Ex-Globetrotters star Meadowlark Lemon dies at 83

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — 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.

Globetrotters spokesman Brett Meister said Monday he did not know the cause of death.

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

Lemon became 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 half-court hook shots and no-look, behind-the-back passes.

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 in 2003.

Lemon played for the Globetrotters during the team's heyday from the mid-1950s to the late-1970s. Lemon covered almost 4 million miles to play in more than 100 countries and in front of popes and presidents, kings and queens. He averaged 325 games per year during his prime.

“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 torn South in the 1950s until he left in 1979 to start his own team. He 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.”

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.