mind an NBA promotional ad featuring Chuck Daly, perhaps the best-dressed man in pro basketball, taking a pratfall on his superbly tailored suit.

Neal is sitting in the coffee shop at the Marriott Hotel, adjacent to the Nassau Coliseum. He is in New York on this midweek afternoon to let people know the Trotters do not belong solely to the past, that one of the Trotters’ two traveling units will be appearing at Madison Square Garden Saturday, at the Coliseum Sunday and at Meadowlands Arena Monday. Wearing a Trotters’ warmup suit for the occasion, the colorful garb plus his familiar shaved head and ready smile are invitations for passers-by to stop and chat.

“You’re Marques Haynes,” an older man says.

“No,” he replies cheerfully, explaining Haynes and Goose Tatum were from an earlier era, that he played with Meadowlark Lemon.

“But you’re the one who dribbles, aren’t you?” the man persists.

“That’s me,” Neal says.

Actually, he does very little dribbling these days. Neal retired from the tour five years ago and his only association with the organization now is as a herald, trumpeting the team’s arrival in big cities. In fact, he has become a full-time member of the establishment, the director of special projects for the Orlando Magic of the NBA.

It is a measure of the man’s warm personality and the Trotters’ immense popularity during his era that so many can place the face, if not recall the name. It also is a commentary on the team’s difficulties in attracting marquee performers to replace the likes of Lemon and Neal and Geese Ausbie at a time when even NBA subs can become rich with the stroke of a pen.

The stars in the striped shorts now are named Twiggy Sanders, Clyde “The Glide” Austin and Tyrone Brown, the designated dribbler that Neal calls “a great find.” In the mode of recent Trotter teams, this edition also features a woman, the seventh in organization history, Bridget Turner.

These Trotters no longer may be able to play with even the lower echelon of the NBA but that doesn’t mean they feel threatened. After all, they haven’t suffered a defeat since Jan. 5, 1971. Their streak of consecutive victories at the start of this campaign exceeded 7,000.

Neal remembers the loss well. It occurred in Martin, Tenn. Red Klotz, the player-coach for the New Jersey Reds, tossed in the winning shot in a 100-99 victory. “I congratulated him,” Neal recalls. “But Meadowlark was furious. He said to the rest of us, ‘You lost, I didn’t lose.’

“What happened is that we messed around and forgot about the clock. By the time we realized the time, we were 12 down with two minutes left and we almost pulled it out. The kids in the audience had tears in their eyes. (The Reds) went crazy when they won. They didn’t have champagne so they poured orange soda all over their jerseys.”

That may be one of the few times in recent history that the score of a Trotters’ game was paramount. More often than not, people leave the arena counting the number of smiles. Children of all ages have responded to their skill and humor in 109 countries.

Basketball knows no boundaries today, thanks in large part to the Trotters. According to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., the late Abe Saperstein, who founded the team in 1927, is “credited with making basketball a truly international game.” Neal, whose personal record is 97 countries and approximately one million miles of travel, can attest to it.

His experiences includes dribbling on a grass soccer field in Jamaica and in a bull ring in Spain “after a bull fight.” He also performed for the Pope at the Vatican. It was all in a day’s work, although some days were more hectic than others.

There was the time in his rookie year when he and roommate Smokey Gaines left the bag of trick balls behind in their hotel room in Sydney, Australia. It proved to be a major problem when the team arrived for its game in Adelaide. So they improvised. “We cut a hole out to make a flat ball, then we made a weighted ball, and we did it during the game,” Neal said. “We had them all ready by the fourth quarter.”

In their heyday, with such talents as Ausbie and Jumpin’ Jackie Jackson and Jackson’s former high school teammate, Connie Hawkins, “we would play and let Meadowlark do the show,” Neal recalled. “We used to play about 80 percent ball, 20 percent comedy.”

Now the figures are closer to 60-40 or even 50-50, he estimates. But then even the NBA promises more than a game. Its stars are acrobats, magicians, artistes. “So many play with the flair now,” Neal said.

The flair began with the Trotters, who will grant their longtime foils, the Washington Generals, three more chances at victory in the metropolitan area this weekend (four if you count the Saturday night engagement in New Haven, Conn.).

“You never know,” Neal said. “Nineteen years. It might be time again. Even Mike Tyson lost the other night.”