Meadowlark Lemon of the Harlem Globetrotters died at the age of 83, on the last Monday of 2015, December 27. Popularly known as the "clown prince" because of his numerous pranks and notable hook shots that entertained basketball fanatics around the globe.
According to Globetrotters spokesman Brett Meister, he received the confirmation of Lemon's death in Arizona, but not of the cause.
Basketball critics believed that Lemon had the skills to play professionally in the NBA, but he rather "preferred to entertain".
"My destiny was to make people happy," he expressed during his induction into the Basketball Hall of fame as a "contributor to the game" in 2003. Lemon was also inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the International Clown Hall of Fame.
After watching a newsreel of the all-black Harlem Globetrotters team, he had always dreamed of playing with them. As if it was his true calling, he eventually became the team's most well known player not only because of his basketball skills but also because of his "confetti-in-the-water-bucket routine" and slapstick comedy and as well as his incredible half-court hook shots and no-look, behind-the-back passes.
He played for the Globetrotters during the team's glory years from the mid-1950s to the late-1970s. Lemon covered nearly 4 million miles, over 100 countries playing basketball and comedic skills in front of popes and presidents, kings and queens.
He averaged 325 games per year during his prime, still smiling with humility after his achievements, at the end of the day, making people happy with his work.
"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."
After 24 years of being with the Globetrotters, Lemon went on and started his own team. He played on a variety of other exhibition teams before rejoining the Globetrotters for a short tour in 1994.
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