Super-skilled 'Trotters legend dead at 83

Meadowlark Lemon, the "clown prince" of basketball's barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters, whose blend of hook shots and humor brought joy to millions of fans around the world, has died. He was 83.

Lemon's wife and daughter confirmed to the team that he died on Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona, Globetrotters spokesman Brett Meister said on Monday.

Meister did not know the cause of death.

Though skilled enough to play professionally, Lemon instead wanted to entertain. His dream of playing for the Globetrotters hatched after watching a newsreel of the all-black team at a theatre when he was 11.

Lemon ended up becoming arguably the team's most popular player, a showman known as much for his confetti-in-the-water-bucket routine and slapstick comedy as his brilliant half-court hook shots and patented no-look, behind-the-back passes.

A sign of his crossover appeal, Lemon was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the International Clown Hall of Fame.

"My destiny was to make people happy," Lemon said as he was inducted into the basketball hall as a contributor to the game in 2003.

Lemon played for the Globetrotters during the team's heyday from the mid-1950s to the late-1970s, delighting fans with his dazzling skills with a ball and his quickness with a joke.

Traveling by car, bus, train or plane nearly every night, Lemon covered nearly four million miles to play in more than 100 countries and in front of popes and presidents, kings and queens.

Known as the "Clown Prince of Basketball", he averaged 325 games per year during his prime, that luminous smile never dimming.

"Meadowlark was the most sensational, awesome, incredible basketball player I've ever seen," NBA great and former Globetrotter Wilt Chamberlain said shortly before his death in 1999. "People would say it would be Dr J or even (Michael) Jordan. For me it would be Meadowlark Lemon."

Lemon spent 24 years with the Globetrotters, doing tours through the racially hostile South in the 1950s until he left in 1979 to start his own team.

He was one of the most popular athletes in the world during the prime of his career, thanks to a unique blend of athleticism and showmanship.

Playing against the team's nightly foil, the Washington Generals, Lemon left fans in awe with an array of hook shots, no-look passes and the nifty moves he put on display during the Globetrotters' famous circle while Sweet Georgia Brown blared over the loudspeaker.s.

He also had a knack for sending the fans home with a smile every night, whether it was with his running commentary, putting confetti in a water bucket or pulling down the pants of an "unsuspecting" referee.

"We played serious games too, against the Olympic teams and the college All-Stars," Lemon said. "But that didn't stop us from putting the comedy in there."

Lemon became an icon in the 1970s, appearing in movies, including The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, numerous talk shows and even a stint in the cartoon Scooby Doo, with comedian Scatman Crothers doing his voice.

After leaving the Globetrotters, Lemon started his own team, The Bucketeers, and played on a variety of teams before rejoining the Globetrotters for a short tour in 1994.

Lemon spent the last years of his life trying to spread a message of faith through basketball. He became an ordained minister in 1986 and was a motivational speaker, touring the country to meet children at basketball camps and youth prisons.

"I feel if I can touch a kid in youth prison, he won't go to the adult prison," Lemon said in 2003.

He never lost touch with his beloved sport. Lemon said he rose every day at 4 am and, after prayers, headed for the gym to run sprints and practice shooting "to keep that hook shot working."

Born in 1932, Meadow George Lemon III - he lengthened his name after joining the Globetrotters - did not have money for a basketball when he was young, so he rigged up a makeshift hoop in his backyard in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Lemon first contacted the Globetrotters before his high school graduation and joined the team in 1954.

He missed a game in 1955 because of a bad bowl of goulash in Germany, but that was the last one.

What followed was a run, by his calculations, of more than 16,000 straight games that took him to places he never could have imagined.

"I was one of the most fortunate athletes that ever lived," he said.

"I was able to watch history unfold."

A legacy of great gags

HALFCOURT HOOK SHOT: While Kareem Abdul-Jabbar perfected his 'skyhook' around the basket, Lemon was the undisputed king of the long-range hook shot. Once a game, Lemon lined up at half court and sent hook shots flying toward the rim. More often than not, he made it on the first or second try, leaving the crowd astounded that he could hit a shot like that from half court. It became one of the most anticipated parts of every Globetrotters game. Lemon demonstrates the shot here: http://goo.gl/QQ64xI

CONFETTI BUCKET: Another Globetrotters favorite that Lemon perfected was the confetti-in-the-water-bucket routine. It started with Lemon chasing one of the referees around with a bucket of water, eventually splashing him in the face. Lemon would then return to the court with another bucket and end up throwing it onto unsuspecting fans - with confetti instead of water on the second go-round.

NO-LOOK PASS: Long before Magic Johnson made the no-look pass a staple of the NBA, Lemon had it as a part of his entertainment arsenal. But Lemon did opt just throw ordinary no-look passes; his staple was the no-look, wrap-around pass that typically set up an easy dunk that brought the crowd to its feet.

RUBBER BAND FREE THROWS: Another Lemon staple was the rubber-band free throw. Once a game, he would fake an injury and return with a trick ball to shoot a free throw. Instead of the ball going to the basket, it would snap back to Lemon, drawing laughs from the crowd. Lemon would then swap out that ball with a weighted one and hand it to the referee, who would drop it in astonishment.

REF PANTSING: The referees were often the foils for the Trotters and one of Lemon's favorite gags was to pull down the pants of an "unsuspecting" official during the game. The ref would often feign embarrassment and often wore boxer shorts with designs that Lemon could make fun of, leading to laughs from the crowd.

SWEET GEORGIA BROWN: The signature moment of every Harlem Globetrotters game was when the players gathered in a circle and showed off their ball-handling and passing skills as Sweet Georgia Brown blared over the loudspeakers. Lemon was the ringleader - as he was during the entire game - whipping passes behind his back, rolling balls across his arms and shoulders, bouncing passes off his backside.