Harlem Globetrotters legend Meadowlark Lemon has died

The man who played a significant role in making basketball a global game, Meadowlark Lemon, passed away Sunday at the age of 83.

For fans of the Harlem Globetrotters from the 1960s and beyond, Lemon was synonymous with the team for more than two decades. The basketball star has entertained millions of fans around the world as one of the most iconic members of the Harlem Globetrotters.

He was born Meadow Lemon III in Wilmington, North Carolina, and was unfamiliar with not just the Globetrotters but the game of basketball until he saw a newsreel about the team at a movie theater at the age of 11.

They played a total of over 16,000 games in over 100 countries.

“I said: ‘That’s mine, this is for me.’ I was receiving a vision”.

Lemon enraptured audiences with half-court hook shots, constant on-court chatter, stunts like handing out hot pretzels to Madison Square Garden referees (mid-game no less), and most of all his ball-handling skills and wizard-like passing.

In honor of Lemon, take a look back at his Basketball Hall of Fame speech below.

Still, acknowledging his status as a Globetrotter legend, Lemon toured one last time with the famed team in 1994.

“My destiny was to make people happy”, he said as he was inducted into the basketball hall in 2003.

He left the Globetrotters in 1979 and launched several of his own basketball teams. He also appeared in numerous national TV commercials and was immortalized in animation on “The Harlem Globetrotters” cartoon series and on episodes of “Scooby Doo”.

He created his own version of the ‘Trotters with Meadowlark Lemon’s Bucketeers, the Shooting Stars and Meadowlark Lemon’s Harlem All-Stars.

The Globetrotters used amusing tricks and antics to liven up their many crowds, but they were also highly skilled basketball players.

Through his ministry, Lemon spent his later years as a motivational speaker, meeting children around the country at basketball camps and youth prisons. I have no idea how much money Meadowlark or Curley ever got paid, although I’m sure it wasn’t enough.