DBWI: Meadowlark Lemon joins the Harlem Globetrotters

[glenn67]

The basketball world lost a legend in Basketball Hall of Famer Meadowlark Lemon as he passed away today. In 1954, he signed a contract with the New York Knicks and the basketball world would never be the same. In his autobiography, he stated that he was this close to trying out for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Had Lemon tried out and made the Globetrotters, would the Knicks have still been the dominant team of the 1950s? And would the Knicks and Celtics still have the same rivalry in the 1960s (the Knicks did win 6 NBA championships that decade, 16 during Lemon's entire career with that team)? Had Lemon chosen the Globetrotters, who would have been the biggest star on the Knicks?

And would Kareem Abdul-Jabbar still have become a Knick without having Lemon as a teammate?

 

[SactoMan101]

Well, if the Meadowlark Lemon joined the Globetrotters instead, the Celtics would have been a MUCH more dominant team. In fact, Red Auerbach detested Lemon for many years because the Knicks denied the Celtics the chance at several titles, though both made up some years before Auerbach's passing and in fact did a couple of TV commercials together.

 

[RySenkari]

The Knicks were awesome in the 60s, but that 70s Knicks team was unreal. Bradley, Frazier, Meadowlark, Reed, and Kareem, with Dave DeBusschere coming off the bench to lock people down? They won 11 straight championships! That record's not getting touched, ever (neither is the Knicks' 78-4 season in 1974, my GOD that team just dominated people, it wasn't fair).

I could see Clyde Frazier emerging as the team's biggest star without Meadowlark or Kareem. He had unreal talent and some of the alley-oops he set up for Meadowlark are still better than most of today's dunk videos. He averaged about 14 points a game in his career but without Meadowlark I can easily see him scoring more than 20, though I imagine he wouldn't have the career assists record anymore (John Stockton would've broken it no doubt)... or the single-game assists record of 44 (he would've gotten to 50 if Dave Cowens hadn't knocked Meadowlark out for showing off after that 16th alley-oop dunk).

 

[Unknown]

Yeah, that Knicks team was one of the few bright spots in New York in the late 1960s and 1970s...

 

[Chipperback]

Those Knicks were great...until they ran up against the ABA Champions in the World Series Of Basketball..

Lost in a big upset to the Indiana Pacers in '72. Roger Brown and George McGinnis were lights out in that series in 7 games....Kareem was schooled by Artis Gilmore and the Kentucky Colonels in 5 games in '73, and then they lost the New York Metro to Doctor J and the Long Island Nets in 6 in '74.

Add what happened to the Warriors in '75 (lost to the Pacers in 6) and then the four-game sweep of the Celtics by the Nets in '76, no wonder the ABA was able to force their terms on the merger in '76-'77 (Dolgoff Plans, The ball, the three-pointer, the name, the logo in the silhouette of Connie Hawkins, and pro basketball in Kentucky)

But Ol' Meadowlark had the best quip working with Brent Musberger on the ABA on CBS that year. "Pro Basketball looks so much better with the Globetrotter red, white and blue ball."


Oh by the way...Big game on the ABA on ESPN tonight...LeBron leads the Cleveland Cavaliers against Steph Curry's Carolina Cougars. His daddy, Dell, won a title with the reborn Cougars in the 1990s.

 

[RySenkari]

Those Knicks were great...until they ran up against the ABA Champions in the World Series Of Basketball..

Lost in a big upset to the Indiana Pacers in '72. Roger Brown and George McGinnis were lights out in that series in 7 games.....

Beginning of the Knicks/Pacers rivalry right there! One of the greatest rivalries in the history of sports if I do say so myself.

Dr. J. was spectacular in that 1974 series. I've never seen a better performance over the course of a playoff series than that. He pretty much had to be, those Knicks were thought to be invincible, but the Doc had them figured out and made DeBusschere look like a fool. And seeing Doc and Meadowlark go head to head? Maybe the greatest series ever played, those crowds were insane too.

 

[Chipperback]

Knicks Revenge in the '80s...How many times to Bernard, Doc, Mo Cheeks, and Patrick Ewing put the screws to Larry Bird and the Pacers?

That 1987 Eastern Conference Final, "The Block" the Ewing put on Bird at the Buzzer? They replayed that game on ABA TV last night!

 

[Somedevil]

Indiana was smart taken bird 3rd since the Celtics for sure would of taken him instead of taken Rick Robey who did not last long at all.

 

[Chipperback]

Bird was a special talent. That '79 NCAA Final vs. Michigan State was some Bill Walton-type stuff. Scored 41 points and got those Indiana State Sycamores the championship. That other guy that Michigan State had, that Earvin Johnson? He had a nice career in the ABA as well. Landed with the San Diego Clippers, and made them respectable. He was a bit of magic in a very rough spot. Johnson's landed on his feet nicely. He's the governor of the great state of California these days. He's a little out there (they call him "Black Jerry Brown"), but you can't miss that smile. He's currently leading in the polls for Iowa in the Democratic race. I wouldn't mind another former pro hoopster in the White House. President Bradley did pretty dang good for the country when he was running the ship.

He just had the misfortune of being in Indiana when you had New York so strong, and Boston with Len Bias and Reggie Lewis were so dominant.

Indiana fans hated it when they sold him to Carolina in 1992, but the Cougars put together a team that finally got some hard-luck players over the hump...Those '94-'98 Cougars, man! First, swinging the deal to get Drazen Petrovic, who got jerked around at Portland and St. Louis. Him and Dell Curry along with Bird could snipe from the three all night. And then bringing Michael Jordan back to Carolina along with Brad Daugherty, who rebuilt his career, along with a young Larry Johnson and getting that psycho from the Mavericks, that crazy-azz Rodman kid and then getting that big boy from LSU who played for the Globetrotters for a couple of years because he didn't want to go to Toronto in the '92 draft. Dude, that was a squad! That '94 series with with the Rockets was wild, affair. They lost in 7 because that O'Neal kid got taken to school by Akeem the Dream, but in '95? Big Shaq learned his lessons well! He, Jordan,and Petro sent Larry out a champion.

 

[packmanwiscy]

I'm not buying Celtics dominance in the 60's. Wilt and West could have been much better if they didn't have to face Lemon and Russell every year in the playoffs.

 

[SiddFinch1]

remember that by 74 Meadowlark was 42 years old and missed a good chunk of the year. He played great in the postseason in limited minutes but he was a shell of the player he was years earlier

 

[SactoMan101]

Oh by the way...Big game on the ABA on ESPN tonight...LeBron leads the Cleveland Cavaliers against Steph Curry's Carolina Cougars. His daddy, Dell, won a title with the reborn Cougars in the 1990s.

And what a game! LeBron and Steph Curry were trading 3's all night, and Curry won it in the second OT just about right at the buzzer....