The Harlem Globetrotters come to town Dec. 29
As a teenager growing up in Columbus, Julian Mcclurkin was given all the reasons why he’d never make it in basketball. One big reason: He was just too darn nice.
“I didn’t make my first basketball team until the 11th grade,” said Mcclurkin, now a 10-year veteran of the Har
lem Globetrotters, the exhibition basketball team whose games blend topnotch basketball talent with good-natured silliness and plenty of tricks with the ball. The 6-foot-8 Mcclurkin, who, as a Globetrotter, goes by the nickname “Zeus,” will be among the Globetrotters to play at 2 and 7 p.m. Dec. 29 at the Schottenstein Center.
But back to Mcclurkin’s supposedly too-upbeat-for-basketball disposition.
“A lot of my coaches and teammates (in high school) would all criticize me and say I was too nice and I smiled too much,” said Mcclurkin, 35, who now resides in Canal Winchester. “I had people telling me that I didn’t have that killer instinct or that demonstrative demeanor that they say you have to have to be successful in the sport of basketball.”
Mcclurkin proved the doubters wrong: He wound up playing as a walkon at a Division I school, North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. During his final collegiate game, one of his plays ended up as one of the top 10 of the day on ESPN’S “Sportscenter.”
“It wasn’t a light night either,” he said. “Lebron was playing that night.”
Mcclurkin played in the pros in South America before finding the Globetrotters, where his skills and his smile would be able to shine through.
“The Globetrotters came and kind of saved me, because they gave validation to all the stuff that I had been doing my whole life,” he said. “People tell me, ‘All you do is smile and dunk.’ Well, today I get paid to smile and dunk. I’m making world records by smiling and dunking.”
He’s not kidding about the records: Mcclurkin has claimed multiple Guinness World Records, including most slam dunks in one minute (16) and most behind-the-back basketball threepointers in one minute (four). They’re not the sort of thing you can get better by practicing at, either.
“There’s no real way to kind of stay in Guinness World Records shape,” Mcclurkin said. “You’ve either got that, or you don’t.”
The Globetrotters, which were founded 95 years ago, have acquired a loyal following thanks to family-friendly events in which players show off such records-worthy skills and interact with fans while still managing to wallop their ostensible opponents.
“We go to countries and we talk to people, and they don’t even know anything about me, but when they hear I play for the Harlem Globetrotters, immediately it takes them back to a happier time in their life, when they went to a game with their parents or their grandparents,” Mcclurkin said. “I get a chance to share in that moment.”
For the upcoming game in Columbus, Mcclurkin and his teammates promise ample athleticism and plenty of entertainment.
“We’re so antsy to get back on the road,” he said. “(The spectators) are going to see what we’ve done in the past, but times 10. We’re jumping even higher. ... You’re going to see half-court trick shots and crazy slam dunks.”
During the game, the team will also pay tribute to Globetrotter great Fred “Curly” Neal, who died at 77 in March 2020.
“He passed away last year, during the height of COVID, and we weren’t really able to honor him how he deserved,” Mcclurkin said. “We’re going to be honoring him all tour long this year.”
Mcclurkin works as a real-estate agent on the side; he represented new Canal Winchester homeowner Chloe Green, who at 19, was one of Greater Columbus’ youngest homeowners as reported in a Dispatch story last spring.
But the congenial Globetrotter knows that his team is needed now more than ever.
“It’s just a break from reality, from what’s going on,” he said. “For those two hours, we have a captivated audience (and) we can just allow them to enjoy the moment with us.”
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