Harlem Globetrotters stay young by engaging with youth

In his 14th year with the Harlem Globetrotters, Anthony “Buckets” Blakes finds staying young pretty easy.

“It’s being around the kids constantly,” he said, “and not only on the court, but by bringing kids out, and seeing all those eyes being lit up when we come into the arena.”

Speaking Tuesday by phone a few hours before leading a special assembly at Palmetto Academy of Learning & Success charter school in Myrtle Beach, Blakes said he and the other men and women on the team cherish speaking at such places, including hospitals, recreation centers and YMCAs.

“The kids keep you smiling,” the 6-foot-2 guard said, never tiring from the extracurricular community work outside of games against the Washington Generals.

“No matter how exhausted you might feel,” Blakes said, by walking into a hall full of youth, “I feel re-energized.”

The Globetrotters, keeping their trademark trick shots and deft ball handling sharp on their 90th anniversary tour, have games this weekend at 7 p.m. Friday at the Florence Civic Center, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday at the North Charleston Coliseum, and 3 p.m. Sunday at Coastal Carolina University’s HTC Center, off S.C. 544 in Conway.

Entertaining and engaging with youth and their families with an all-positive perspective, Blakes, who devoted himself in school and earned a degree in psychology, said anyone who might have heard from their parents, grandparents and other kin about the Globetrotters and are seeing the team for the first time, “learn quickly the Globetrotters are the ‘Ambassadors of Goodwill’ for a reason.”

“It’s an institution,” he said, “and it’s not just about basketball; it’s about the game of life. You know that once you join this team.”

Counting 79 countries in which he’s played with the Globetrotters, Blakes needed only one word for that common thread he sees among children around the world: “joy.”

“No matter where you go,” he said, “laughter is universal. You might not be able to speak the language, but everybody wants to be happy. ... No matter what part of the world you’re in, that connects us all.”

Sightseeing scores its own bonus for Blakes, bringing up architecture in Dubai, history in “the motherland” in Africa – “kind of the Garden of Eden, in my mind” – and China’s Forbidden City, built centuries ago “with no nails and screws.”

Two iconic Globetrotters – dominant dribbler Marques Haynes and “Clown Prince” Meadowlark Lemon – died last year, and the Globetrotters today pay tribute to them before every game, Blakes said.

“We want to make sure we continue the legacy those trailblazers left us,” Blakes said, agreeing that the torch the team carries today has “definitely grown a lot larger.”

Blakes returned to his hometown Phoenix to attend the funeral last week for Lemon, an Army veteran and native of Wilmington, N.C. – the same city where Micheal Jordan grew up. He recounted hearing a story from a daughter of Lemon’s who works at the Pentagon. She described a “Bring your parents to work week” and having her father as a guest, and how despite all the levels of clearance in place, Defense Department personnel recognized him instantly.

“That just proves the impact of the Globetrotters,” Blakes said.

As The Wall Street Journal stated Dec. 30 in an editorial about Lemon being part of “an American story” the Globetrotters have defined through the decades, and how in “the Jim Crow South,” inspired at age 11 by a newsreel about the players, he grew up and later made the team, playing “across the world before adoring crowds of all races, creeds and nationalities.”

Asked if he ever has a tough day at the office, Blakes smiled in his reply, thinking about his tenure on the roster, and saying without words how his team never loses its game, particularly with the Washington Generals still trying to make history in snapping their losing streak against the Globetrotters.

“They haven’t come close yet,” Blakes said.

This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Harlem Globetrotters stay young by engaging with youth."